Saturday 27 September 2008

forecasting

Hurricane Kyle is coming to dinner.


They say. Frankly (and this is the attitude that's going to bite me in the ass some day) I'm really tired of the frantic running around, stocking up, tying everything down, hunkering down and the waiting that comes whenever a big storm hits.

Most of the storms that blow up the coast of the States peter out with a few breaths of wind and some warm rain, then clear out to beautiful sunsets and mild days.

Then, five years ago, there was Juan. Ohmygosh, there was Juan. You can still see the scars on the woods near Halifax from that today. Juan taught a lot of people how to prepare, and the value of being good neighbors. Emergency Preparedness went up, as did volunteering, province-wide.
It was no longer acceptable to think someone else would take care of the old woman who lived alone in the house on the corner, or to not join a Neighborhood Watch or stand ready to help in whatever way you could.

After all, we were in this together.

That was five years ago. The ideals we aspired to have slipped. We're more home-centred, more thinking of our own kids than the neighborhood's, more complacent.

I wonder, will it take another disaster to make us come together again?



And I wonder, is this how it felt in the world wars?

9 comments:

witchypoo said...

When did it become a hurricane?
I hate, hate, watching the news ever since my older son was deployed again to Afghanistan.
Juan made landfall where I live, and it was terrifying.

Suzanne said...

Even Long Island rarely gets one of those forecasted hurricanes. Belle hit there in '76 and petered out upon landfall. Gloria in '85 did more damage, but as a Cat 2, did far less than any storm in recent memory.

Stay safe-hope you've got good galoshes and a rowboat!

Woman in a Window said...

Yes, it takes disasters to draw us together. We are straw brained sometimes, aren't we?

Here's hoping there's no other reason to come together than the light of the day.

Woman in a Window said...

Just heard the news update...Dig in. I think it might just be time to board up the hatches.

my best
erin

Loth said...

Eek. I hope Kyle peters out long before he gets to Juan status.

Anonymous said...

Please take care up there, Jesse; be careful and safe!

Mike said...

This is why I live on the West Coast. Wait a minute we have the earthquakes, I forgot. You really can't see them coming. You hope your prepared when it does happen...

Don Mills Diva said...

Yikes - are there more storms these days or are we just better informed about them? The warnings seem endless...

meggie said...

I suspect that this is how wars made people feel.
I can only imagine the terror of something like those hurricanes, & storms.

A couple of big blows

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