General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This will get lost in the GD thread. I just have a hard time and need to rant over this Ian bullshit [View all]Marthe48
(16,939 posts)Last edited Fri Sep 30, 2022, 03:45 PM - Edit history (1)
Ancient people respected their surroundings and we've lost that. Many cultures built temples to sanctify certain places. Forests, hills, rivers, and other natural features were made holy and people offered gifts if they visited the area. Trees were sacred and each housed a god. Springs were holy and in Greek culture, each spring had certan qualities that could cure specific ailments. But humankind has moved from a polytheistic outlook of our world to a monotheistic point of view. Earlier mankind had rituals to cut living trees, getting permission to fell each one. Now, we clear cut. And we have come to ignore the devastating effects our actions are having on the environment. In the name of the almighty dollar, we are killing the planet and most life forms on it. Our idea of communing with nature is rolling the car windows down on the way to the gym.
We moved to Marietta, Oh. in 1989. We were dimly aware that the Ohio River flooded, but the lock and dam system was operating, and we didn't think of 100 year floods or really anything about floods. We bought a house we liked, and thank goodness it is above flood level. Since we've lived here, we've had several major floods. Hurricane Hugo delayed our move here for almost 2 weeks, because it hit Charleston, WV, where our loan was processed and knocked out power. We've lived through seasonal flooding, 2 or 3 other hurricane related floods. I remember being out in my back yard in 8" of water, and more rain coming down, digging a trench to get the water away from the house. Years ago, I learned there are unofficial river watchers who understand the Ohio better than the professionals. When they say get your animals off the fair grounds, you better listen. One year, people chose to listen to the pros, and they had to make their horses swim out of the barns to high ground. In downtown Marietta, when we know we're going to get high water, you either see people moving their store stock to high ground before the water arrives, or you see people, many of them volunteers from Marietta College, carrying stuff out in waist high water. We live in the Muskingum River Watershed. Even though our house is on high ground, every person in the district has to pay a watershed tax to offset the cost of water damage, stream maintenance and so on. We are expecting 1-2" of rain from Ian. That will cause some flooding here, not like in Florida, or the Carolinas. But even if we know how bad if can be, we can't prevent the rain coming, the rivers rising, or the damage that will result.
When I say professionals vs. unofficial river watchers, there are locl people who have lived by this river their whole lives, love it, respect it, know it. As opposed to people using remote applications to gauge how high the water is going to rise, who haven't aligned the hard and fast scienific techniques with hands-on lore. We can and should use both.
All I can do from my place is hope the death toll in Fl isn't as high as they think it'll be, and I hope the Carolinas fare well.