Disaster Junkie Widower

Disaster Junkie Widower

Not to make light in any way of the hurricane that pounded Louisiana and Texas over Labor Day Weekend, but I have to talk about a disease that has hit my household.

First off, I am very sorry for loss of life and property that has once again hit the poor souls of New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

But I must say that my wife has made me a widower over this past weekend. Maybe you have, or had a spouse who has the done the same to you. She’s a “disaster junkie”. No channel is safe from her discerning eye that is keen to find the most up to the millisecond disaster. She is most interested in natural disasters like hurricanes of course. Now don’t get me wrong. She is not cheering on the sidelines hoping for the worst. She’s not a cruel person in any way, but she does try to put herself in the same situations that the unfortunate people along that fateful coast are going through.

She no doubt has nightmares of herself clinging to a big branch floating down a broken levee after watching the news until her eyes are bloodshot long into the night and early morning. She calculates who she would save and who she would have to painfully let go. (FYI, I was let go and the kids were saved).

Technology has brought us a long way when it comes to disaster reporting. In decades past a hurricane would be reported with nothing but a short video clip on the evening news. Now we have 24/7 coverage to see it in all its horror. I had to shield my youngest child’s eyes as he wandered up to the TV while my now “zombie eyed” wife was pondering her fate clinging to the log she was seeing floating away.  Sorry Mr. Advertiser. You’ll make no money on us this weekend. The commercials get swept away from station to station as there is no stopping the horror that must be seen until the wind stops and the people are safely returned.

Now she can also get this coverage on her cell phone by paging services from weather.com and various other news organizations. She can blog with other disaster news junkies at cbsnews.com. She can instant message with people of like mind and empathy on Yahoo Instant Messenger. She can Twitter multiple people at once using twitter.com’s service. This service allows you to send multiple disaster related emails and cell phone pages at once for free from any internet device or phone.

She can also just yell out the window “There’s a hurricane coming! Why doesn’t everyone just evacuate?!”

I say this as I sit in my chair after having gotten dressed from a laundry basket and having to wear the joke underwear from the bottom of my dresser for lack of clothes. “At least the clothes are clean” she says.  She follows it up with “Your hands aren’t broken. Thank God you’re not in New Orleans”. 

After knowing how she would choose I have to agree with her.

Are you married to a Disaster Junkie? Let us know all about it by commenting here or emailing rmcmillen@koin.com.