I was just checking my email before heading off to bed when a close friend of mine sent me an aerial picture of the damage from Katrina in Louisiana. Language is insufficient to completely describe the horror of that image. I live in Florida, so I'm pretty familiar with and tired of the whole hurricane routine. Last year it seemed the storms would never stop. Evacuations and power outages, the expensive waste of perishable food with which we foolishly filled our fridge, unaware of the repeated battering nature would send our way. Then comes another year, and here comes Katrina.
When you live in Florida, you kind of get used to it. We live a slight bit inland in Central Florida, and hurricanes of the past have typically veered north or south of us or weakened to a tropical storm before hitting. Don't get me wrong, a tropical storm is no picnic, and we have had our share of hurricanes. It's just that the dynamics of this area seem to be strangely protective.
But last year seemed so much worse compared to others. Hurricanes criss-crossed their way right through Central Florida. The one time we decided to evacuate, for Hurricane Jeanne, I remember coming back home in awe. Trees were knocked down, roofs were torn off, windows were blown in, signs were destroyed...but our place. Well, there was no real damage here. Like I said, the power was out, and we had to throw away a lot of food, but...
I see images from Metairie and New Orleans, Louisiana. I hear of rising death tolls there and in Harrison County, Mississippi. Reports just keep rolling in from the Gulf Coast. Admittedly, when Katrina passed through South Florida, I was surprised that people actually died. It's so easy to dismiss when you're just grateful it didn't come tearing up your backyard and throwing debris through your window. It's so easy to breath a sigh of relief and say when it passes you by that it's all over.
Well it wasn't all over.
By the end of last season I was hoping it would be the last bad season for many years to come. Perspective is a funny thing. Last year we were all thinking, "How much worse could it get?" Katrina is the answer to that unspoken question. The victims of the Gulf Coast and the cities beneath the unstoppable sea are our perspective. I think we in Florida should be grateful for our blessings. And our thoughts, hopes, prayers, or any other support we have to offer, should be now with the people still living, whose lives are forever changed by nature's inevitable whim.
