The month of May has been a pretty wild month as far natural disasters are concerned. Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar (Burma), killing upward of 100,000 people, and leaving over between 2-3 million people homeless, seeking shelter and food. With Myanmar's junta government refusing to allow aid to be brought in, particularly from the U.S., it is estimated that only 25% of the people desperately needing food and medicine have actually received any thus far, based on what I have read. No wonder U.N. representatives described the refusal of Myanmar's ruling body to allow aid, a criminal act.The 7.9 (USGS) earthquake that impacted China's Sichuan Province on May 12 has claimed at least 60,000+ lives with another 26,000+ still missing.
Our daughter, Lori, was affected by the spate of tornados that touched down in areas north of Denver. Apparently, there were 7 or 8 tornados that touched down in Weld county, which is where she works (in Greeley). Bank employees had to go to the basement of the bank where she works at one point for about 20 minutes. There was one fatality in Greeley. Windsor, where most of the damage happened, is only 20 miles from Lori's and James' home in Loveland. The main tornado was about a mile wide, probably an F3 on the tornado strength scale. Lori alerted us to this video. An additional video I found shows the Mayor of Windsor speaking about the damage. Tornados also occurred within the past day or so in Kansas and Oklahoma.
We have had our own nasty weather this week with flooding occurring in the Thibodaux/Houma area. This is prelude to a week of preparation for Hurricane Season, which officially begins on June 1.
3 comments:
Wow, I didn't know that Houma was suffering from a natural disaster, as well! Has that affected you or the sugarcane crops at all? The Myanmar situation has been such a tragedy, and I wish there was more everyone could do to help. Unlike Myanmar, I'm glad that China is at least allowing people in to assess the damage and help out. Some of the pictures I've seen from there are just incredible. Let's home the hurricane season is another mild one...
Sugarcane probably benefited from the rain, although there was some localized flooding in the fields. We benefited too, because the power went off at our Station around 1:00 pm, so we were given administrative leave for the remainder of the day. It was a bit scary on the roads, trying to get home with the torrential rains and water on the roads.
Actually, I should have said that I believe everyone got administrative leave. I told our Research Leader I was going home and that I would work from there, since it seemed pointless to walk around in the dark, not getting anything accomplished. He okayed it so I went home and worked from there. The next day, from what I gathered, others took the afternoon off; I assumed that administrative leave was granted.
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