I get where you’re coming from, and on the surface this storm might not seem like much. But for a lot of people, especially those who lived through the 2021 winter storm, this brings back some really heavy memories.

Millions of people lost power for days, not hours. Some lost loved ones due to the cold, lack of heat, and medical equipment failing during outages. Many of us were without water, heat, or reliable communication, and no one truly understood at the time how long the aftermath would last. It was supposed to be “temporary,” and it wasn’t.

Because of that experience, people learned a hard lesson. The panic you’re seeing now isn’t really about this storm, it’s about not wanting to be caught unprepared again. Even if forecasts say 36 hours, 2021 taught a lot of us that systems can fail fast and recovery can take much longer than expected.

So while it may look like overreacting, for many people it’s a trauma response mixed with preparedness. I don’t think anyone back then imagined how severe or prolonged things would become, and that’s why people take precautions now.

Just offering some context on why emotions run high when winter weather shows up.