OCR Text |
Show because I do aspire to the once-a-week visit to the grocery store, even ifI drive to town more often than that.) planned for, such as the crater in Honduras that filled with water, caused a mudslide and What if it really is a big deal? All of these hypotheses aside, I think the effects of the rock fall even in reality were mere inconveniences. This natural occurrence near Dewey was the most impressive I have witnessed since the floods of 1983 and 1984, and even those were not crises. I imagine Ann Goodenough had a spiritual experience when two pieces of mesa detached and fell, leaving her house in Castle Valley the metaphorical bologna in a sedimentary sandwich about 10 years ago. Pieces of rock cratered out the Needles entrance road in Indian Creek a number of years ago. I would call Ann's experience a near miss and the fact that no rock fall has so far tumbled upon a moving vehicle as happens Glenwood Canyon is just pure luck. The avalanche of 1992, that killed four people is probably the closest that our community has come to experiencing a natural disaster and is no laughing matter. For the most part we have been fortunate. While I sit here that are large in “inconvenienced” I try, comprehend to take risks in terms of where they live, as I believe people living under the rim in Castle Valley have done. Obviously there are events that cannot be predicted nor reasonably and jest via my keyboard about being inconvenienced by natural events my experience, nagging not so quietly in my mind is just how other people on the planet are by such events. I cannot, however hard how the people of Honduras and Nicaragua are coping in the face of the incontrovertible devastation that they face as a result of hurricane Mitch. relatives, friends, neighbors. Loss of crops, topsoil, forests, clean water. roads, electricity, communications, homes, buildings, villages. Deaths of Destruction of On a country-wide scale. wiped out entire villages and their inhabitants. I just wonder if there isn't some middle ground. Perhaps the scope of such planning is too large to take on comprehensively, or perhaps we're simply out of room and too many people need homes. Or maybe we just agree that we have done bad planning in the past, we do it now, we will continue to do it in the future and disaster relief is the way that we intend to make up for it. Don't get me wrong. I am glad that we help our neighbors out, here and abroad, when catastrophe befalls them. I think it is our saving grace, as well as our responsibility. Being an ostrich is easier When I see a falling rock, in addition to admiring the event, Iam reminded of my own good fortune. Living here, I have only to worry about being offed by such rock, dying of heatstroke, or being struck by lightening as far as planetary action is concerned. While none of those is out of the realm of possibility, neither do they qualify as disasters. I do have latent concerns about living near a fault line, just like the rest of the community but because I never feel a tremor aside from the occasional sonic boom, it's easy to stick my head in the sand and think “It'll never happen”. Maybe that's what we all do when we see the “For Sale” sign on the freshly-cut lawn in front of a newly painted home that has just enough bedrooms, a whirlpool tub, a three-car garage with room for a riding lawnmower and, piece de resistance, a “river view”, an “ocean view”, an “overlook”. Even filling my brain with a surfeit of television footage does not lead me to any significant level of understanding. How does the human spirit prevail under such conditions? This natural disaster seems to be more significant than the many that befall people and I cannot comprehend how the people of Honduras and Nicaragua are coping in the face of the incontrovertible devastation they face as a result ‘of hurricane Mitch..on a country-wide scale. Even filling my brain with a surfeit of television footage does not lead to any significant level of understanding. How does the human spirit prevail under such conditions? glen canyon institute 165 South Main Street Salt Lake City, UT 84lll 8OL579. 3322 land on various occasions each year. Because of the egocentric view of our national media and my own laziness in searching out world news, my sphere of reference is mostly based on events within our borders. There have been large natural disasters in the U.S., but we see the damage mostly quantified in terms of dollars. It's the American way. Perhaps that did not happen so quickly in the instance of Honduras and Nicaragua because the scale was so vast and the loss of life so overwhelming. While disasters in here at home may put many out of house and home and into hard times, we rarely see many deaths. When the Yangtze floods in China, or a hurricane hits the Caribbean or islands in the South Pacific it is a different story. We are spoiled by technology that alerts us to impending destruction.and infrastructure that enables us to withstand it or wealthy enough Admittedly, ' because I think floodplains and get out of the way. We can depend upon FEMA to assist us. We are to re-build in relatively short order. We are unbelievably fortunate. my heart is hardened when flood waters rise in communities in the U.S. as a nation we have acted irresponsibly in allowing people to build on to suffocate so much land that ground water recharge is prevented and runoff escalates. Joe Blow and the guy next door are the ones who suffer the loss of hearth and home and the immense task of starting over in these instances. I wonder if they were given all the information they needed to make an educated decision about buying a house or building a business? I am consistently surprised that our government is willing to shell out billions of dollars annually in disaster relief as the price for bad planning and decision-making about where and how to locate communities. It seems to me that it would be easier to start from the opposite direction and use more money to plan where and how to build in order to avoid cost later. How would we deal with that retroactively? It's not that I think we should be so extreme as to stay out of 150 or 200 year floodplains, abandon all civilization in Florida and the southeastern seaboard, and evacuate Help us restore a Masterpiece. Join the Glen Canyon Institute California because of the threat of earthquakes. Clearly the population has to be willing Chip's GRAND 312 N. Main TIRE HEATING & REFRIGERATION 1070 Bowling Alley Lane 259,5625 FAX: 259.5083 259-7909 From the files of OBEWAN KAN-IZZY: ‘l have the power to warm your home." DEPENDABLE FAIR SERVICE = AMERICAN AND A FAIR PRICE WITH 900 Page STORES COAST-TO COAST a 2s TRANE Its Hard To StopA Trane“ | |