Weather and Natural Disasters Pt. 2
Part 2 is that no one cares.
I got no comments on my near escapes from death I commented on earlier, which tells me one of two things: 1) people don't really care, or 2) people have better things to occupy their thought with.
Okay. Fair enough. But this blog is about ME. So I'm going to talk about things that interest me and two of those things is weather and natural disasters. So bear with me.
The other thing I've thought about lately is that I keep harping on my parents to record their memoirs before they die. Because I have no grandparents alive anymore, and I really wish they had written memoirs to give insight to their lives. I realized that this blog is my chance to start writing my own memoirs, even if I'm still a relatively young man. Get it out now while its still fresh. That's a good idea.
So, anyways, here are some more weather phenomena I've expereienced:
1991 Oakland Hills Fire
I didn't actually experience this event first hand, but did experience it on a personal level. Fall, 1991 was my first quarter in graduate school at the University of California at Davis. I didn't own a television that quarter, but I did have a stereo system and I set it up for good radio broadcast. As it turned out, there was a Sacramento station that for some reason I still don't know, would broadcast Denver Broncos football games. So I would get up on Sundays to hear the 12:00 pregame for the Broncos. I would do reading while the game was going on.
On Sunday, October 20, 1991, I set myself up for my usual reading of class materials while I listened to the Broncos. But the Broncos never came on. Instead, around noon, there was a report about a fire that had restarted at the Caldicott tunnel near Oakland. In just a few minutes, the radio reported that the fire was spreading rapidly. Soon enough, it was spreading d0wn the hills and this was the big story of the day. I would have to miss out on the Broncos, but I was more interested in the radio reports I was hearing about the fire. Eventually, it crossed the freeway and made it's way into areas like Piedmont. And then they ran out of water. Listening to the radio that day was an exercise in drama, melodrama, and frustration.
Finally, I started calling friends to hear what they were seeing on TV. Most hadn't heard of what was going on. My photographer friend Neil couldn't talk because he was on his way to drive down there and take pics. Another friend of mine had a small and old B&W TV he was trying to get rid of. So I went and got it from him.
And that was my first grad school TV: a thirteen inch B&W TV that I tried to watch on atenna that night to see what was going on with the fire. I ended up watching the epic 1991 World Series on that same television. My oh my.
2003: Hurricane Isabel
The only natural disaster I was left with to experience was a hurricane. I had a couple of tropical storms come through Austin when I lived there, but they were just a lot of rain. When I moved to North Carolina I finally had my chance: Hurricane Isabel. It was a category 5 storm for a while, but thankfully it weakened to a cat 2 storm when it hit NC. I remember walking home from school the night before it hit and looking up and seeing it's outer bands. It's actually quite beautiful. I had seen the same in Texas a year before, but that storm didn't hit us. Isabel did. The next day I taught my 8:oo class and then the University shut down. I remember as I walked to the bus stop the wind starting to pick up and the rain starting to go in spurts. When I got home, the wind really started to pick up.
Where I am in NC is sufficient that a hurricane doesn't lash its most powerful blast. Isabel turned out to be about a 40 mph storm in Carrboro, but it was still really interesting how long it took for the storm to build and then weaken. It was very different from my background in Colorado with storms. But Isabel did make my power go out for 13 hours. And that sucked. I think hell is reserved for graduate students who have to read to a candle when their apartment is starting to broil from the heat and humidity.
So, I got a hurricane to check off my list. Good riddance. I don't want another.
posted by cc at
7:57 PM
4 Comments:
Lisa here. I loved your tornado story, I think I saw a clip of that tornado on a tape once. Tornadoes are my favorite natural disaster--terrifying and yet I kinda want to see one. H and I once spent a long time in her closet during a tornado watch--she with her cookies and me with my wine.
I share your fascintation with severe weather. I took Weather and Climate as my elective science and used to know all sorts of weather things.
oh, and if you're interested there's an online quiz you can take that will tell you what type of natural disaster you are at quizzilla.
