Disaster Shirts

Norm Dvoskin

It always amazes me that one day after the occurrence of a major natural disaster you can go on line and order a t-shirt that marks the event. You can buy a shirt that reads, "TSUNAMI SURVIVOR," or even one with, "HURRICANE KATRINA--I WAS THERE."

I remember working with meteorologist Joe Rao during the vicious blizzard of March 14-15th, 1993 here at News 12 Long Island. During that severe coastal storm, 8 to 12 inches of snow fell on Long Island followed by heavy rain which turned to ice. Winds were gusting over 90 miles an hour. The two of us were supporting each other. While one of us was on-air, the other was on the phone collecting observers data. There were more than 200 deaths attributed to that storm as it made its way up the East Coast. The next day I went on line and bought two shirts showing a drawing of two laced-up boots sitting on a mound of snow. Underneath, the caption read, "The Blizzard of 1993,"

Another eventful storm on January 22-23, 2005 was covered live by me, Rich Hoffman and Bill Korbel. This blizzard dropped up to 20 inches of snow across Long Island. Visibility was down to near zero and wind gusts exceeded 75 mile per hour. The next day I bought three t-shirts saying, "I Survived The Blizzard of 2005." The shirt has a cartoon of a hand extended up, holding a shovel sticking out of a deep snow drift.

The "disaster t-shirt" can make a great gift. After a hurricane damaged my friend's condo at Boynton Beach, Florida, in October, 2005, I sent him a shirt similar to the one shown below. The only difference is the shirt I bought read, "I Was BL_ _ N by Wilma."