Monday will mark the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and all the varied destruction and upheaval it brought. The passage of time

has not yet healed many of the wounds the storm inflicted, but if a bright point can be gleaned from the tragedy, it is that perhaps people in this region have a heightened sense of empathy for

those who suffer at the hands of nature.

Currently, Hurricane Irene is churning in the Atlantic just off the East Coast, impacting the Carolinas and Virginia before setting its sights on the Northeast.

The Northeast is a region rarely impacted by tropical systems. Unfortunately, “rarely” does not mean “never.” Just ask those who felt the earthquake there earlier this week. Still, the rarity of the event has ensured the region is

not as prepared for the arrival of

a hurricane as regions farther to the south and along the Gulf Coast.

If anything, the recent turn of events regarding the weather in the Northeast shows that one must always be prepared for the unexpected. This region has not experienced any major tropical system since 2008, but one never knows when another will strike. Complacency certainly elevated the death toll from Hurricane Katrina.

So, while those in the Northeast prepare for the unknown, keep them in your thoughts because you never know when disaster may strike.