Did They Have to Name it Ida?
BY IRENE FRANK
The storm was called Ida. Ida
is a gentle name, a warm,
friendly, loving name. Every-one
has an aunt or grandmother Ida
in their family who wouldn’t swat a
fly or harm a soul. How could they
name it Ida—a hurricane with 150
mile per hour winds and waters
that swept away the past, present
and future of so many thousands of
lives? The cruelty of nature was at
its most intense.
On the other hand, family cars and
pick-up trucks are given aggressive
names, names that call up power,
destruction and evil—the Dodge
Ram, the GMC Typhoon, the Jeep
Gladiator, the Lamborghini Diablo,
the Dodge Hellcat, the Aston Martin
Valkyrie, to name a few. Although
cars are referred to as female in gen-der,
companies assign them macho
male names. It makes you wonder!
Most machines ships and the ocean
itself are referred to as “she.”
Tropical storms are given names
when they display a rotating circu-lation
pattern and have wind speeds
of 39 miles per hour. A tropical
storm develops into a hurricane
when the wind speed reaches 74
miles per hour. Native Americans
called these storms “hurakons,”
meaning a Great Spirit commanded
the east wind.
Being a curious person, I decided
to question my friend, “Barney
Google,” about hurricanes and
their names. The list of hurricane
names for each season, 21 in all, are
chosen ahead of time by the World
Meteorological Organization. The
names are recycled every six years
and they appear in alphabetical
order, but the most destructive
storms have their names eliminated
forever. (According to weather.com,
Ida will most likely be retired from
future lists. That’s how bad it was.
~ Editor)
When storms took on female
names, many weathermen began
talking about them as if they were
actual women. Some used sexist
clichés to describe the behavior of
a storm. Female meteorologists and
activists took offense. They didn’t
appreciate the fact that women were
being associated with “disaster.” In
1979, men’s names were included.
Here’s a fact to share with your
friends: Storms starting on the
Pacific coast are given names dif-ferent
from those starting on the
Atlantic coast. Those starting on
the Pacific coast in 2021 will bear
the names Andres, Blanca, Carlos,
Enrique, Felicia, etc. Atlantic storm
names for 2021 include Julian, Kate,
Larry, Mindy, etc.
So let’s take our hats off to
meteorological “diversity” and
“inclusion!”
PAID DEATH NOTICES
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Sympathy or
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Please Call 718-260-2554
or e-mail
calamin@schnepsmedia.com
22 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ November 2021
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