The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

Erie looks good after storm fails to leave lasting marks

Hurricane Sandy has recently put my life in Erie into perspective. I’ve realized that Erie may not be that bad of a place to live.

Now I know a lot of you may be confused right now if you are reading this, as we had a particularly nasty rainstorm on Monday night. But in all actuality, that’s all it was, a nasty rainstorm.

Compared to what happened in other parts of the country, Erie got off easy. As far as I know, and as of Monday night, no buildings were destroyed with people inside of them, nobody had to be rescued from their homes in boats, no hospitals were evacuated and the entire city wasn’t shut down due to a power failure.

The biggest thing that people were worried about as far as I could see was classes being canceled. Also windows shaking; that freaked me out a little bit.

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Honestly, Monday night’s weather is about the worst it gets when it comes to hurricane weather around these parts. Aside from possible thunder storms, I don’t predict much of a change for the rest of the tropical storm that affects Erie.

Anyway, the reason I’m bringing this issue up is because I know Erie doesn’t necessarily have a great reputation for its windy and consistently changing weather around this time of year, or its snowy weather during the winter and early spring.

When you think about it, a blizzard really isn’t classified as a “natural disaster.” And when there are natural disasters, we’re rarely affected at all.

I have been in Erie for two earthquakes. The first one I didn’t even notice and the second one I only noticed because my roommate pointed out that my mirror was shaking.

Not to jump to the states with the highest amount of earthquakes, but California and Nevada have had at least 783 smaller earthquakes in the past week, according to the Earthquake Data Center. That’s quite a big jump from two in four years.

I cannot say the same for tornadoes. One devastated Albion, Pa., in May 1985, and I remember there was a tornado during the summer of 2010, but there are other parts of the country that get them way more frequently than Erie does.

I’m not even going to discuss tsunamis because as far as I know, one has never hit Erie.

The point of this entire tirade is that I know a lot of people want to book it as far as they can once they’re done with school or have enough money, but there are a lot of things that people in Erie don’t have to worry about that other parts of the world do.

Despite all of the snow that Erie gets, mixed with the constant weather changes, Erie’s weather could be a lot more disastrous.

Next time you’re trudging through a nasty rainstorm or three feet of snow, just try to remember this. It may not give you complete peace of mind, but you may feel a bit safer.

KHADIJA DJELLOULI

[email protected]

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