Over the last few weeks, the world has been subjected to the wrath of not one but two major hurricanes. Both of which have impacted the Caribbean and the southern United States, primarily Texas and Florida.

The first storm, Hurricane Harvey, reached maximum sustained winds of 130mph, caused over 70 billion dollars in damage, and resulted in the deaths of over seventy people in the United States alone.

A few weeks later the second storm, Hurricane Irma, made landfall In Florida, but greatly weakened from its original predicted Category 5 status to Category 3, and eventually only Category 1 as it traveled up the state.

While Irma continues north its destruction is already evident. Millions of people have found themselves without power, storm surges have resulted in mass flooding, and coastal cities, like always, will have to rebuild many structures from the ground up.

These disasters were the only “major” hurricanes to impact North America, another storm, known as Hurricane Katia, slammed into the eastern coast of Mexico, and in addition to it, yet another cyclone, Hurricane Jose, continues to grow in the Atlantic.

Together these catastrophic incidents have been responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in property loss, a loss of life, and hopefully a newfound fear for what these storms can accomplish.

If we know when these cyclones form, then why are we so bad at preparing for them?

We fail to properly prepare because we fail to fear them.

The power of fear as a motivator becomes evident when we look at Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina resulted in the deaths of over 1,800 people and nearly the destruction of New Orleans in its entirety. After the storm had passed, residents across the entire southern United States were now fully aware of a storm’s impact.

A month later when Hurricane Rita formed the state of Texas issued a mass evacuation, resulting in one of the largest evacuations in the history of the United States. Over 3 million people left their homes, significantly reducing the potential death toll.

When we understand what a hurricane like Harvey or Irma can do, we become more aware, preparing earlier.

Florida, in particular, has not had to fear, nor see the effects of a major hurricane in quite some time. The last potential storm to bring large scale destruction was Hurricane Matthew in 2016, yet by the time it made landfall, was severely weaker than originally projected.

As each storm passes with less destruction than anticipated, we find ourselves more unwilling to prepare for the one time that will actually be as destructive as it seems.

In 2017, we still fail to properly prepare for hurricanes because we continue to remain ignorant to the kinetic potential of nature, no matter how many times we have seen its destruction.

While the storms of this hurricane season have been deadly, damaging, and disastrous, let us hope that their impact remains known in the years to come.