Great Mercies
It just wasn't in the cards. A re-occurrence of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Once represented enough in the lifetime of any resident of Louisiana. It's just Nature, as usual, shipping off her human-averse and landscape-adverse seasonal events. Oblivious of the impact on all forms of life in the ravening path of hurricane winds; completely indifferent to death and destruction.One can see this playing out currently in India, where monsoon rains have created millions of desperate internally-displaced refugees, huddling for safety and comfort in inadequate government shelters. While India's military continues its efforts to reach a million of its citizens stranded by the floods, bereft of comfort; no food, no water, no shelter, exposed to the elements.
Or the catastrophic effects of the same Hurricane Gustav that in the end spared the American Gulf Coast. Hitting the Dominican Republic with sufficient ferocity to kill 80 people. Whistling on through Haiti and Jamaica, then forward through western Cuba, as an unsparingly vicious Category 4 storm.
Its fierce blow-downs taking place in impoverished countries without the financial resilience to bounce back effortlessly.
Ironically, when it hit the coast of the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world, it had spent much of its fury. It came aboard as a Category 2 hurricane, near the Katrina-devastated city of New Orleans. Presenting as an angry bobcat, not the ravening lioness that hit the city three years earlier.
Cuba was hit with gusting winds of 340 kilometres per hour. Whereas New Orleans, blessed this time by good fortune, received whipping winds of 130 kilometres per hour. Respectable, but hardly devastating. Challenging patience and ingenuity, leaving debris and detritus to be cleared away, but hardly the destruction left in Gustav's wake in Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Cuba.
Nevertheless, its anticipated advance was responsible for an evacuation of millions of people, frantic to escape a repeat of the Katrina disaster. The anguish of loss and homelessness has its lasting impact. The city's levees held this time around. Fears of a more powerful impact were unrealized. Property damage this time kept to a minimum.
People will return, they will dedicate long hours to restoration work. They will be defiant, but they will also be psychically exhausted. To await the eventuality of the next hurricane in this season of monstrous wind events. Hanna is on the far horizon, and after her landfall, will come Ike.
It's inevitable.
Labels: Environment, Nature
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, September 02, 2008
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