It’s been a rough hurricane season for the Southeastern United States. In late August, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, and then refused to leave until it dropped record amounts of rainfall on Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast. Then, before the nation had time to catch its collective breath, along came Hurricane Irma. While Irma wasn’t as catastrophic as it could have been, it still did plenty of damage to Florida and Georgia. As of this writing, Floridians and Georgians are slowly returning to the state to take stock of the damage wrought by Irma.
But this is America. We’re known for both our resilience and our capitalism, so what do we do when natural disasters strike? We spend money, of course.
In all seriousness, though, the Southeast is going to need tourists to come back in the coming weeks and months. Donating money to relief organizations is a great gesture, and it could do a lot of good, but there are business owners who will really need some help to make sure they can recover from the storms. After a few weeks, people tend to forget about the areas hardest hit by natural disasters. The floodwaters have receded, and people are rebuilding, so it’s easy to assume that everything is fine now. That’s not necessarily the case.
Florida and Georgia are among the top tourist destinations in America, and Georgia isn’t too far behind. Each state’s economy depends heavily on tourist dollars. As of this writing, tourist hot spots in the Houston area are starting to reopen, while many places in Florida are still assessing damage and making sure their employees are safe. But even then, businesses will have to reopen as soon as they can. Bigger theme parks that bring in millions of dollars a year should be better off than the smaller spots. For instance, Disney World will be fine. It closed during Irma, but reopened very soon afterwards. But a small coffee shop a few miles away that caters to tourists may not be fine, especially if it was without power for a few days. Loss of power means thousands of dollars in wasted food, and that makes it harder to survive already-thin profit margins.
So instead of looking up news articles about all the destruction, start looking for vacation spots in places like Florida, Texas, and Georgia. Now’s a great time to plan a trip to a resort overlooking the Atlantic or a beach in Galveston. If a place is still closed, they’ll probably have a note on their website indicating when they plan to reopen. If not, feel free to call and ask. They’ll probably be glad to hear from potential customers.
Sure, staycations are increasingly popular nowadays, especially if you just installed a brand new pool in your backyard. And while pools are great, there’s also something to be said for leaving town and exploring somewhere new. You were probably planning on going on a vacation anyway. Now you have even more of a reason to do so.
Parts of Florida, Texas, and Georgia may be down, but they’re definitely not out. You can still go there and experience the best of what each state has to offer, whether it’s Texas barbecue, Georgia sweet tea, or Florida crab cakes. You’ll find plenty of warm, welcoming people delighted to see you, and if you’re lucky, you’ll also get to take a relaxing walk at the beach at sunset. Spend enough time on the coast, and you’ll see why so many people risk the possibility of hurricanes to live that close to something that beautiful.
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