Weatherchasing

I'm starting to obsess about Gustav, the Hurricane.

I began my non-stop watch of weather and news channels this afternoon. I'm not in a danger zone, as of yet, anyway. (I am about an hour and a half northwest of Houston.) People are being sent this way, though. I suppose it could affect my workplace. When Hurricane Rita came through on the heels of Katrina in 2005, our school building, a church, was a shelter for families from Houston. I had heard that a few families were spending the night in my classroom! It was a bizarre thing. Nothing was damaged, nothing taken. Just some stuff out of place, and a few stains on the carpet not there before.

I remember being home the day that Katrina hit, cleaning house (like I'm doing today). I remember thinking I was so glad that New Orleans had made it through the storm. As the day progressed and the levees broke, I just couldn't stop watching the water in New Orleans. We all had a front row view of the destruction. And then the awful squalor of the Superdome.

Let's see if this time things will be done right.

I think in a former life---or a future life, maybe----I was a weatherman. Maybe even a storm chaser. I am just fascinated by weather and the power of it. I can't stop watching.