Tornadoes vs Hurricanes – Part #2
We lived in the early 1990s in New Orleans. Oh yea, I’ve already told you that.
As a recap, we lived in New Orleans when the hurricane Andrew hit the US in the early 1990s. Because of the storm moving through the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, we had several days warning and to try to go to the store and get emergency supplies of things like batteries and flashlights.
Andrew did make landfall in Louisiana in a sparsely populated area and, while there was some storm damage, wasn’t as catastrophic as everyone was worried about at the time. The next day, we tried leaving our neighborhood to check and found roads with tree limbs blocking and returned home to wait the cleanup.
Here is where the story picks up again. I worked at a good size company in what was called the CBD or central business district (downtown) of New Orleans. The company didn’t officially close since there was no extensive damage but about half the employees came in to work and the other half called in to say they weren’t coming in. The President of the company got mad and decided to penalize those that didn’t come in by making them use a vacation day or take a day without pay. This lasted about a week until the voices crying for reasonableness made him change to giving an extra day off to those that came in instead of the penalty for those that didn’t.
You may have heard that New Orleans is below sea level and, because of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, is effectively like a big bowl in that water comes in and has no place to go without being pumped out. Pumps work great until they break down or are overwhelmed by the quantity of water needing to be pumped out.
To make matters worse, where we lived was reclaimed swamp land so it was even lower than other areas. Lake Pontchartain is a huge lake but isn’t very deep (only about 15 feet at deepest). One of the scenarios, that we didn’t know about ahead of time, was if the hurricane hit the coast at the Mississippi River, traveled up the river and eventually landed in Lake Pontchartain, our house could have been under 18 feet of water being totally submerged. Many people proactively left the area before Andrew hit due to this possibility. We were too young and stupid to understand this risk and stayed.
Fortunately for us and everyone else in the area, the storm didn’t land in this manner and as I’ve said, the damage was minimal.
“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” - Matthew 8:24-26 ESV
“O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.” - Jeremiah 16:19
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” - Psalm 23:1-6
Does this give you a new insight into tornados that we occasionally experience around here?
