Irene

An earthquake along the East coast shook millions of American, and now a deadly hurricane is taking aim?  

Wow . . . Now it looks like a storm will hit along the East Coast, the likes of which Marylanders haven’t seen since the 1930’s, when the 1933 storm reconfigured much of the waterfront in Annapolis. My kids and their families are in its cross-hairs; Irene is supposed to arrive on Sunday AM in their vicinity with high winds and rain – not good news to an area inundated with rain for several weeks.  Winds battering trees whose roots are saturated topple more easily – power lines go down. 

I am doing a better job of freaking my head than the last weather reporters did on  the Texas ten o’clock news!

 I remember a few hurricanes  that created havoc in Maryland, especially Hazel, Agnes and David for starters.  In the aftermath of Agnes, Doug and I stood on the balcony of the Kennedy Center and watched the Potomac River roiling past us about a month before we married in 1972. In 1979, David pushed floodwaters so far up the Chesapeake Bay that the result was we lost our 420-foot dock – a costly repair for which we had no insurance.  Other storms like Gloria and Isabel also called – but we mercifully escaped damage.  In 1989, we evacuated our vacation to the Outer Banks a few days early, because of Hugo, and again we did not suffer as many others did.  But in 1992, I read what a friend went through whose Florida home was in Andrew’s path. 

Our family and friends are very much in our thought and prayers – and our fellow Americans – We love you in the Lord and ask His real help for all your needs!   

  
O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea. (USNA CHAPEL)