Yes, prediction is the true miracle here. It is the true gift from heaven. We shouldn’t focus completely on the destruction and terror of this natural event, but on the bravery, tenacity and brilliance of the people who learned to predict hurricanes.
These days, only a handful of people die in each severe hurricane, many of them because they are doing something stupid, have ignored evacuation orders or are nobly trying to rescue people who did something stupid or ignored evacuation orders.
After the storm has passed, when you say a bracha for the safe survival of ALMOST everyone, don’t forget these heroes.
We had days to prepare for this hurricane. Charlie is almost right about the hurricane of 1938 – the only warning the Boston area had was when the hurricane hit Rhode Island. Then by extrapolating the landfall in Long Island and Rhode Island, they figured it was heading straight for Boston, giving them about an hour to prepare. That’s not even enough time to get the word out to the police force.
For many years following WWII, hurricane prediction was accomplished by having brave (perhaps crazy is a better word, except their insanity was so noble) pilots and flight crews fly into the eyes of the storms.
One good definition of a hero is one who runs into danger to help others while others are fleeing the same danger. Those aviators and meteorologists were true heroes who saved tens of thousands of lives, while risking their own.