So Sad

Of course there is saddness anytime a disaster that hits a populated area of any size. Hurricane Ike struck a cord in a couple of different ways.

First, this week Michigan was (still is) a well watered place to live. Normally I'd point out that your no more than 85 miles from a great lake nor 6 miles from any body of water. Well, over the weekend some places not far from where I live got drenched under 11 inches of rain (which if converted to snow would be 110 inches of snow so we're looking at the bright side here). As I looked over the weekend at the radar from the reports it was clear that this was the last of dying Hurricane Ike. Eleven inches drowned us! It killed people, closed schools, roads, took out trees, you name it. As I sat Saturday afternoon tho - with Friday morning's rain having no end in sight - I couldn't help but think about what it must have been like to be evacuated from your home because rain and weather with much more thrust was coming. Needless to say, I did little complaining about the weather (about being sick this weekend was another story).

Second it hit me because as I checked the headlines this morning, I saw pictures of caskets that had surfaced. Of course, caskets are a sealed air bubble that, given enough wet, soggy surrounding soil will 'raise the dead'. It struck me because I can't imagine the task that it will be to re-bury these deceased loved ones. I wondered how I'd react seeing my long lost (fill-in-the-blank) resurfacing as a result of a storm that also took my home, neighborhood, school, church, office place, etc... Granted they are still dead and there probably won't be a full round of mourning going on there but still, to have everything devastated and then to be so harshly reminded of (fill-in-the-blank)'s recent or not so recent passing on. It's just a sad reality of the situation.

Now you could say, "What about 2005 and Katrina?" Well, I wasn't around for Katrina. And though I mourned the devastation, I waited a full five days before facing myself with that reality. Sure, I had heard stories and I had heard how bad it is from the local Fijians, but I waited because of the vastness of it's devastation. There were lots of Fijian fingers that were joining in the finger pointing unjustly - mostly because all they heard was the negative: 'government left them on roof tops without food' instead of the 'government told them to leave and they choose not to leave even knowing it's severity'. All they saw was FEMA's lack of response when they didn't even see the widespread, dangerous, and challenging task of getting to them (I'm not making excuses). They only joined in finger pointing instead of seeing the whole picture. Do you blame me for waiting five days?

Anyway, those are my thoughts...my wet, soggy, coughing, thoughts.