Earthquakes and Hurricanes

What a week it has been. On Tues August 23 at approximately 2PM, the east coast of the United States was hit with an earthquake, the first one in one hundred and fourteen years, and the epicenter was 83 miles away from here. Apparently no one was killed, and the damage has been relatively minimal given what a vast area it covered and that it was a 5.8. One notable victim, though, is the Washington National Cathedral, where repairs will take millions of dollars and many years to complete.

Right now, as I write this, "weather conditions are deteriorating", as the weatherman says, as Hurricane Irene makes her way through the area, affecting many of the people who were jolted by the earthquake this past Tuesday. (landfall in NC working her way up the coast to beyond Boston, they project). We here west of Washington DC will most likely get the outer bands of it, but we'll have high winds and rain for the next 8 hours or so.

I have held the belief for a long time that disaster conditions make for the best "teachable moments"--and this belief is holding true this week. Never have I seen people as attentive to emergency preparedness. This is a good thing. The reality is that we just don't know what this hurricane will do, but we do know that it is one huge hurricane and it is moving very slowly. People are taking it seriously, in a way that rarely ever happens. And many references are back to the earthquake. We got to see in the earthquake what its like to not have cell phone service. We had never considered that possibility before.

Disaster preparedness is one thing, but a certain amount of flexibility is another. We have become so dependent on electricity that we can't imagine life without it. Now I hope our power does not go out, (in Reston we have underground power lines, decreasing the possibility) but if it does we will deal. We, like everyone else on the eastern seaboard, have stocked up on batteries and canned food, my blackberry is charging, and we have enough bottled water to fill a good sized swimming pool. We've removed wind influenced potentially flying objects from outside, and the tree surgeon tells us our maple tree is sound. The thing about losing power, or having a tree topple on your house, or having flood damage, is that you have to cope with it the best you can at that moment. Yes, things are going to be different, and probably quite uncomfortable, but with the right attitude things don't have to be the worst they can be.

One way to cope is to pray, not to tell God to make the damage go away, but for comfort and strength to deal with it, and whatever insight God deems appropriate. I was praying last Tuesday at 2P as it sounded and felt like the horsemen of the appocalypse were trotting across the roof where I work. With the hurricane force winds' howling getting louder I think maybe I'll sign off and try prayer again.