It is the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and its devastating effects on New Orleans, which has been reported almost exclusively this weekend on the Weather Channel. Until impending Hurricane Earl and others following became a more immediately timely news story.
Hurricane Earl is at this very minute making its way across St. Maarten, where my husband, Mike, and I are on vacation. After putting family on the plane yesterday, we looked forward to a week alone with nothing to do but relax, eat good food, and catch up on some computer work. This has been our ritual for the past ten years. Our annual two weeks in the Caribbean fall within Hurricane season, and we understand the risk. Or thought we did. Twice before we have had hurricanes while here, but none like this. The other two were minor inconveniences; Hurricane Earl is becoming a major inconvenience, and we hope, nothing more. While it is too early to tell the extent of this major inconvenience, it has already far surpassed the other experiences.
Hurricanes give plenty of warning. Our resort was battening down for hours yesterday, preparing for the worst. We did not prepare as well. While we talked about it, we did not go to the grocery store, which is right across the street from our resort, for supplies. I am not sure why, since we knew that there wasn’t much in the refrigerator. Instead we went out for an early dinner at a restaurant within walking distance from our resort, and soon after returning, went to bed. Nothing much weather wise was occurring at that point.
I was woken at 4am by the howling winds, and since I could not sleep, finally got up soon thereafter. It is now after 6pm, and while we have power, thankfully, the satellite connection is out, so we are left with determining the hurricane path by listening to the wind and rain outside our windows. By the noise it seems that we are still in the thick of it. We have hurricane shutters on the windows, but one has blown off, allowing us to see the fierceness with which the wind and rain are attacking everything around.
When I am unsettled I read or write. For the first part of the day I read. Then I began to write. I have felt pretty calm some of the day. At other times I could have panicked if I had let myself, or if Mike had not been with me.
Many things went through my mind today. One thought is how unusual this year has been. In January Mike was in Haiti during the earthquake. Then in July major water damage from pipes under our house resulted in us moving out for four months while all of the floors (and who knows what else) are replaced. And now we are in a hurricane.
While I do not want to think that the worse can happen, I know that it can. I sent an email through my Blackberry earlier, wanting our adult children to know that we were fine. I had emails back from both of them, and those connections gave me comfort. I am also comforted that we have not lost power. Also, as bad as it sounds and looks outside, our building must be safe, for in the midst of what are now over 120 mile an hour winds, (which we just found out when the computer worked for a minute) our building does not seem to have moved at all. I am also comforted by the fact that this is totally outside of our control, so we do not need to worry.
While just yesterday it was beautiful outside yet so hot that I thought I could not bear it, now it is so ugly outside and cool inside that I yearn for the sun and heat again. Hopefully, this too will pass, and Mother Nature, no not Mother Nature at all, but God, will have shown us once again who is really in control. We aren’t, and the weather isn’t. But thankfully, He is.
seems a danger may happened next few hours.