Doug here, Steve. I think you're exactly right about this being a memoir. It's hard to seperate the craving for feedback from the inherent value in simply writing and testifying; I know this from personal experience. But you must continue, no matter what. I believe this firmly, though I often have to remind myself. (Even more pathetic are the not-so-subtle cues I'll give to my wife and friends that I need feedback on what I have written. Ugly stuff, the writer's ego.)
I share your fascination with weather, especially severe weather. Looks like you've seen a lot more of it than I have.
I've struggled with this one, bro. I saw the stories as you telling the world your experiences on your blog.
I can say something along the lines of ... Yeah I remember you telling me about that when I got back from Camp A (the tornado), but that takes away from the story, by reducing it to a ho-hum recollection, which it's definately not.
I could show my interest in your story by writing to you about my experiences with tornados, Manitou Springs and two others. ...but then this becomes a war story convention of my 'bleep' is bigger than your 'bleep'. I can not smear your stories/blog in that way, even if we are brothers.
I will say this though. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and recollection of the events. What amazes me the most, is exactly what it is we remember the most.
For the earthquake -- yeah right like I remember anything about that.
The blizzard -- I remember the games, Uncle Jeff playing music while letting me feel the vibrations, Granddad typing, getting out of the house through a window to shovel the garage door free so we could "tunnel" out the front door, the fact that we had to use the entire first floor for presents, waiting for Uncle Floyd endlessly since I did not get the message that he was stuck until late Christmas day, and the fact that I saw all of the neighbors talking to each other on the same day for the first and just about only time in my life.
The Limon Tornado -- I recalled that you were outside of the town and not really in danger (must have played it down when you told me, but recall that you thought it was awesome to see such a big thing in real life). I remember that one of the camp staff member (Travis) was from Limon and the "Slice" jokes stemming from the tornado, such as, "Did you hear that they took Slice off the market?" "Yeah, because Limon was wiped off the face of the earth!" The current ad was something like --"Slice, for that fresh Limon taste."
The Oakland Fire -- This was the year before I got my first Red Card, the card that allows you to fight wildfires. I recall the lessons of what to do and not to do, learned from that fire. This was and still is a fire used to drive home the dangers of Urban Interface Wildfires. Urban Interface is the leading cause of equipment loss and injuries to wildland firefighters. There are just too many people wondering who put the forest, hence the fire, next their homes in the first place and expect us to stop the fires on a dime.
Hurricanes -- After the Twin Bitches, I really do not want to see that kind of destruction in progress. It was bad enough to see, and deal with, the aftermath on the physical, emotional, and social level in the raw. Season is gearing up, and Uncle Sam liked my team soooo much .. he has bumped us up in the priority list for deployment, which means there is a good chance I will be called multiple times this year.
I have many experiences with severe weather and disasters, wether it be man-made or not. I can share them, but I see them from a different perspective. I am one of the ones with the genetic disorder that allows me to run towards whatever others are running from!!
So ... It is definately not that I don't care. I really enjoyed your stories, for they give me a diferent perspective on some of the events we have shared. I focus on the action versus reaction side of things more than the impact of emotions and possibilities. That is not really it. Try something like; I see the word through specific actions and reactions and you see it through discriptive anylyitical words. So to say "I don't care" is wrong, but I did not want to take something from these stories that give me something I did not get before. After all the Blog is about you, not me.
Keep up with the stories and political commentary though. I work in a field that is severely split. There are those that will follow Bush anywhere, for he is the Prez after all, and those that think a chimp is a better choice (direct quote). Not to mention I am in Boulder County, the hypocrite captial of the west! You give me ammo and various quips I can use to keep the debate going on the nights we are slow. There is nothing more entertaining then a redneck republician and a ultra hippie libertarian going at it with a "progrssive Democrat" on issues great and small.
I agree that you have to be writing this stuff for your memories. I actually started writing about life with the Theocrat on the advice of a friend. To keep from getting uptight about feedback, though, I mention the existence of such a thing only rarely.
That said, you'll never get me to read closely anything that deals with severe weather; that's the stuff of nightmares. I was trapped in a blizzard a decade ago and thinking about it still makes me cringe.
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