I have been watching with interest the impact of the storm on the American East Coast and my heart goes out to all my American friends who are in harms way.
This round of Stormy Weather shows that most people have some common sense but I am alarmed at the news coverage. The TV news reporters who go out into the storm to get the best live shot, should have their heads examined. The story can be told, I think, without putting oneself in harms way.
I have also been impressed by the American governments (all levels) who have spoken honestly to the people about the danger and about how to keep themselves safe. I hope is that all of you on the East Coast are kept out of harms way in the aftermath of the storm, and that you and your loved ones are safe.
For my Canadian friends in Ontario and the Maritime's, I hope that you are also kept out of harms way and that the storm does not wreck as much havoc it might.
In the aftermath of the storm, my hope is that friends, families and loved ones are safe and that life will begin to slowly return to a routine that is safer for all of you. The storm highlights I think, how much we are dependent on each other and how isolated we feel when we are cut off. The storm also shows us how much we need the infrastructure and why we need to work to keep it up to date. I was also impressed with how prepared the first responders in both countries were when faced with dangerous situations.
This round of Stormy Weather shows that most people have some common sense but I am alarmed at the news coverage. The TV news reporters who go out into the storm to get the best live shot, should have their heads examined. The story can be told, I think, without putting oneself in harms way.
I have also been impressed by the American governments (all levels) who have spoken honestly to the people about the danger and about how to keep themselves safe. I hope is that all of you on the East Coast are kept out of harms way in the aftermath of the storm, and that you and your loved ones are safe.
For my Canadian friends in Ontario and the Maritime's, I hope that you are also kept out of harms way and that the storm does not wreck as much havoc it might.
In the aftermath of the storm, my hope is that friends, families and loved ones are safe and that life will begin to slowly return to a routine that is safer for all of you. The storm highlights I think, how much we are dependent on each other and how isolated we feel when we are cut off. The storm also shows us how much we need the infrastructure and why we need to work to keep it up to date. I was also impressed with how prepared the first responders in both countries were when faced with dangerous situations.
Mike Law shared the following description of the storm, which I thought was worth sharing:
The eye of the hurricane passed directly over us, when the eye passes all becomes calm. On the horizon in all directions one can see the eyewall of the Hurricane illuminated by flashes of lightning shimmering flashes of heat lightning as if this was a hot summer night with each flash of light, all is soft and distant and never strikes a blow of destruction.
The eyewall appears to be a steel curtain, dull gray as is steel, momentarily the wall appears and by its reflections of silver light from a flash lamp cosmic and high. In the calm you think maybe you woke up in a dream, but do not dream too long, because soon there will be a taste of new rage.
With a million people without electricity it is dark and it is cold, but mercifully it could have been much worse for us. In the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia and central Pennsylvania, some were nearly a meter of snow from thunder snowstorms in collision of a mass of hot tropical and humid air becomes shipwrecked in south of the arctic winter storm born in northern Canada. We had the chance ... a chance to be lucky.Winter is not yet on us, but in parts of the US and Canada, Sandy brought not only rain and high winds, but snow, sleet, and hail. For those of us who love winter--but not the storms of winter, here is a beautiful poem by Mike Law with a stunning image by Lisa Tyson Ennis (taken in 2005) to remind us that there is hope and life even in the face of personal or community disaster.
In winter, A Solitary Place
On ghosting leafless trees upright their feet bare
covered with snow, each arm is sheathed solemnly in ice.
Freezing cold ...
Not a bird, not a squirrel, no movement,
Everything is frozen and silent.
This is not the brittle crunch of snow.
No footprints show my way when taken.
I stop, I'm paralyzed ... I can not
see my breath.
Momentarily confused I paused to reflect.
Of course, I understand, it's the fog.
Am I the fog? It seems so ...
enveloping all,
It steals my breath as in death.
The fog surrounds me...
a kiss ...
relax ...
I tremble, I tremble.
A lonely place on a dark
winter day.
I move in silence as if invisible as
the fog closes the door behind me.
March 2012 - mike law
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