Do you want to vigorously dab, protest, Goth dance, or shoot a Ki blast cannon (a Dragon Ball Z attack) at Hurricane Irma to shoo it away? How about spin your arms really fast or spin your fidget fingers to ward off the impending storm?
While Facebook cancellations for regularly scheduled events are streaming in, a new kind of event has been popping up: any and all kind of rituals to try and convince the weather gods and goddesses that Florida is not the place for Hurricane Irma.
Whatever works, right? It’s the social media-version of hurricane parties. (And because this is South Florida, you can ride out the storm in a strip club.)
“Goth dancing to blow hurricane Irma away” is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at the Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier. More than 3,000 people have indicated on Facebook they plan on attending and 11,000 are interested in attending.
Organizer Crystal Jerdak, who lives in Deerfield Beach, posted her event with the caption: “Finally. A solution to this hurricane problem.”
“I just thought it would be a funny little idea to put together to make everybody laugh because I know a lot of people are really stressing out about this,” Jerdak said.
Irma is her first hurricane. Jerdak's dad is boarding up the whole house and she says he's gone nuts with hurricane preparation.
She saw one of her friends post about Goth dancing Irma away and rolled with it, making a Facebook event.
“It’s a coping mechanism, I guess,” she said.
On Wednesday, after the event got 6,400 interested, she left this update on the page: “Just a heads up, this is a meme, please don't actually put yourself in danger on Friday.”
“I feel like some of the people would have started taking it seriously, some people were starting to comment like, 'oh we should go to this,' and I just didn’t want anybody to put themselves in danger.”
As far as what Goth dance is: “It’s different to every Goth… it’s just dancing” said Jerdak, a self-described Goth.
Another event organizer suggested the dance party in Deerfield Beach join in blowing a giant vape smoke cloud towards Irma, adding, in case people forgot, “those vaping from Central America should aim slightly northeast.”
People from all over the country from Maryland to Minnesota to California have enlisted themselves to help dance/vape/protest/dab the storm away.
“I think that’s really fun, you can kind of get everyone together because even though this is a catastrophic time, like get everyone together and have a laugh,” Jerdak said.
Another scheduled event: Hurricane Irma Protest.
Amy Baum is one of the organizers of the anti-Irma demonstration. She lives in Davie and has lived in Florida her entire life. She was 7 years old when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992 and remembers being without water and electricity for roughly three weeks. Her family's home just missed being hit by a big tree.
“I just created the event to kind of make light of the situation while also still encouraging people to stay careful and take it seriously,” she said on the phone while in line to get sandbags. “Why not be mentally healthy and kind of make a joke of it as much as we can.”
She made a poll for what people think Irma should do instead of hitting Florida. The winner with 42 votes was to "go to North Korea" followed by "Listen to Bjork," with 32 votes.
Baum's protest sign: “Resistance! I’m not scared, my aunt Irma is crazier.”
She says thankfully no one has contacted her asking where the protest is being held.
As it gets closer to landfall, Baum wants to turn the event page into a place where people can find support and encouragement.
“I want to wish everybody luck and kind of use it for compassion. I think humor really does that, I think it brings people together,” she said.
