The radio news broadcast at the beginning of this episode, playing as Gordon awakens from his dream sequence, reveals that the hurricane featured is Hurricane Alicia. This was a real hurricane that made landfall August 18, 1983 near Galveston, TX as a category 3 storm. In advance of Alicia, offshore drilling platforms were indeed evacuated, as mentioned on the radio. Hurricane Alicia caused severe damage and the name was retired in spring 1984.