Hurricane

Dear DK

I hope you and Sport and Satcha and families are weathering this storm well. When I think of you on the open ocean in a sailboat and then think of you on dry land in a house, I know you are wise and doing what needs done to survive. You are my hero. I would love to have the knowledge to sail the ocean and look at the light of the moon as you have. Perhaps my next go around. Take care.

Love,

Betty

8/26/2012

Betty & DK...

Be careful, stay inside , have a drink, listen

to the TV or radio....

Love Joe....

Dear Joe,

This night it is calm. One never knows if the news people have over hyped the situation. Tomorrow we are supposed to have wind 30 and gusting 60. David and I planted roses today. The kind that are called carpet roses. We hope they live through the heat and the winter. We put away and tied down everything that would fly away. At 60 mph sustained, the trees, even if they are old like the oaks, will have a hard time holding onto the earth in witch they grow. The oaks have shallow roots that spread a good distance from their trunks and suck up 300 gallons of water a day and let that much loose into the atomospher as new rain.

I look at your pictures of Santa Fe and remember New Mexico. What I remember of New Mexico is white sand and adobe buildings. I was a very young child then. Arey (sp) was where I went to school for first grade. I probably wasn't there more than a couple of months because my family moved a lot.

I have dreamed of that land. Kind of red, it was, and bleak in my dream. A long away vision, miles over a desolate valley where I sat on a cliff and looked out. How odd dreams are.

Love,

Betty

And this one was a "little" Lady who swept through my home town one summer day in 1957:

Lady Audrey
Ann Levingston Joiner
Pulse Magazine
Lamar University Press
1979


"With gusting winds up to ninety miles..."
Came the hollow voice from the box that sat
Beside the candle on the table.
The older ones listened quietly.

While we, to young to know restraint
And just too old to be afraid,
Disdainfully moved to the porch outside.
The driving rain whipped our coats in the wind.

From there we watched it whip the limbs
Of an oak that stood across the yard
Whose limbs grew tall and straight and strong.
It fiercely stood against the storm.

But then, we saw, on one side of the tree,
A bulge begin to form on the ground,
Growing bigger, and bigger, and bigger still.
The tree began leaning the other way.

And as we watched in awe, we saw
It leaning further and further still,
Until only its branches were holding it up.
They snapped as the tree sank slowly down.

The bulge on the ground became its roots
And as they pulled up on the other side,
They forced up a piece of concrete walk.
A slab, raised erect, loomed grey and dark.

Inside, subdued, we sat with the others
By the flickering candle on the table,
Transfixed as the black box spoke again.
"Cameron, Louisiana; over 200 dead..."

Dear Annie,

What a beautiful capture of that event through your child eyes. How fearless we are when we are little and young. The mystery of what happens is profound and yet not really understood as the force of nature that it is. How invinsible we were, then. How brave!.

Love,

Betty

Beautiful poem, Ann.

Hope DK,Betty and Al are all safe and the Republicans too,

In the past, damage caused by natural forces were called, "Acts of God", and were not covered by Insurance. If the forces of nature are acts of God, perhaps he is trying to tell us something. I don't know if "Acts of God" clauses are still included, perhaps Victor could shed some light on this.

The idea of a hurricane is frightening - its potential unimaginable. Those poor people in the Caribbean in Haiti in particular; haven't they suffered enough? How can the western world allow that little island to suffer so? Seems some western coalition could go in there and help them once and for all.

I was ill for most of the hurricane hours so very grateful when the power was only off a couple hours.

Thanks for all your kind thoughts - we'll need to concentrate them on the rest of its path.

Abe F. March wrote:

In the past, damage caused by natural forces were called, "Acts of God", and were not covered by Insurance. If the forces of nature are acts of God, perhaps he is trying to tell us something. I don't know if "Acts of God" clauses are still included, perhaps Victor could shed some light on this.

I am not Victor; nor am I an attorney, so I don't know about other states. In Texas, flood insurance is a separate policy from homeowners, and has varied rates depending on where you live in the flood plain.

The house I grew up in, and was living in in '57 when Audrey came through, was a typical southern "raised cottage," which had about 4-5 feet of open crawl space under it. The storm flooding more than covered the streets around the house, and went into some houses in the area, but we had at least a foot to spare when the water level peaked. Maybe that was a contributing factor, or maybe it was just due to living in a near-coastal area, but I have always made a point of checking out that flood plain and finding out what I could about the location whenever I bought a house. I have never paid for flood insurance, or needed it,but my homeowner's has always covered wind and hail damage. That happened so often in Houston that I eventually had to get a new roof (well, yes, the house by that time was over 20 years old and except for an employee of the building firm who lived there for its first six months, my family and I were the only residents), but I never got a question from my insurers. The claims were always paid quickly.

Here, I live at the top of a hill. Flooding is a different animal in the hills than it was on the coastal plains. There is was just a matter of rising water. Here it means a powerful force of rushing water that can easily sweep up a car or loosely anchored small house and carry it in its path. I have been here 10 years now, and so far, this city has never experienced a heavy flood where someone didn't die because they tried to drive through low-lying areas. You would think that the slogan, "Turn around; don't drown" would have more effect.

Don't know if that answers your question, Abe.

Ann

Ann, thank you for your response. I don't know if the laws changed, but the wording may have. It is usually the fine print that one needs to read carefully.
"Acts of God" and "Acts of War" were special clauses used by Insurance companies that were not covered. Special Policies to deal with natural disasters as you mentioned were specific and covered. I think spelling out the exact nature of the disaster provides true coverage. Generalized statements, i.e., "Acts of God" or "Acts of War" gives the Insurer a way out.