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September 07, 2008
Hanna, Ike and 5D
On a sailboat, I have an irrational fear of lightening and hurricanes. I fear neither on land, but at sea, it is quite another thing. I don't recall all the names, but several hurricanes chased us up the eastern seaboard on Platina in the summer of 2005. And this summer on Prana, we have had a lot of lightening, and managed, with some good luck, to avoid all of it.
Hanna blew through Long Island Sound yesterday. We decided to be on the boat. (Embrace your fears.) She cast things in an incredibly paultry grey in the early morning, with no wind. By 2pm, the winds picked up from the east, the skies thickened, and the rain started. She dumped more than 2 inches of rain. The winds were forecasted to gust to 55 knots, but we guess the most we saw was 30.
At the same time, Chis and I, bundled in our foul weather gear, barbequed steaks in the driving rain. As we embraced the weather, and Mother Nature's unpredictability, clogged terrace drains in one of the penthouses at our condominium in New York backed up, overflowed, and damaged several apartments in the building. Being on the condo board, the emails and voicemails started shortly after midnight.
At the same time, Ike was bearing down on the Turks & Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Haiti. South Caicos, a place where we checked email at the beauty salon three years ago (and where Chis had to fix the computer in order to use it), they have estimated that every house has been damaged, and all boats were swept away. As a fishing village, the very livelihood of this community has come sharply to a halt. Ike now threatens the beautiful old historic buildings of Old Havana, and the homes of many Cubans. 48 people in Haiti lost their lives because of the flooding.
One of the voicemails I received in the middle of the night was from an owner who had not yet witnessed the damage to his apartment, declared it a "disaster scenario", and expressed concern over the mold and mildew that would eventually "poison" his family.
I breathed deeply, thanked the gods that Chis and I were safe and unharmed, and pondered the families in the south being hammered by Ike, the lives lost. I witnessed the "disaster scenario" in apartment 5D today. In the grand scheme of things, hardly a disaster.
We all have to remember from time to time, that indeed there are people in the world who suffer far more than we do. In the grand scheme of things, nothing threatens our very existence at this moment, and if it did, it would be a bus that runs me down while I cross Sixth Avenue. Or a lightening bolt that strikes Prana's mast while we are sailing. There is no great conspiracy that made the terrace drains overflow, to damage so many apartments, to cause "disaster", and, as a result, "poison" anyone's existence.
Life is short. Life is precious. Life is beautiful.
Posted by dave at September 7, 2008 07:07 PM