respublica

Hurricane aftermath

While following the reports of Hurricane Lorian and seeing images of the devastation down in the Bahamas, it got me to wondering just how difficult it must be for an island to repair its damages. Puerto Rico by many accounts is still in the process of recovery after two years. Some blame the US for allocating money but not dispersing it to Puerto Rico. But money is only the beginning. I mainly wonder what kind of construction equipment, wood, steel, heavy machinery, manufacturing business that island has to make the work of fixing roads and homes and businesses go smoothly. Or must they wait to have those things shipped in from other countries.

The same thoughts are with the Bahamas. If all recovery depends on things being shipped in, it could be a long go for them as well.

Some stories scream for updates

The hurricane approaching the Florida coast could be really awful or move slightly east and be less damaging. But by all accounts, there will be high winds and lots of rain in any event. Along with all the stories about residents leaving or stocking up on food and water comes this lady, Brittany Vidal, in Jacksonville who has wrapped her house in black plastic held in place by duct tape and 300 sand bags. She hopes this barricade will do some good after other plans in the past did not.

I hope when this is all over, we get an update on how this all worked out.

The prediction

The Farmer's Almanac is predicting a miserable winter, a Polar Coaster of freezing, frigid, frosty, temperatures. "This winter will be filled with so many ups and downs on the thermometer, it may remind you of a 'Polar Coaster."

As if last winter wasn't bad enough. But I'm glad to say there are skeptics who believe, "While this forecast trends around this time every year, the more than 200-year-old almanac shouldn't be given too much weight on its own."  As a CNN weather meteorologist said, "It's difficult enough to do a five-day forecast, We're really good at the day of and the next day, (and) we're better at temperature a ways out than precipitation. But to forecast out that far in advance ... even the science behind our long-range forecasting is sometimes not that solid."

Wettest year ever?

Weather guy at KSDK, Chester Lampkin, wrote this morning that St. Louis is on pace for the wettest year on record. "No year has recorded more rain through August 14th than 2019."

I believe it and that includes the snow we had this winter which seemed to come constantly.

This is August

It's not supposed to rain in August and especially not as much rain as its been dropping. The grass should be dry and browning, but, no, it's green and growing.

More bad weather on the way

This has been a scary year for weather. High winds, ice, snow, torrential rains all worked together to bring down trees, cause accidents, and make just doing things difficult. Now we hear that tonight we stand a good chance of experiencing large hail, damaging winds, flooding downpours and tornadoes.

Frankly I don't believe any of us here can bear one more downed tree. Trees are lovely, but boy do they cause problems when they fall without warning. Our campus security camera by the chapel caught the most recent huge oak falling Saturday night during a wind and rain storm. It slowly, almost in slow motion, began listing to the west as the huge root ball slowly raised up out of the ground. Then slowly, slowly the tree dropped to the ground.

What was odd was that it fell to the west when the winds were coming from that direction.

The chapel tree

Yesterday a tree company came and cut up and hauled away, the big Oak tree which fell next to the chapel during the Saturday night wind storm. I got a few pictures before they began and that tree was massive and came right out to the ground. It's just amazing it did not hit the chapel windows.

The root ball, huge

Another weekend another tree fall

This has been one crazy 2019. Since it began, almost every weekend has brought strong weather which has caused all kinds of problems. Today is no different. We had storms over night with rain and wind and falling temperatures which again brought down a big tree on the seminary campus. This time it just missed the chapel. Praise God for the way it fell.

It seems these trees just don't crack and fall over, they get lifted out from their very roots. A similar thing happened the end of January to a tree next door to our house and fell onto our cars and part of the house. Another fell next to another faculty house last month, and others in more open spaces. 

This is one of those weeks when...

I am having trouble figuring out just what day it is. So many things are being crammed into each day that each day seems two days long. But, yes, it's Wednesday. I'm pretty sure. Today will be no different with the added forecast of up to 45 miles per hour winds this afternoon. After seeing how wind can take down big trees, I'm not comfortable with windy forecasts.

And as an update for this week:

Mattresses 38

Ladders 32

One of each has fallen already this week.

Laudamus at Holy Cross

Concordia Seminary's select choir put on a concert at Holy Cross in Collinsville yesterday afternoon and it was beautiful. Those voices were so true and clear, just a gift to listen to. There were many people in attendance which was gratifying, you just never know what will happen at 3 on a Sunday afternoon, especially with the NCAA basketball tournament going on and storms predicted. 

The storms came after most people were home or on their way and Collinsville was treated once again with more than one gorgeous rainbow.

This photo was taken by someone who works at the Collinsville library which is on the right in the picture. The rainbow completely covers Main Street.