I’m sure there’s a psychological term for it, but we humans seem to have a dark sense of humor when it comes to catastrophes.
Maybe it’s a way of dealing with the devastation so as to not be too depressed.
As with Hurricane Florence last year, the internet was awash with memes related to Hurricane Dorian, which demolished the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm and slowly made its way up the East Coast, causing damage across the Carolinas.
Some of the earliest memes made light of the confusion of Dorian’s track, where it would make landfall:
After hitting the Bahamas, Dorian slowed to a crawl, inspiring a few memes related to the storm’s speed:
And, of course, several memes featured the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore:
Still others reflected the resilience of those who live on the coast and have made it through many hurricanes in the past:
But it was a Jeep stuck in the surf in Myrtle Beach that became the star of the storm.
Read the story on how it got there here.
News crews and other onlookers flocked to the site to stream the SUV getting pounded by the waves. As the day drew on, the memes flooded in:
Someone even made a Twitter account for the Jeep:
Before sunset, a bagpiper donned in a kilt was at the scene playing “Amazing Grace” as the tide receded:
Deanna Barbour, a photographer and graphic artist originally from coastal Carteret County now living in Georgia, decided to capitalize on the situation by making a few #jeepwatch stickers:
“Living in ENC gives you the weirdest little mental illness when it comes to hurricanes,” she said Thursday. “You respect them and you know they can be powerful and scary, but you also get hyped about them.”
Last year, Barbour made several stickers to raise money to help victims of Hurricane Florence. She was able to give a total of nearly $500 to five families who were in “immediate need of funds.”
Barbour is hoping Dorian won’t affect her hometown as bad as Florence, but said she is prepared to help again.
