With Hurricane Michael steering clear of Valdosta, we wondered if our headline for the Thursday edition of The Valdosta Daily Times was overly dramatic.

We had an early deadline Wednesday for the Thursday print edition. The edition needed to be ready for the press by noon — a time when Michael was still expected to hit Valdosta later in the day with Category 1 hurricane force winds.

We published the headline: “Michael’s Might.”

As the hurricane eye continued north, northwest, rather than curving east, Valdosta received much lighter gusts, a little rain, some downed limbs, some power outages.

“Michael’s Might,” one of our editors suggested late Wednesday evening, should have been “Michael might?”

All kidding aside, it’s tempting on a sunny day-after to second guess the decisions made when the storm was still roaring toward land and possibly toward us.

As images from the Gulf Coast and southwest Georgia reveal, Michael was indeed a mighty storm that had a catastrophic impact.

And it could have been us.

Had Michael stayed its predicted course, it would have been us.

We feel badly for those who did take the brunt of the storm. 

Downed limbs in our yards would have been downed trees on our houses had we taken a more direct hit. 

The inconvenience of a few hours without power could have been days or weeks without electricity.

An afternoon and night of closed stores and restaurants could have been weeks of rebuilding.

A few hours of staying off roads could have been days of road closures.

Officials made the right calls in warning residents of potential dangers, of closing schools, of warning people to stay off the roads, etc. Their efforts would have saved countless lives had Michael stayed upon its track toward Valdosta.

These precautions kept people safe, even with the lighter than expected effects of the hurricane.

Emergency management officials take their jobs seriously and they do not issue warnings frivolously.

We take them seriously. And we will take them seriously again when the next storm comes.

We would urge our readers to do the same.

We would also like to take a few lines to brag about the newsroom staff.

When many people were rushing home or preparing their households for the storm, our reporters were out getting information for our readers. They gathered emergency warnings, spoke with business owners, took photos of residents preparing for Michael, spoke with officials, visited the shelter, etc.

They wrote and filed stories and photos while standing in the rain and sitting in cars on the side of the road.

Our reporters worked diligently to provide as much information for the region as possible whether we faced Michael’s Might or the fact that Michael might …

Our newsroom staff did a great job and we’re proud of them.