Odd view of a disaster
Leading a charmed existence, there have been few chances for me to come into contact with natural disasters. That’s a positive thing, but my view of what makes for “bad karma” is skewed.
Take forest fires. Don’t know much about them. I did go past one on the train, once; on the train, everything looks like a movie. We didn’t even smell smoke. And there was that time when the Mounties made us detour around Canavoy… they claimed there was a forest fire, but it might have been a “smoke screen”.
This weekend, Slave Lake in Alberta got kicked in the keester. The newspaper coverage is unclear (another screen of smoke), but some images tell a tale that is downright scary. Take this one, as an example (credit to Todd Korol, Reuters)…
Out of the dozens of pictures, this one is the unique, storytelling shot. Tree burn, houses burn when in the path, but trucks should be driven on down the highway!
That’s the essence of the disaster. The fire came in so fast that even new vehicles were abandoned to the greater force. Much like the airport, washed over by the recent tsunami in Japan. Come on! Planes can fly away, can’t they? Time to stop taking life for granted. Maybe I should have a disaster bag.
Slave Lake is half gone. Whole areas in the country are under water. Even the sacred coastline of my Island isn’t safe from the unexpected. A new island off the coast of the Island, anyone? Happened just last summer…
