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Area endures storm jitters
By SUE LANDRY © St. Petersburg Times, published September 25, 1998
"I think the media has a lot to do with it," McLean said. "When I get a little apprehensive, I just turn it off." Television is just one of several factors cranking up the anxiety level during the past couple of days as Hurricane Georges was forecast to head up Florida's west coast. For Nadine Sharron, who works for Allstate, it's the memories of taking calls from people devastated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. "Before (Andrew), I think people didn't take it as seriously, but I think after the devastation of that hurricane, I think people are much more worried," said Sharron, 33, who was pushing a cart full of supplies through Publix on 37th Avenue N Thursday. "I'm more nervous." Images from Andrew, 24-hour television coverage of the storm's approach, Internet hurricane sites and other people's fear all add to what St. Petersburg psychologist William Hafling calls "storm hysteria." "Throughout history, anxiety has been contagious," Hafling said. "You get one or two people start getting anxious and start getting all worked up then pretty soon you have the forces of conformity. People think, "Well, gosh. Everyone's all worked up about this. Maybe there's something wrong with me because I'm keeping my wits about me.' " Bob Snyder, who studies pop culture as a professor of American studies at the University of Florida, said not only do people have images in their minds of the destruction Andrew caused in Miami, they are seeing instant pictures from the Caribbean islands as Georges passes over. "When you can perceive it and watch what people are reporting from Puerto Rico and the islands that are hit, you can see the intensity of it," Snyder said. "There's this big anticipation. You know pretty close to when this is going to hit and where it's going to hit." Snyder noted those images now are on all the time on stations such as the Weather Channel and Bay News 9, which switched to 24-hour coverage of Hurricane Georges at noon Thursday. Acupuncture physician Therese Miller said patients canceled nearly all appointments for Thursday and today so they could prepare for Georges. "They're all freaking out. I guess I'm on vacation," said Miller, who practices at Classical Medicine of St. Petersburg. "There just seems to be this general air of hysteria." At St. Pete Beach City Hall, about 50 residents at a time crowded around piles of sand, trying to fill their share of about 9,000 sandbags the city has handed out. "It's been a zoo," said city recreation leader Libby Higdon. "I've been absolutely shocked. I was here during Elena and it never was this bad. "It's dangerous in there," she added, pointing to the sweaty crowd furiously shoveling sand. Tampa psychologist Mark Barry Lefkowitz says the fact that Tampa Bay has evaded a hurricane for so long makes some people more nervous. "There's this numbers game that people sometimes play in their mind, saying, "It's been quite a while since this area has been hit by a very large storm. It's our time,' " Lefkowitz said. Of course, not everyone is overly anxious about Georges. For some people, Lefkowitz said, the approaching storm is exciting. "It's the brinksmanship personality -- people who get really excited and see it as fun or see it as an opportunity to test the elements or as an opportunity to help others and be a rescuer," he said. Then there are people like Glendys Thomas, who isn't worried even though she may have to leave her home in an evacuation. Said Thomas, 80, "I refuse to be a part of the panic."
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usan Shouppe McLean has to think as far back as Hurricane Donna in 1960 to remember the last time she saw the kind of shelf-emptying, pre-storm anxiety Tampa Bay has experienced this week. 
