State(s) Of Emergency!
English version Article available also in French and Swedish
My family, when they migrated from France to America, they first settled in Louisiana. Many decades later, I moved from Texas, first to the city of Baton Rouge: ("The Red Stick") and later to New Orléans. I remember one summer , walking along one of the levies on a typically humid afternoon, and thinking that it was so green, so lush there. Flowers were blooming everywhere and there was a calm and peace, as that mighty Mississippi River surged by.
Thinking to myself, while gazing on that great river, I thought: What on earth would happen, to all of this city, and the others if the 13 levies burst open? And we lived literally, just steps away from one of them...
Today, watching CNN and all the other world news channels, we see what can happen, as tens, if not hundreds of thousands have lost their homes that they have worked for all of their lives and sacrificed so much for...
They lost have their pets, their neighbors and precious lifelong friends, in the blink of an eye. Worst than anything, many of them have lost their families. Some have drowned right in their own homes trying to escape the rushing waters. Bodies are rotting in the summer heat, and those that aren't, the rats are destroying those bodies that are still waiting to be removed. People are enduring post-traumatic stress as they wander from place to place, in unbearable conditions.
Then too, what about those suffering in the hospitals? Those that were in surgery or urgently needing it? Those without their medication? I am a diabetic (for example), and know what it is like to go into shock, but at least I know, for now in any case, that there is a neighbor, that my doctor is a phone call away. That the hospital is there. But what if, suddenly, there were no doctors, no nurses, and we were out those things that we take so much for granted? What then?
Katrina uprooted even the graveyards, caskets and skeletons found everywhere... One man in passing a cemetery saw his former boss's casket. They had just buried him about a month ago...
Disease is spreading like wildfire as there is less and less drinkable water, no sanitary conditions, and waste and sewage if flooding onto the streets. Not to think of the alligators and snakes... It is a sheer fight for survival at this point, it appears like it is not going to get any better...at least not soon.
Babies are dying in their mothers arms, people are breaking down under the strain of all of this... And those that have always been up to no good, the lawless ones, are robbing more than ever. They have stolen guns, and are shooting at people, raping women and it goes on and on when a disaster of this magnitude hits.
America has never really had a refugee problem. But now it does. One friend of mine from Helsinki recently wrote about Katrina: The (so-called) greatest and most powerful country in the world... now not so powerful". I thought to myself: "Who can stand without God?" Even with Him, it does not guarantee that our lives will be trouble free But what do people do without hope? How can we live without it?
For the elderly, those that are somehow surviving, what will become of them? The young can always re-build and somehow have their lives head of them. Those that are still alive. But this is not a situation that will rectify itself in 5 years. It is obvious that it will take decades, if not longer, for that part of the world to have any kind of "normalcy" again...
With the erosion of the soil that the hurricane has done, it is likely that one day, there will not even be a city of New Orleans, as it was already built below sea level...
For many decades, there have been warning signs about the levies for example. New Orléans has already faced something like this before, but not to this degree. But they knew and the government knew, but did nothing. The levies, themselves, many years ago, were only designed to hold back a "level 3" hurricane. Katrina was a "level 5" and beyond...
There seems to be no greater time in the history of the world, than now, to practice what we preach. Not just practicing it "over there", but right here where we are. If one has ever believed in the power of prayer, now is the time for it. We may not be able to help in practical ways for the victims, but we can pray. That doesn't cost a thing.
Many have told me here over the years, as we have read and watched on the News about the horrific things that are happening, not just in the States, but in other areas of the world that: "Finland is safe. No harm can come to us..." Are we so sure? I would look at them in amazement, as if they thought that we in Finland have reached Utopia? Have we forgotten the Winter War and the grief and heartache it caused us? Have we forgotten so easily, everything else this country has endured to get to the point that it is today?
Are we not watching what is happening with the weather even in our own land? And what about the tsunami? And oh yeah, HELLO!.... the typhoon NOW in China?! These are just two examples.
In a one of a kind Book, that I tend to read over and over, It says that there is no safe place, except in the arms of our Father. I am finding out more and more, that everything that Book says, is so very true. This Bestseller teaches us likewise, to work while it is still day, because night is coming soon, when no man or woman can work...
We have often heard the english expression: "God's Speed!" To that I say "yes and amen", concerning all of those who lives have been devastated by this catastrophe. We need a supernatural miracle from Above more than ever. If you have never said "Thank You!" to the Big Man in the sky, for all you are blessed with, then is there a better moment than now to do it? Tomorrow may be too late.
Did you know that the name Katrina means: To purify?
Christian-Charles de Plicque, journalistÖsterbottningen Tidning www.osterbottningen.fi
Karleby Finland www.deplicque.net
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