Day: October 2, 2024

One of my all time favorite books is Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson. It is the heartbreaking true story of the 1900 hurricane that devastated Galveston, Texas leaving thousands dead and ending the golden era of the once prosperous town. It focuses on the hubris of Isaac Cline, a meteorologist who chose to ignore warnings about the impending hurricane and instead insisted that the citizens would be safe in their homes. 

Of course we now know in hindsight that Cline was wrong. The ferocious storm toppled houses and buildings alike, leaving citizens adrift in a terrifying sea of rubble. Cline lost his home and his wife and his reputation in the aftermath of destruction. The theme of the book is one as old as humanity itself, namely that unfettered hubris can be deadly. 

My home city of Houston is the prosperous place that it is because Galveston never returned to the glory of it’s days as a center of commerce and trade. The little town along a ribbon of bayous would dredge a pathway over fifty miles long to create what would become one of the the largest ports in the United States. With railroads crisscrossing the landscape and the new waterway bring ships filled with goods, the city was destined to become the behemoth that it now is. Nonetheless even fifty miles inland the danger of powerful storms still lurks. 

I have spent a lifetime watching anxiously from June through October for storms in the Caribbean that might make their way into the Gulf of Mexico. I have memorized a litany of hurricanes that affected me and my city. Sadly we still have a bit of hubris much like Isaac Cline in thinking that we have seen the worst, dodged bullets and will ultimately be just fine. Yes, we suffered greatly during hurricane Harvey but we had the grit to make our way back. Sadly there is little evidence that we took that storm as seriously as we should have and a great deal of evidence that we are still taunting nature. 

I had the good fortune to be spared any damage from the many hurricanes that I have experienced but I have been inside homes ravaged by wind and rain. I have seen what six feet of flood water does to people’s possessions and well being. I have labored in the muck retrieving ruined photos and diplomas. I have washed clothing and dishes in an attempt to return the sodden items to a usable state. I have cried for those who lost so much only to feel threatened again and again as hurricane season rolls back around. 

What I have not seen is a united effort in changing the way we do things so that we might stall the changes of climate that are making weather related events more and more dangerous and deadly with each passing year. We seem as unwilling to face the reality of our situation as Isaac Cline was a hundred and twenty five years ago. We continue to build in places that were once buffer zones. We tear down trees, pour miles and miles of concrete, own multiple cars, create mountains of trash and pretend that those warning us of the consequences of our inaction are just party poopers trying to steal our joy. 

This summer the Houston Metropolitan area experienced an earlier than usual hurricane that was only a Category 1 storm. Nonetheless millions of people were left without power for days and weeks. The roofs of home were torn off, fences went down, trees fell across roads and sometimes toppled buildings. It has taken months to repair the damage and some are still waiting for workers and materials to arrive. 

Now hurricane Helene has spread unprecedented horror across multiple states leaving even towns hundreds of miles from the Gulf of Mexico devastated beyond anything that anyone might have imagined. One of the most beautiful cities in our nation, Ashville, North Carolina, has been left unrecognizable with flooding that nobody there has ever before seen. The mountain town is cut off from the rest of the world with impassible muddy roads, no power, and dire needs. 

When will we face the reality of what is happening and unite in our efforts to make a difference in how we treat our planet earth? When will we all make the needed sacrifices to change the projection of our destiny. Yes, there will still be storms, tornadoes, droughts, fires, but if we strive for a more sustainable way of living perhaps they will not be as numerous or as powerful. We can turn back the inevitable if we all pitch in. It’s time we work ahead of time rather than only in the aftermath of destruction. 

We have been warned for decades but we have brazenly ignored the truth. We make excuses like a child, insisting that we should not have to take the lead in doing what is right if other countries are not even trying. We want what we want when we want it without considering what our choices may be doing toward the destruction of our planet. 

