Idle Ramblings

Katrina and the waves (and the wind and the rain...)

As I watch the impending arrival of Hurricane Katrina, I can't help but be fascinated. Weather has always fascinated me. I guess a lot of that comes from having a father who was, among other things, a meteorologist. I learned a lot about how the weather works growing up. Every thunderstorm, heavy snow, or hot, dry spell was a lesson in why the weather did what it did.

I'm not making light of what is about to hit the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. People have already died in the storm and there will be more deaths in the days to come. Much of the coast will be devastated. One official said just minutes ago that once Katrina goes through, there will no longer be a casino industry on the coast because the casinos, while built to withstand hurricanes, won't be able to weather this hurricane. Even as far inland as Jackson and Meridian, it won't be very safe since Katrina is expected to still be a Level 2 storm even that far inland. Here slightly north, we're expecting some pretty bad weather as well, but the eye should go east of us and the brunt of the storm will be northeast of the eye. I have plenty of friends and family who are going to be a lot closer to the most dangerous areas than I am and I hope for the best (LEAVE NOW!).

But still, Katrina fascinates me. It's the same way I was fascinated and terrorized the day in April 1984 that I, along with my father, watched a tornado rip the heart of my home town. I am awed by the destructive aspect of Mother Nature. The thought of winds at 160 to 180 mph and a wall of water 30 to 40 feet is just incredible. The destruction will be terrible and will devastate people's live, but this is something no one has ever seen here in the U.S. in modern times. Katrina stands to be the most destructive hurricane in modern history. In the end, we will learn a lot from this storm. We've already learned that Mother Nature can surprise us. Katrina popped out of nowhere, meteorlogically speaking. And while we still say no one can predict the weather, we've at least gotten used to the big things to be fairly predictable. But this just shows that's not the case.

posted by Joseph @ 8/28/2005 09:33:00 PM