Escaping the Hurricanes by Anne Rhodes
Hurricanes
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ESCAPING THE HURRICANES
© Anne Rhodes
Sometimes the bad things, sad
things in my life
Loom large and take up all my
precious thoughts
Sometimes depression blocks
off reasoning
And I can curl up in my shell
for weeks.
Then suddenly the outside
world breaks through
Out in the outside world and
seen from space
The warming world creates a
deeper sea
And lands can flood or all
their forests burn.
The wind blows stronger
whipping into whorls
It grabs the extra water from
the sea.
Faster spins the cloud to
hurricane force
And drives itself towards the
helpless isles.
Small low-lying helpless
communities
Race away quite quickly by
boat or plane.
Or hunker down through
poverty and fear.
They pray they will not drown
or lose their house.
The hurricane spins onward
north-north-west
But to the south another one appears.
Tourists gone and all fishing
boats destroyed
They tend the wounded, count
the dead, and pray.
Now on the mainland, spins
the whirling wind
Far ahead are long rows of
fleeing cars.
Their money more, their
houses better built,
So do they flee to save their
precious skins?
Or is it that deep fear comes
at us all
When faced with the unknown
in any guise?
Our own small fears loom large inside our lives
As theirs who run from storm
and hurricane.
We know not what goes on
inside a mind;
A mind which keeps its counsel, hides its fears.
A trouble shared is halved,
so it is said
Some of the weight lifted by
listening ears.
- Hurricanes are large, spiraling tropical storms that can pack wind speeds of over 160 mph and unleash more than 2.4 trillion gallons of rain a day.
- The deadliest U.S. hurricane on record was a Category 4 storm that hit the island city of Galveston, Texas, on Sept. 8, 1900. Some 8,000 people lost their lives when the island was destroyed by 15-ft waves and 130-mph winds.
- Over 1/3 of cat and dog owners don't have a disaster preparedness plan in place for their animals. Help neighbors and friends come up with a hurricane plan for their pets.
- In the Atlantic, hurricane season starts June 1, while in the Pacific it starts May 15. Both end on November 30.
- When they come onto land, the heavy rain, strong winds and heavy waves can damage buildings, trees and cars. The heavy waves are called a storm surge.
- 0% of the hurricanes that occur in the United States hit Florida.
- The difference between a tropical storm and a hurricane is wind speed – tropical storms usually bring winds of 36 to 47 mph, whereas hurricane wind speeds are at least 74 mph.
- Hurricanes rotate in a counter-clockwise direction around the eye. The rotating storm clouds create the "eye wall," which is the most destructive part of the storm.
- Hurricanes are classified into 5 categories, based on their wind speeds and potential to cause damage. Names can be "retired" if a hurricane has been really big and destructive. Retired names include Katrina, Andrew, Mitch and most recently Sandy.
- When the National Hurricane Center began giving official names to storms in 1953, they were all female. This practice of using only women’s names ended in 1978.
- The costliest hurricane to make landfall was Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm that slammed Louisiana in August of 2005. Damages cost an estimated $108 billion.
I really have to do something about my battery addiction,
maybe I'll have to start going to AA meetings ..
At the start of World War I, the US Airforce (then a component of the US army) had only 18 pilots and 5 - 12 airplanes.
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Finish with a Song
This is Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks released in 1990
