The sweet spot.....

I know I'm jinxing myself and everybody living here, but of all the places I could have ended up living in the South East, it seems that I ended up in "the sweet spot". Last year, this state was crisscrossed with fairly powerful hurricanes, and even the panhandle got a healthy hit. The damage and effect on millions of lives was extensive, and yet it pales in comparison to what Katrina did to the Gulf Coast. Yet, the Jacksonville area of Florida has largely been spared from a direct hit by a hurricane for the longest time. They always hit further down, or veer up and nail the carolinas, but North East Florida seems to be blessed. However, I know this area is just bucking the odds, and it can only be a matter of time before a storm with our name on it decides we deserve a long overdue visit.
I thought I knew what it was like to be in the middle of the worst of the worst. Hurricane Camille, all told, was actually a much more powerful storm than Katrina was at it's worst. However, this storm managed to produce a storm surge that was even worse than the one Camille produced. The fact that New Orleans suffered so badly was mostly due to the fact that the city has been living on borrowed time, and time caught up with it. They have been warning us all along that the dikes were just not going to be able to keep the sea out forever, not with the city constantly sinking and the Mississippi River trying to reclaim it's right of way. Mississippi back in the day when The Michael was 14 years old was about as third world as you could come by in this nation, and the fact that the population has grown tremendously since then has not improved it's overall economic ranking; Mississippi is still ranked near the bottom of all states when it comes to income and social service levels. So, now there were alot more people and buildings in the way this time around so of course the devastation was more extensive.....there was more stuff in the way.
The response to Camille was immediate. Even in the backwoods we received lots of food and clothing aid, and as it turns out, there where actually as many if not more deaths from the storm from the rain it dumped far into the interior of the country. I woke up the next morning to a different world. And now it's so much like dejavu...........only on television.
I am sitting here in the sweet spot wondering if the people in this country will finally get a clue as to just how incompetent this administration is, and has been. The only thing "Homeland Security" seems to be good at is issuing colorful alerts every now and then as to the chances a terrorist got loose somewhere in America. But when the true terror hits, what happens? You are witnessing first hand what happens, my friends. Ignore the truth at your own peril. You've done it now for 6 years, and the crows came home to roost. Those of you who reelected howdy doody deserve the consequences. But not the rest of us.