‘Like a Hurricane’ takes new meaning when sharing name with storm

The Gazette staff is small, but some of us are, to quote Neil Young, “Like a hurricane,” literally.


That’s because a tropical storm and now a hurricane have had the names of three staff members here. We have two Matthews, the namesake of Tropical Storm Matthew, which caused trouble to the countries south of the U.S., and a Paula, who now shares a name with Hurricane Paula, which as of Tuesday, Oct. 12, was heading to Mexico.

When our Paula learned a hurricane has her name, she expressed dismay. She didn’t want to be associated with something that could cause destruction.

I’m not so kind. I immediately went to the Internet to see what future storms this year will be named, knowing a storm starting with “S” will come up soon. My hope was a Hurricane Scott was a possibility.

Hurricanes and tropical storms are named alphabetically from a rotating list in chronological order. As a result, the first storm of the season has a name that begins with “A” and the second is given the name that begins with “B.” The six lists contain names that begin from “A” to “W,” but exclude names that begin with a “Q” or “U.” Apparently not enough names begin with those letters.

The lists only change when there is a hurricane so devastating that the name is retired and another hurricane name replaces it. The 2010 hurricane name list is the same as the 2004 hurricane name list, although four hurricane names were retired after the 2004 hurricane season. This basically means names will be continually added to the lists, ensuring the possibility most people could someday share a hurricane’s name, unless you are unfortunately, or fortunately, named Quinn or Queen Latifah.

Hoping to share a hurricane name is demented – a feeling that’s easier to have living so far away from the destructive forces of these storms – but our meteorological friends sort of invite this hope by even naming hurricanes and tropical storms like this. Why not make them animal names few people would have? Why not names of locations?

They chose names of people, thus making compassionate people, like The Gazette’s Paula, feel dismay when one has their name and making less compassionate people, like me, feel hope they could become a hurricane.

Although many people won’t admit to it like me, a lot of them probably like the thought of sharing their name with a hurricane. It might be a power thing, as one can think of few things as powerful as a hurricane. Or it might be the temporary attention the name brings to you. It’s a combo of those two things, as I don’t have much power in real life – that belongs to my wife – and I like attention once in awhile, which is probably why I write a weekly column that can bring me accolades from some and dislike from others. Attention can be fun, even if it is negative.

Whatever the reason for possibly liking the thought of sharing a name with a hurricane, I’m sure most people who actually do share one, and kind of like it, hope their hurricane doesn’t cause too much damage. People named Katrina probably wish every day their hurricane would have been named something else, as any time they have to tell their name to strangers, the person probably responds “like the hurricane.”

Neil Young best describes these contradictory feelings in his song. “I want to love you but I’m getting blown away,” he sings. Simple, but accurate.