This weekend marked the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season. For those living on the East and Gulf coasts of the US, that means its time to prepare for anything.
Although, it may surprise you to know that the US is actually in the middle of a hurricane drought. The last Category 3 (or higher) to make landfall in the US was a hurricane named Wilma that hit southwest Florida in October of 2005.
If you’re wondering what that makes 2012′s Hurricane Sandy, well technically it was post-tropical cyclone Sandy when it made landfall.
And according to a new out today from researchers at the University of Illinois, it Sandy’s name may have been to blame for a part of the storm’s devastation.
According to the study’s findings, a storm’s deadliness is affected by its name. In other words, a masculine-named storm would kill about 15 people, but the same strength hurricane with a female name would lead to about 42 deaths.
While a lot of factors influence decisions made by individuals affected by hurricanes, those numbers sure do seem to imply that gender stereotypes are being applied to hurricanes.
While the fact that an individual would risk their own personal safety just because a storm happens to be named Brittney, Stacey, or Courtney, is somewhat concerning, maybe it does make sense to rethink how we name these life-threatening storms. Perhaps it’s time to come up with a new system based on the severity of the storm.
Might I suggest the following:
- Vortex of Death (Category 1)
- Hellfire (Category 2)
- Hades (Category 3)
- Lucifer (Category 4)
- He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (Category 5)
While these more accurate names would most definitely help to clear up any misunderstandings, for now we’re stuck with gender equality when it comes to hurricane names. So, in order to avoid any confusion, might I suggest focusing on the storm’s first name — Hurricane.
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More on the Story: USA Today
…just for fun:
