It was 10 years ago this week. I was leaving a meeting of newspaper publishers in the Midwest. The weather news held my attention. A modest-sized hurricane was headed up Florida’s west coast and might graze Tampa. If it should pick up speed, it might close the Tampa airport before I arrived.

The afternoon skies were clear, but by the time we set down, the streets of Tampa were jammed with people going home to board up or to leave town for safer inland cities. A knowledge of Tampa’s back streets proved helpful, as I avoided traffic jams and headed home to Venice.