Thursday, May 6, 2010

Natural Disasters




9 days to go.

The rains continue (at least it is washing away the snow). The meteo gives us the same for at least the next 5 days, which is as far as they will forecast. The electricity was off again for hours yesterday. Walking is miserable and uncomfortable.

Of course everybody is complaining. But at least nobody is dying or losing their homes (unlike in the terrible storms in France earlier this year).

Look around the world. Natural disasters are so common we don't even hear about some of them. A couple of days ago Nashville, Tennessee, had the worst floods in its history. 13 inches of rain fell in two days. 17 people were drowned in Tennessee. The cigar store Indian above looks even sadder than usual.

That is thousands of miles to the west of us. But to the East? My daughter Karen is in Saudi Arabia. The desert, right? Desert means lack of rainfall. But this is a message she sent me the same day that Nashville was reeling from floods:

"We had terrible storms yesterday. Thunder and lightning and rain like I've never, ever seen. The streets were rivers, the gardens were flooded, our kitchen was flooded. It took Kenny 6 and a half hours to get home (it normally takes 30 minutes) and six people died in the floods. It's forecast again for this afternoon!!!" The other picture above is of the Saudi floods.

So, we are uncomfortable with our unseasonal weather here, and it will make the tracks a mess for VBW. It will probably slow me down. I shudder at the thought of walking 2,000 kms in this sort of weather. But is is a disaster?

1 comment:

talesfromagarden said...

It certainly is unseasonal weather to put it mildly!I saw pictures of the promenade in Nice on a bloggers post yesterday and it was hard to believe the sight of waves and debris washing up on the normally sun drenched prom.!
I hope things will clear up in time for your walk after all the planning and preparation,it can only get better!