Dear Editor,
Our May 8 storm needs a name! We can easily speak of Katrina or Ike and leave no question to what we are referring. But our May 8 inland hurricane or derecho, or whatever it was, has not been found impressive, destructive, costly—pick one—enough to deserve a name or FEMA’s attention.
Here on the Carbondale campus, we could call it the “Graduation Day Storm,” but the storm’s extent was more of a regional event than that name would imply.
How about something with an Egyptian flair, or at least mythological, such as “Zephyrus” the Greek god of the west wind? “Seth” was the Egyptian god of chaos, confusion, storms and wind, which fits the description of the day’s event, but calling it “Seth” sounds a little hillbilly to me.
We could just call it what it was, a “derecho,” except no one has ever heard of one before and they are not sure how to pronounce it.
Anybody else got any ideas?
Lawrence Schilling
director, Institutional Research and Studies