When James Lovell was hurtling toward the Earth in a spacecraft so damaged that it might not make it home, he gazed at the beautiful blue orb with a realization that changed his life. He understood that the only safe place in the nearby universe was Earth. He understood that the only hope for humankind is to nurture the place where we live. There is no alternative so we need to get things right. It is past time for us to stop fighting and complaining and work together to heal the wounds that we have inflicted on each other and on our planet. We can no longer pretend that “It’s just what it is and the way things have always been.” We have the power to change if only we have the will.  

Many years ago I attended a teachers’ conference in Minnesota. People came from all over the United States to hear experts describe their methods for educating our nation’s children. One featured speaker included a field trip to a model school in his presentation. Since I was eager to see how the folks in the midwest were doing things I signed up for the day long adventure. 

We drove away from the city and into a suburban area that seemed to be floating on a golden plain. I almost expected to see Laura Ingles Wilder emerging from the swaying foliage on that cold November day. I don’t remember much about the model school but I was enchanted by the loveliness of the prairie grasses. It had never occurred to me that a place so flat might be so beautiful. I have carried that image in my mind for decades and when I draw on it from time to time I feel relaxed and somehow in tune with nature at its finest. 

I’ve traveled all over the United States and seen such wondrous places. I have been touched to the point of tears by a rainbow that reached from one mountain peak to another in Glacier National Park, Montana. I have stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon and know that no words will ever adequately describe that breathtaking site, especially when the sun is setting at the end of a glorious day. I’ve driven along the Pacific Coast marveling at the power and beauty of the ocean. I’ve traveled through the forests of Maine and walked through the caverns of New Mexico. I’ve seen sunrises and sunsets in the most beautiful places imaginable. I’ve celebrated the dawn of a New Year in a quaint mountain village in Austria. I have hiked to the top of mountain trials in Colorado and spent nights under a starry sky. 

To choose my favorite place would be almost impossible. I am after all a woman who has spent her life in the Houston Metropolitan area where the landscape is dominated by concrete roads littered with potholes, murky bayous, strip malls and buildings that seem to crop up over night. I have watched my town grow into a city, the fourth largest in the nation. I have endured it’s heat, it’s hurricanes, it’s floods, but I have also known it’s heart. 

It has not been the beauty of Houston that has kept me from moving away, but the people who live here who have made me reluctant to consider relocating to a place with more panoramic views. Time and again the citizens of Houston come together whether to celebrate, to aide one another or to mourn. Like any large city we have our bad guys, but on the whole the people here are kind and compassionate. They work hard and mostly allow people to live whatever kind of lives they wish to enjoy. Houston is famously diverse and yet most of the time the people look beyond the many physical hues of our neighbors and see only the hearts and souls. People come here to work and they do that quite well. There are opportunities here that can’t be found in such abundance anywhere else. We treasure our universities and our world class Medical Center. We love our Texans and Rockets and Astros whether they win or lose. We are proud of the NASA Space Center and love knowing that many of our relatives and neighbors were instrumental in getting humans to the moon.

If I want to see something beautiful I can go to the Houston Zoo or walk around Bayou Bend. It’s only an hour’s drive to the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston. The beaches may be small and the water muddy but it’s our happy place nonetheless. We know the stories of pirates and native Americans who once lived there. We have heard about the hurricanes and the ingenuity of the people who built a ship channel to make Houston, a landlocked city, one of the largest ports in the United States. 

It takes me hours to drive to the most beautiful places in the country, but only minutes to be surrounded by the best people anyone would ever hope to know. That’s why when people ask where my favorite place in the world is located I have to say Houston. I know that my city will never win a beauty contest. I realize that when people visit here they often leave thinking that the place is butt ugly. Those of us who know better just shrug because if someone is down and out Houston is the place to be. There will be someone who can mend a broken heart or one that needs a new bypass. Goodness seems to be in the DNA of this city.

I can’t imagine living anywhere else than Houston but I know that sometimes things change and so I never say never. At least for the moment I can assert without hesitation that I love my Houston with its warts and all because when the going gets tough I will always find good people here. In the meantime I will drive or fly away to see nature’s beauty and then always come back home.