February 10, 2013

  • Mother Nature Gets Even.....

    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    Today, Mother Nature produced a winter storm for the SE part of the United States.  Not snow but rain and tornadoes.  We got the rain but Mississippi got the tornadoes and some were due to form in the SW part of Alabama.  I haven't had the weather channel on for almost two hours but I have seen pictures of the tornado that hit in MS.  My sister got some of them from people living there (on twitter) and the tornado looked MEAN and very big.  Having been through one very bad tornado that ripped the roof off over our heads and another that skirted around us in almost a circle, they make me shudder for anyone in the path of one.  They are incredible in their destructive powers.  They scare the hell out of me.  Yet the house we live in is fragile as a trailer because of the crawl space underneath us.  We could easily be lofted and that's scary as hell.

    I've watched a tornado tear a house apart (on TV...I watch Storm Chasers) like it was a tinker toy.  I've seen one that lifted up a train engine...and those are very heavy being made of steel!    I've seen the aftermath of the tornado that hit here in Tuscaloosa and damn near destroyed the whole town.  I've also seen the death tolls from many tornadoes that have hit all over the country.  We don't really have a safe place to go if one is in our area.  All of the houses around us are as fragile as ours is.  The safest place we have is not our bathroom (the tub isn't heavy...it's fiberglas) but our master bedroom walk-in closet.  **Insert a squiggly face here**  Someone said to crawl under our house in the crawl space.  Oh sure!  They haven't been under there...it's always wet and icky.  No thanks!

    I've decided that we need to find out if there's a designated shelter around here somewhere.  I know it's mainly meant for people living in mobile homes but I'm not proud.  But we have so damn many tornadoes that hit around us (our town has been hit badly twice since we lived here and you can still see the scars) I told the Beast that I feel like we live in tornado alley!

    We lived in Florida for many years and experienced many hurricanes, some quite bad.  I've even had water lapping at my back doors because the lake behind our house was filled up with the rain from one (Hugo).  But I will take a hurricane any time.  You have lots of warning and can get the hell out of the area if you don't feel secure in your home.  Luckily, ours were cement blocks and I've seen how they are constructed.  All the destruction from Hurricane Andrew happened because they started building homes made of lathe and plaster.  Those are NOT meant to endure the winds alone from a hurricane.  I hate to say it but some hurricanes also had tornadoes in them.  When that happens, you can track the destruction from the air.  That's what happened down in Homestead.  I will STILL take a hurricane over a tornado any day of the week.

    Sigh!  But that's not really the point of this blog.  It's the weird weather we've had all over the United States.  Some opinions from scientists are that this stuff is going to become normal for us.  That we will have to get used to it and live with it.  Global warming they say.  The idea of what it could cause is scary when you start to pay attention.  Have you seen the glaciers that are falling apart and into the Atlantic?  If the water temperature takes a dump of just a few degrees, it's going to affect the Gulf Stream and that could be really bad.  It's affecting the fish already....a major food source.  If we have too much or too little rain (like we did last year), it affects our crops that we grow here.  I know it affected the corn crop and the wheat crop.  And it's not just the United States.  It's the whole damn world that is seeing new weather patterns that are not good for us.  Too much snow and rain in the winter that lead to major flooding all over the country.  Again, not good.  There are homes that are lost, animals that drown, land that can't be used to grow food.  Tragic things that are happening.

    It's a scary time we live in.  I am doing a lot of praying lately and hoping that someone up there hears me.  I would like people to pay more attention to the things they do that affect our ecology.  Don't think that YOU can't do anything.  Every little thing we do from recycling to our buying cars that use less gasoline and are producing less noxious fumes into the air is important.  We are EACH an important cog in the wheel of life.  Every person that pays attention and CARES can produce a domino effect.  Let's pay attention to what we are doing to Mother Nature and all the life on this earth.  It's the only one we have. 

    PS:  Say a prayer for all the people under tornado warnings and those already affected by them.  They will need it.