Drawing from ethnographic and archival research, I examine the different ways in which climate-related disasters are made into problems for public discussion and action in Oman. Here, I focus on the use of words and images in the public representations of Cyclone Gonu’s (2007) wide-spread destruction across Oman’s newly developed urban environments and coastal highways. I find that one pattern of discourse treats climate-related disasters as problems of proper management, where scientific expertise and efficient bureaucracies can be used to rationalize future cyclones as calculated risks. Another pattern treats cyclones as adversaries to “the people.” Here, cyclones are awesome, uncontainable tests for the nation. Images of the distribution of aid and the rebuilding of roads are thus narrated as a confirmation of Omani strength of character and love of country. These patterns of thinking exist in tension with one another, but nonetheless inform a common way of discussing the dangers of climate change, and potentially other sources of future uncertainty in the Sultanate: Oman’s precarious future is both disavowed and confirmed within the flurry of public discussion that these ecological spectacles evoke. I conclude by reflecting on the kinds of citizenship this tension encourages in the context of Oman’s recent history of rapid economic growth and uncertain future after oil, and zoom out to consider what this means in a time where development and state-building are now being couched in terms of disaster resilience and sustainability by the United Nations and World Bank.