Katrina

I've tried to shy away from hurricane posts. I posted once about it and that was probably one post too many. There's plenty of news and blog posts about it all over the web for starters and also I like to think Soulfish Stew can be a small diversion from bad news. But after reading that hundreds are feared dead and that the death toll may rise above Camille's I had to wonder how little humans have learned in 36 years. The Gulf is more urban now which would mean more people. I can buy that. But there's much more coverage of approaching hurricanes. Many more chances for people to escape to safety. Yet they don't. I assume poverty is one reason. It's sort of hard to leave without wheels. There's also pride of ownership or protecting property at work - the "I'm not leaving...this house and land have been in my family for over a hundred years" sort of thing, and there is also the false hubris of "I've survived bad storms before" at play. So there's a myriad of reasons out there, but it still doesn't make sense to me. If I was warned a fortnight that a tornado was going to blast my home off its foundations I would be gone to seek shelter. I wouldn't stick around. When thoughts like this go through my mind I feel very callous and mean and even though I'll pray about it and for the victims of Katrina I don't think I'll ever be able to completely understand the why of choosing to stay.