This crazy world of weather

Stuff that's not an election.

A pretty sunrise may be in short supply for the next couple days in Florida.

I want to say that I’ve been praying for the folks affected by the once and future hurricanes. While neither of them threatened Delaware (aside from a spot of remnant rain from Helene) we were still touched by the storms. It turns out a former employee at our church school was among those who were rendered missing from the storm - sadly, her body was found after nearly a week of searching. She left behind a fiance who survived the loss of the house they were sheltering in with significant injuries of his own.

And then we have Milton - not the sleepy little town in Delaware, but the nasty hurricane that, at last check, was training its bullseye on the Sarasota area of Florida. Its path is probably about 30 miles north of where my mom resides. (She lives about as far inland as you can in that part of Florida.)

Fortunately, the little development where she lives has a storm shelter, as they’ve been through this a time or two. But it still makes me nervous as there will be some serious damage around there - maybe not to the extent of that along the coast, but it only takes one unfortunately-placed tree or overall house collapse to bring tragedy. She’s not too worried about it, though, figuring that if it’s her time she’s had a good life. (I spoke to her the other night, and she’s sheltering at her gentleman friend’s house, which has a generator.)

But let’s turn our attention to the aftermath. We’ve already seen the controversy over the federal response (or lack thereof) from Helene, so imagine how stretched they will be once Milton rolls through Florida? They’ve already claimed they’re out of money, taking the time to make it political and complain the House isn’t in session to shovel them more.

The most success there’s been in this sad situation is neighbor helping neighbor. Secondarily, it’s other neighbors from farther away who are collecting things these people need and sending trucks down there to distribution centers where they are passed out. Being just a day’s drive from the affected area, my social media is full of groups sending help. And the utility trucks are heading that way from as far north as Canada.

Of course, down the road there will be the need for some government assistance - for example, the city of Asheville will have to rebuild its water system. Hundreds of miles of highways in that region have been destroyed or buried by piles of debris which still needs to be cleared out. (Which gets you to thinking - where will they take all that garbage? No one plans for that when they design a landfill.)

The funny thing is that we on the East Coast are hurricane aware, as they’ve been known to strike anywhere from Florida to Nova Scotia, depending on path. But normally they move through relatively quickly, not usually stalling out over one luckless area that sees rain measured in feet. And the other funny thing was that, a couple weeks ago, we were talking about how calm the season had been. So much for that.

Despite the best efforts of people to blame man for climate change and the increase in hurricanes each year, you can’t control the weather. Just live with its effects and pray for the best, starting with those affected by Helene and Milton.

Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.