Stronger than the storm?

New Jersey has an ad campaign running continuously on our local TV stations and the website, Facebook page to go with it. The campaign's slogan is "Stronger than the storm."

When I was a kid, I went to a Met's game down at Shea. A friend's father took a bunch of us. In the middle of the game, it started to rain a little. Then the rain got harder. And then the game went into a rain delay. Being stupid and young, we made fun of the people that sought shelter inside the stadium. We jumped up and down and yelled things at the sky like "C'mon! That's all you got!" and "You call this rain?!?" As if on cue, the wind picked up and a torrential rain soaked us to the bone. The rain was coming down so hard it hurt. After a few more minutes of pretending we were tougher than the weather, we too slunked inside the stadium in retreat. Since that day, I have treated Mother Nature and her weather with respect. Lesson Learned. This lesson was reinforced with a number of trips to the Outer Banks. Every year, there were fewer houses on the ocean side of the road. The houses kept disappearing. The ocean wanted to be there and it didn't care who was paying the property taxes.

I'm glad New Jersey is recovering from Hurricane Sandy. And they should get the word out that the Jersey Shore is open for business again. But don't mess with Mother Nature. Don't taunt her. Don't tease her. Don't call her names.

You are not stronger than the storm. Remind me- what was that super strong thing you did that evacuated the east coast and caused over 50 billion dollars worth of damage in a few days?  Your drunkest, craziest "Hangover" style week in Atlantic City couldn't touch that tab.

Happy you are on the upswing, Jersey. But if you keep singing your "Stronger than the storm" song, you might want to have an evacuation plan ready this hurricane season in case Mother Nature decides to ask, "Are you stronger than this?"

Don't fuck with Mother Nature. You won't win.