Gustaf

Horrible that the Gulf Coast must endure another hurricane hit. Maybe it goes with living there, but it must be very difficult.

I keep thinking, what would I do, where would I go, if I had to leave, perhaps never to return. I'm well set, however, because I have access to a car, and can sleep inside it, if I have to, off somewhere, at least for awhile. Where would I get food and water? Well, in Oregon water isn't too much of an issue at least. Food? It can be. Not right now, when you can always find an overflowing apple tree. That's if all the apples had not been destroyed by a natural disaster. What if they were?

I don't worry too much about things I cannot control. You hope for the best. I would hope New Orleans residents this time heed the warning and leave. I could not believe that last time, even people who could not or would not leave, did not at least prepare, filling anything they could with water, storing some food, having these things in a day pack ready, even having some sort of flotation device on hand, a couple inner tubes if nothing else, for worst case scenario.

I don't think most anticipated the levy breach and felt they just had to get through the windstorm part, but the levy breach was always a possibility. I bet the same people this time are leaving early. I would be if I'd gone through something like the devastation and horror of Katrina. I'd have hightailed it.

But where do people go who have nobody and no money? I just don't know the answer. Where do the old people with nobody go? Maybe those Gulf states have lots of campgrounds up north too, where people can stay temporarily, like Oregon does. I've never been down there and I don't know the topography. My heart is with them as that killer storm approaches and I just hope for some reason, it peters out. That's right--falls in on itself, collapses.

If it hits New Orleans dead on, and the levees fail again, what will that mean for the future of the city, I wonder. Must be scary for the residents of the Gulf coast region. It's hard to start over again, and again. Well, I am keeping my fingers crossed for all of them down that way.

I got to thinking about this as a thunderstorm passed over my place here.

I also think it's stupid to live in a city below sea level on a coastline prone to hurricane strength storms. It's like saying "Disaster, come get me." It's like smoking, like climbing mountains for sport, like robbing banks. Everyone else: please pay for the consequences.

What's life without some risk, even if we just watch others take risks, from the safety of a couch? Safe? Boring?