Rising water from the marsh creeps closer to houses not far from where I live in West Ocean City. Taken Sunday afternoon. I guess there’s a reason they call this “wetlands.”
10:30 p.m. Sunday, still above water in West Ocean City, MD. (Although my roof is leaking again.) Just finished writing a detailed news report over at Ocean City Blog. It’s raining hard and the wind’s picking up. But this baby is only beginning. They’re calling Sandy a hybrid hurricane/nor’easter now. Continue reading
No one here is taking Hurricane Sandy lightly. The town of Ocean City and Worcester County, which is Maryland’s only oceanfront county, have ordered limited partial evacuations. Good thing the summer tourist season is over, or there’d be a lot more people to evacuate. For specifics, see the Ocean City Blog, AKA Maryland On My Mind.
A prolonged siege of rain, high wind, and flooding is expected. It’s raining now (1:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon), with some very localized flooding already. But the worst is not expected until Monday afternoon and Monday night. Continue reading
CALM BEFORE THE STORM — Hurricane Sandy might become disorganized into a big Tropical Storm by the time she hits Maryland. Or she might roll right over Baltimore as a Cat. 1 Hurricane. Or, if she stays over the Atlantic, Sandy could be Cat. 2 by the time she hits NYC. If she comes inland, hope she at least keeps moving! I don’t want her stopped by cold air from the north, dumping rain and possibly snow on my house for three straight days! — John
Be advised that a hurricane named Sandy is swirling off the coast of Florida and heading north. Sandy will bypass Florida and probably the Carolinas as it follows a north-northeast curve.
Halfway up the coast, Sandy is expected to turn left and take aim straight into the densely populated East Coast of the U.S. Broadcasters and headline writers are trampling each other in their rush to label Sandy “the perfect storm.” Continue reading
My unfinished review of J.K. Rowling’s “The Casual Vacancy” is weighing heavy on my mind. Also, I’ve been wanting to post a remembrance of Sen. George McGovern, who passed over to a more peaceful place on Sunday, at the age of 90. And I have another “power in a box” review waiting to be written, about the new Kindle Fire. Nevertheless, I’m distracted by the sound of distant thunder. Hurricane Sandy is heading north with potential to rearrange the Eastern Seaboard. The hurricane is the blip on the radar that I cannot ignore. — John
Economic trouble often leads to political and social trouble. Prolonged economic recession has taken a heavy toll on political tranquility in the U.S. At the local level, disagreements can be particularly disagreeable. Here’s a view from my little part of America, as reported in my other blog.
via Ocean City Blog
FATHER AND SONS WALKING IN A DUST STORM IN OKLAHOMA IN 1930s. Image via Wikipedia
The Black Swan has landed again, this time in the American South, a Super Storm that roared through Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. The tornadoes that ran with this storm wrecked communities all along its path. The worst devastation appears to have been in Alabama.
When has America seen an inland storm of such magnitude? Our worst storms usually develop over water. In the East, the most powerful weather events are hurricanes. Other natural disasters in my memory are earthquakes, tsunamis, blizzards. Major flooding happens along inland rivers. But an inland storm like this? How often, if ever, has a storm system like this been seen in the history of North America?
The only comparison I can conjure is the Dust Bowl — famously “The Worst Hard Times” — of the 1930s. The worst coincidence of natural and manmade disasters in at least a century, I would have to say, was the Dust Bowl, which coincided with the worst economic disaster, the Great Depression, which was immediately followed by World War II, the worst military-criminal disaster. I suppose it should be stipulated that the conditions for the Dust Bowl were created by human means.
To many people, it feels like disasters, both natural and manmade, are striking with increasing frequency and ferocity. In the past few years: Hurricane Katrina, earthquake in Haiti, the Gulf Coast oil spill, earthquake and nuclear crisis in Japan, multiple wars in the oil region of the Middle East, and now multiple uprisings and civil wars.
The first thing people do in natural disasters of such proportion is look around to see what remnants of organized civilization remain standing. Assistance is called for, and expected, from local police and fire agencies, National Guard, Red Cross, and FEMA. Disasters remind us not only how fragile is human life, but also how fragile are human institutions, and civilization itself.
It is more than troubling to realize that millions of American citizens, and their elected representatives, are at this very moment hoping and planning — you might say, “plotting” — to bring down the government of the United States of America, and with it, possibly, the worldwide economy. That would indeed create the worst catastrophe, and the greatest suffering, since the combination of Depression, Dust Bowl, and World War.
It’s almost beyond comprehension, but it’s true. Many Americans now hate government so much that they would prefer anarchy. As police and shocked bystanders say after an especially heinous crime: “This must be the work of insanity or Evil.”
Can you think of another explanation?
— John Hayden
Living Simply And Still On The Grid 