Hurricane Sandy October 30, 2012

I was watching a program on the devastation and the writings of Lao Tsu kept coming to mind. About yielding... about how water, running one drip at a time can change the form of the rock in a mountain. When I used to climb the rockies I'd look at those boulders seemed as though they had been tossed there by a great force. When I climbed them I found sea shells.

When I saw those images of how far the water drove through the city, flooded the subway tunnels and wasn't taking no for an answer that same principle came back to me. We think we can build great highrises and they will not be moved because they are made with concrete and rebar and the genius of mankind. And then wind decides to take the ocean in a new direction and there it is. Disregarding all of the barriers we thought would hold her back. It is the force of nature and the yielding and the letting go; the acceptance of a more realistic understanding of who we are in this world that has really hit me.

The water went where the wind carried it.

 

And then there was darkness.

And then the wind decided a spark needed to become a flame. 
And the fire flew in its fury from one home to the next until all there was, was fire.

And when day broke this was the flooded aftermath.

Flooding of Mass Transit Tunnels in NYC

New Jersey Footage and Boardwalk Flooding 

During the power outage in Manhattan a massive evacuation of a hospital took place.  Patients were carried on stretchers, down a darkened stairwell and one by one, were all cared for delicately and with skill and compassion.

This is what I love about humanity.

With all of the tragedy and all of the good deeds and compassion there is one thing I keep coming back too.  Something I have written about before.  There were five nuclear power plants that were in a precarious situation during the storm.  This link provides important information to think about. Five Nuclear Power Plants and Hurricane Sandy

Chernobyl may have been caused by a human error.  And Fukushima's nuclear disaster occurred after a tsunami hit Japan.  And we did not get hit with what could have been a huge nuclear disaster during Hurricane Sandy.  But it is time to consider how important it is NOT underestimate the power of the wind and the water and what can happen in just a few hours.  Our planet moves and changes and it makes more sense to only use sources of power that we can turn off in the case of an emergency.