Publix, Floridians Find Humor During Wait For Hurricane Dorian

ACROSS FLORIDA — No doubt it's a tense time when a hurricane is looming off the coast and no one knows where it will strike and how intense it will be. During the past few days, the employees at Publix have seen their share of stressed-out customers scrambling to fill their shopping carts with bottled water and other hurricane supplies.

To help relieve the stress — and elicit some smiles — bakery staff members have used their cake decorating skills to create Hurricane Dorian-themed cakes.

ABC News interviewed Jessica Gouin, a Publix cake decorator in Neptune Beach, who said she made one cake on a whim. Now, they're going like hot cakes, or hurricane cakes.

Several other Publix bakers are following her lead.

After surviving a number catastrophic hurricane events, Floridians are resilient out of necessity. Hurricane-themed cakes, funny memes and ridiculous videos aren't intended to make light of the severity of the situation. It's a coping mechanism, according to the Mayo Clinic.

A good laugh has great short-term effects. When you start to laugh, it doesn't just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body that relieves the stress response, soothes tension and releases endorphins, said the clinic.

Patch is tracking every move of Tropical Storm Dorian. Get all the updates on the storm by subscribing to Patch's free breaking news alerts and daily newsletters.

This may explain Floridians host hurricane parties, spray paint humorous messages on the plywood sheets nailed over their windows and surf down flooded neighborhood streets.

Floridians roll with the punches, even when those punches are from Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes.

Courtesy of Richard Wilson