15 September 2008

Further commentary on Hurricane Ike:  To correct my previous post, it actually seems that as many as 40 percent of Galveston Island residents disobeyed mandatory evacuation orders, and stayed through the storm.  Galveston is home to approximately 57,000 people.  So, that’s about 20,000 people who defied authority.  And that’s just on the island.  I don’t necessarily think that was smart, but to clarify my opinion—I do understand stubbornness! I know, my friends are all now nodding their heads. ;-) I get it, that many people chose to stay based on personal preferences of one type or another.  Okay.  Those people made a choice and had to be living under a rock to not know what they were risking.  Many of them filled bathtubs, bought provisions, know how to use their generators safely, and are prepared to deal with the equivalent of living in a war zone—the stench, the continued health risks, the sense of feeling rather trapped, and the numerous other inconveniences and dangers that might arise, up to and sadly including death.  My frustration comes not from those folks, but rather from those who chose to ignore evac orders, and then wanted to be rescued barely 24 hours after landfall!  And worse, then want to blame the system or the government for their predicament.  <sigh>

One sad note:  for those who don’t follow Terrill’s blog, The Beautiful Tornado (a somewhat ironic title at the moment; the link is in the list to the left),  Ike took his family’s beloved Beach House.  The people had all moved to safety, and as we all know, that is the most important thing—no loss of life.  Just property.  Property full of belongings and of memories. Fortunately, memories continue to live in our hearts and minds.  We mourn with him the loss of this home, and rejoice with him that all of the family is safe.

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Monday saw more cleaning, more unpacking, more settling in.  I’m hoping to get far enough in this process this week, that I can be sewing again by the weekend.

Kyle had a soccer game tonight, and I remembered to have (and use) my camera!  My little camera doesn’t zoom very much, and I’m still learning to do panning shots.  But, I got a couple of decent pictures that show him hard at work on the field.  The team lost the game, but Kyle and his teammates played well.  (Don’t ask them about those “own-goals,” they’d rather not talk about it!)

~MB

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