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Top of the class
Junior journalists
By Times Staff Writer
Published January 13, 2005
(Editor' note: The Junior Journalist Club is a partnership between the St. Petersburg Times, Citrus edition, and the Citrus County School District to encourage writing. These essays were the winning seventh-grade entries.)
How a Hurricane Affects a Community
Crash, Boom, Bang! Ouch, that looks like it hurt! The effects of a hurricane on a community may be harmful and helpful in many ways.
To begin with, the effects of a hurricane on a community can be very harmful. Hurricanes can cause large trees to fall on houses, vehicles, and many other things such as sheds. Fallen trees can also harm or maybe even kill people and animals.
Fallen trees block roads, causing traffic jams and making people late for their jobs. Some take down power lines causing power outages for long periods of time. High-speed winds may pick up objects in the air and swing them around. Some examples of these things are houses, roofs, trees and their branches.
Hurricanes bring large amounts of rain as they travel and cause flooding in many places. Those are a few examples of some harmful things a hurricane can do to a community.
In addition, a hurricane can be helpful too. When a hurricane comes, some people go to a shelter near their homes, in case their homes aren't safe for a hurricane.
Some people who go to shelters for the hurricane form a strong bond of friendship that lasts a lifetime. Another thing is that families get to spend some time together playing games, doing activities together, telling funny stories or just talking.
Also, the hurricane rain helps water land that's had many droughts and dead grass from the heat. Those are a few examples that tell you how hurricanes are helpful too. In conclusion, those are a few points to show you how hurricanes are harmful and helpful to a community.
Sabrina Gonter, 12, Inverness Middle School
People Should Not Evacuate When the Next Hurricane Approaches
In the recent past, we can all accept the fact that we were forced to endure the fury of several hurricanes. Much to our annoyance, these hurricanes also left us to deal with problems such as home damage, financial ruin, and several power outages.
For some of us, we had chosen to escape these tyrants of nature by evacuating our homes and letting them be battered by the merciless winds.
When the evacuees returned to their homes, they worked hour after hour restoring the homes they lived in before the hurricanes tore through Florida. They had to suffer from the heat and humidity that came after the few days of cooler temperatures the hurricanes left us.
Unlike those who evacuated, those who stayed within the confines of their homes waited out the storm and were able to take quick action in the restoration of the monotonous, yet highly welcoming, life before the hurricane. If you can bear these situations, you can see that it is in your best interest not to evacuate your home.
For those of you who do not live in a mobile home, you must learn that evacuation is not always a necessary precaution. If your intent is to pack up and leave your home with the coming of a hurricane or if you have not decided whether to evacuate, it is important that you keep yourself at home during a hurricane.
I believe the only exceptions to this would be dwellers of mobile homes and those whose homes might suffer from winds stronger than their house can take. It is understandable that these types of homes may not withstand the winds of a hurricane.
As you might have noticed, the cleaning up of debris is hard and tiring work. But if you come home a few days after the storm has cleared, Florida will return to its normal hot and humid weather. Coming back to these conditions will make cleaning up seem very frustrating. Those who stayed in their homes were able to clean up without the regular fierceness of the Florida sun. The work was probably less frustrating without the heat and humidity.
If you choose to evacuate, you're still responsible for your home. Throughout the years, you've worked so hard on creating a suitable home. You've come to know and love your home, and abandoning it would be like leaving a defenseless child in the hands of cruel, cold-hearted people. If you truly cared about your home, why would you leave the house and let it be thrashed upon by the brutally harsh winds?
So, if you are still set on filling up a backpack and leaving, I beg of you to please consider the circumstances you are in. I highly recommend that you do not evacuate unless it is absolutely necessary. But other than that, I strongly believe that you shouldn't have to evacuate with the next coming hurricane.
If you were looking for the easiest and fastest way to clean up and restore normality, resistance to evacuation would be the best course to follow. Now that you know why you shouldn't have to evacuate, I ask you: Is evacuation the path you wish to follow?
Abigail McDonald, 13, Inverness Middle School
[Last modified January 13, 2005, 00:51:20]
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