Waiting for God

Hurricane Ike has wreaked havoc everywhere it’s landed. Haiti and Cuba are both struggling to recover. The sea walls in Key West held, but the amount of water sloshing over them created flooding that I wouldn’t want to put up with.

Just from the outer rain bands and the generally disgruntled ocean.

And now it’s headed here, or somewhere in the vicinity. Yesterday, we were in the direct path of category 2 storm. Today, the projected path has moved north. It may or may not even rain here. That’s what happened with Rita.

It was supposed to hit us as a tropical storm, but it wandered off over east Texas. Gave them hell, but didn’t affect us one bit.

Except that the stores were out of bottled water, and canned goods ran short.

We still have our Rita stockpile of food and water, so I’m not too worried. The gas distributors are closing down shipments to local stations so as not to have tanker trucks blown around like toys and to have supplies on hand for emergency vehicles.

I filled up the tank last night, so that’s not a problem. We could get from here to almost Texarkana if we had to.

At work, our policy is to follow the school districts when it comes to weather-related closures. I'll be getting off at noon to come home and try to secure the place.

All this, and we may or may not get a drop of rain.

But then we could get a flood.

God will decide, I suppose, but only in His time. Until then, my nerves will be raw. Knowing that something bad lurks over the horizon is eminently better than knowing of its possibility but having nothing more than forecasts that don’t always mirror reality.

They’ve just updated again, and I have to take everything off the patio in front of our apartment tomorrow. The track has moved again, and we may or may not have 40-60 mph winds.

We live far inland. In the middle of Texas. It takes hours to drive to the nearest coast. And I’m worried about tropical storms and hurricanes.

I know that it probably won’t be as bad as it could be. The forecasters milk whatever they have for anything they can get.

God will protect us or not.

I want it to be Saturday already, when at least I know where it’s heading and whether it might hit us or not.

The wait may kill me before the storm does.