Even when it’s not right outside your window, it consumes all of your mental bandwidth. The hurricane, the aftermath, the entire region that is suffering. This is the kind of thing that sets people back ten or twenty years. You hear the stories, but now you know.
This feels different, more sinister. In grade school they would always want to compare the Rockies to the Appalachian Mountains. One was hard and granite, the other was soft and supple. Rains and landsides have more or less changed the geographic footprint of the area. I can’t imagine what the rebuild might look like when you think of a totally different foundation. I can’t imagine how you would rebuild again knowing what the Rivers are capable of.
I feared Tornadoes growing up. Drills at school. At home, you didn’t fill your bathtub with water – you dragged your mattress into the bathroom to cover yourself in the tub. Shit was flying through the air, duck in cover. In our home, Twister was consistently in the VCR. In those days, Tornadoes turned up towns in Oklahoma and east Texas and the midwest. It was predictable then. Green clouds, sounds of a freight train.
It was important in those days to bring your kids to the train show, make sure they knew what the fucking thing sounded like.
There are no more climate havens. Not here. Not in Madison, WI. Everywhere can get equally fucked by something because, get this, the whole world is totally connected.