I have been in worse, namely Floyd and some other torrential hurricanes.

So, I can’t say standing in a 78.9 mile per hour wind at Becker Village Mall Wednesday gave me any new insights, it just reaffirmed my opinion I’d rather not been in one if possible.

There is a new attraction at the mall and I was invited by owner Ellen Heaton to be the first to try the hurricane simulator.

I hesitantly agreed, not wanting to mess what little hair I have left and wanting to give someone who has never had their car nearly blown off the road in hurricane force winds the chance.

So I take two trips in this machine, located by the drink machines in the mall across from Unique Photography.

A breeze comes in first, a cooling breeze, refreshing on a hot day like Wednesday. The winds steadily increase and you remember.

You remember driving to shelters as the winds cut your breath, you remember nearly hydroplaning as the fierce winds and stinging rain beat against your windshield.

You remember riding with the National Guard as they delivered provisions to folks cut off by Floyd. You remember the destruction, the caved roads, the flooded roads, some small towns being nearly drowned.

I’ve been there so the 78.9 mile per hour wind this machine produced made me remember.

We convinced George Willis and Cathy Walker of the Dallas Jones Roanoke Valley Veterans Center to get in and George remembered trying to stand upright during a storm in Rhode Island.

George Willis and Cathy Walker feel the wind.

Ellen decided to get the machine after someone emailed her information on it. “I thought it might be a lot of fun,” she said. “I thought it was something the kids might enjoy.”

The machine was placed in the mall Tuesday night and for $2, cash or debit card, you can feel what its like to be in a Category 1 hurricane or to cover them like I have. To remember I took my camera in with me. The only thing I needed was my Gore-Tex parka and a soggy notepad to make the adventure complete.

Glad it doesn’t come with rain — Lance Martin