Aftermath

It is with a great sigh of relief that I write this - Hurricane Irene has passed us!  For the most part, we here in Howard County, MD were spared the brunt of its force.  So was Washington, DC, apart from some small flooded areas, downed trees and power outages.   Things could have been so much worse.  Thank heavens that they were not.

Thank heavens also that the death toll was not high, 26 known dead at the time of this post.  But for each of those deceased persons, there are loved ones who mourn them.  I send deepest sympathies to all.  There are also several families who lost - and are continuing to lose - their homes to flooding as aftereffects.  I send fervent hope for their speedy rebuilding.

The authorities - federal, state, and local - emergency services (policemen, firemen, EMTs and other first responders) were all well-informed, communicated and coordinated among themselves and have functioned and are still functioning well where they are still needed, primarily far to the north.  Volunteers and concerned neighbors also deserve kudos.

Would you believe, however, that some people are actually complaining either because a) the storm was not as awful as first predicted or b) we here in its path were actually "over-prepared" because of media-hype and/or overreaction by the authorities?

I find, for the most part, that such people are perennially unhappy, no matter what happens, and take great glee in pointing out the so-called failures of government.  These same people are the first to call those of us who criticized the lack of preparation for and terrible response after 2005's disastrous Hurricane Katrina "traitors" even though we were correct to do so.  That approaching disaster was either not taken seriously or deliberately played down for nefarious motives about which I do not even want to speculate.  Others more capable than I have speculated about those motives, however.  For an excellent and well-researched summarization and history of deliberately nefarious policy-making and motives, I recommend Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.

We here in MD (where I currently am) and DC consider ourselves very fortunate to have been spared the worst.  We are thankful that Irene's winds lost strength by the time they arrived here.  Even with that, there has been a wide swathe of destruction, a lot of it further inland because of the size of the storm.

Never doubt for a second that had those winds been even fractionally stronger, I would be writing a far different post today, that is, if I were able to write at all and had functioning electrical power.   I will not join the naysayers and the critics at all.  Much to the contrary - I am proud of how our government at all levels functioned in the interests of public safety.  That is, after all, one reason why I support public services and public sector employees and will continue to do so, especially when they are beset and beleaguered by zealots, ideologues, outright liars and just plain crazies who see no hypocrisy in using these same facilities while complaining loudly, vociferously and illogically about paying the taxes that allow these services to exist.

For us all.  Not simply for the super rich.