Friday, February 29, 2008
Long Lasting Thunder
How long is a thunderclap supposed to last? As kids, we used to count the seconds from a lightening strike to the clap of thunder and supposedly that told us the distance of the storm. I don’t remember any significance to how long the thunderclap could last. I wonder if there was thunder during Katrina. If so, I doubt that those caught in her fury bothered to wonder about the duration of the thunder. They were desperately trying to survive the storm.
Paul and I are sitting in the Dogwood Campground outside of Natchitoches, LA, (pronounced NAK-I-TISH and is the home of the story-“STEEL MAGNOLIAS”). The campground is quite rustic and sitting well up on a hill. The drive up the driveway was challenging having to follow a twisting road with buckling pavement. The reward was a warm welcome and the last available pull through campsite in the campground. (luckily, we had called ahead). We now sit reading; Paul-a Stuart Wood mystery (a breather after having finished Operation Solomon about the rescue of thousands of Ethiopian Jews) and myself, Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford (thanks Malena and Dan for the book.)
It is the evening of MLK day and there are torrents of rain falling on our roof. Rain on an RV roof is noteworthy; it is noisy and rhythmic and cannot be ignored. Also not to be ignored are the lightening flashes and those long claps of thunder, among the longest lasting thunder booms in my memory.
Driving from Vicksburg, MI, it wasn’t until mile 30 on the Natchez Trace parkway, still in Mississippi that we saw the first traces of Katrina and the damage suffered in the area. There were large areas of broken trees, piles of debris, logs crossing the road (the area on the road having been cleared for traffic), mounds of leaves and twigs and small branches lying snarled along the roadside. This “messiness” is highly uncharacteristic of the Natchez Trace, ordinarily a well-kept and restful byway. There was obviously enough money to pay for clearing the byway, but not enough money to pay for a complete cleanup of the roadside. That will undoubtedly take years.
Further along, into Louisiana, we saw construction that was “stopped in it tracks” so to speak. The funds were most likely diverted to pay for the more important projects resulting from Katrina’s visit late last summer. Paul and I had fully intended to volunteer a week or two in the areas devastated by Katrina, but we have not been able to complete those plans or gain the assurance that we can securely park our rig. We still hope to connect with the New Orleans Jewish Community, but getting online has been illusive this week.
Books on Tape are a favorite pastime as we roll down the highways and byways and we are currently indulging in The Edge of the World, by Simon Winchester, (also author of Krakotoa). He zeroes in on the terrible earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco and discusses the year of 1906 as having been infamous for other disasters—tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes in Sumatra, South America, and elsewhere. He then alludes to the horrors of 2004-5 (tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes) and the fact that many single years throughout recorded history seem to include large numbers of disasters. Let us hope that this string of disasters is past.
The rain is still pounding on our roof, the lightening and thunder have ceased at least for now but the world outside our door promises to be very soggy and wet. We may be happy that our campground is on high ground and will escape any storm damage. The morning will be very interesting indeed.
Paul and I are sitting in the Dogwood Campground outside of Natchitoches, LA, (pronounced NAK-I-TISH and is the home of the story-“STEEL MAGNOLIAS”). The campground is quite rustic and sitting well up on a hill. The drive up the driveway was challenging having to follow a twisting road with buckling pavement. The reward was a warm welcome and the last available pull through campsite in the campground. (luckily, we had called ahead). We now sit reading; Paul-a Stuart Wood mystery (a breather after having finished Operation Solomon about the rescue of thousands of Ethiopian Jews) and myself, Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford (thanks Malena and Dan for the book.)
It is the evening of MLK day and there are torrents of rain falling on our roof. Rain on an RV roof is noteworthy; it is noisy and rhythmic and cannot be ignored. Also not to be ignored are the lightening flashes and those long claps of thunder, among the longest lasting thunder booms in my memory.
Driving from Vicksburg, MI, it wasn’t until mile 30 on the Natchez Trace parkway, still in Mississippi that we saw the first traces of Katrina and the damage suffered in the area. There were large areas of broken trees, piles of debris, logs crossing the road (the area on the road having been cleared for traffic), mounds of leaves and twigs and small branches lying snarled along the roadside. This “messiness” is highly uncharacteristic of the Natchez Trace, ordinarily a well-kept and restful byway. There was obviously enough money to pay for clearing the byway, but not enough money to pay for a complete cleanup of the roadside. That will undoubtedly take years.
Further along, into Louisiana, we saw construction that was “stopped in it tracks” so to speak. The funds were most likely diverted to pay for the more important projects resulting from Katrina’s visit late last summer. Paul and I had fully intended to volunteer a week or two in the areas devastated by Katrina, but we have not been able to complete those plans or gain the assurance that we can securely park our rig. We still hope to connect with the New Orleans Jewish Community, but getting online has been illusive this week.
Books on Tape are a favorite pastime as we roll down the highways and byways and we are currently indulging in The Edge of the World, by Simon Winchester, (also author of Krakotoa). He zeroes in on the terrible earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco and discusses the year of 1906 as having been infamous for other disasters—tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes in Sumatra, South America, and elsewhere. He then alludes to the horrors of 2004-5 (tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes) and the fact that many single years throughout recorded history seem to include large numbers of disasters. Let us hope that this string of disasters is past.
The rain is still pounding on our roof, the lightening and thunder have ceased at least for now but the world outside our door promises to be very soggy and wet. We may be happy that our campground is on high ground and will escape any storm damage. The morning will be very interesting indeed.
# posted by Ann Carol @ 9:21 AM 
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