Hurricane Irma

It is hard to believe that a mere week ago, August 31, I posted a blog entry about Hurricane Harvey.  Scenes of devastation continue to appear on the nightly news; it will be a long recovery for the people affected, especially the 80% who had no flood insurance.  While those images are still before us, and even as trucks from Highlands filled with pallets of bottled water and other supplies are on the way to Texas, Hurricane Irma has suddenly materialized and is heading toward the East Coast. 

"The most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history has killed at least 10 people across a number of Caribbean islands as it tore through the region," national news reported.  "Florida is on high alert and has ordered evacuations, while the Carolinas and Georgia have also declared emergencies."  I have to believe that only a fool could deny that Global Climate Change is a factor in these storms, which carry more water and have stronger winds every year, exactly as scientists have predicted (while our unbelievably incompetent President pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change earlier this year).  But that is another story.  Now is the time for sending donations to the flood victims in Texas and preparing for Florida to take a hit more devastating than Andrew in 1992.  And it is the talk of the Town, in the Post Office and at the hardware store, as friends ask friends, "Do you have any friends down there?  Have they gotten out yet?"

The projected path of Irma began as squiggles on a map that extended as far west as the Gulf and as far east and north as Virginia.  With each day, the different models have slowly narrowed into meteorological agreement, and it looks as if even Highlands will be affected, leaving us with plenty of rain as the storm weakens over land.  We are indeed fortunate to live so far away from the Ocean.

I had a lot of nervous energy to burn off this morning, coming straight to Town from a computer screen filled with images of howling winds and frond-less palm trees, huge lakes dotted with the roofs of submerged cars, death tolls climbing.  Four half-mile repeats, all of them faster than planned.  And a long run planned for Saturday, before the rains arrive on Monday and Tuesday.  It seems as if hard running makes it easier to accept these extremes of weather that are always with us.  

It has turned colder in Highlands - 45 degrees this morning - and I had to dig deep in the laundry room cupboard for gloves and ear covers, the first time since late last winter.  The leaves are beginning to turn, fall is upon us, and hurricanes are approaching relentlessly.