The Daily Minutiae

Hurricanes are extraordinary things, certainly enough to stifle doubts about nature's ability to fight back.  As expected, the hardest hit areas this season have been the gulf states of the Southeast.  Forecasts tomorrow are showing the entire country to be mostly dry -finally rebounding from the latest attack in a two-month string of hurricanes to make landfall on the U.S.  

Atlantic Hurricane Season 2008 is proving to make a name for itself.  With the confirmed death toll nearing 900 and closing in on $50B in damages, the storms this summer have eclipsed the past two years: 394 deaths and $7.5B in 2007, and a lucky number 7 and $500M in 2006.  Its doubtful that even this year, even with its May head-start, will reach the level of Season 2005 (Katrina, among others, took three spots in the top ten most intense hurricanes recorded).  But tell that that to the impoverished people of Haiti, who have been pummeled by hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike -right down the alphabet- for two straight months and reportedly still looking for bodies.  

Ohioans may find a special place in their hearts for Ike.  The first I even heard of it was the collegiate way: playing Halo in the dorm rooms.  "We're like the only place in Ohio that has electricity," on of my Red-Teamers remarked.  Sure enough, later that night I received an e-mail from my mom saying how school was closed because trees had fallen on the power lines. 

I got a taste of what the rest of the state was dealing with the following day.  The cloudcover was saran wrap tight and the wind was blowing so hard even the sturdy oaks that line East Green swooned a little bit.  My roommate and I constantly had to pick twigs from our sandals in our two-hundred yard walk to lunch.

Our wing of Washington Hall has our own personal ties to the situation as well.  Dan Reese, a photojournalism major in the room next to me, is an out-of-state student from Austin.  He told us recently that his alma mater, West Lake High School called off school for much of last week to serve as a shelter for stranded hurricane survivors.  That's a heck of a photo essay when he goes home for Christmas.