Thinking about eartquakes and storms and floods. Feeling thankful to live in quieter weather.

 It rained in the night. I heard it on the skylight windows but it’s not been heavy enough to clean off the Sahara sand and dust from over a week ago. I ran in the rain again this morning. Well, it was more drizzle than rain, not wet enough to put you off running but enough to make a light rain jacket necessary. By midday the sky was largely clear, not as clear blue as yesterday but still a big improvement on the start of the day. Typical English weather with several seasons in one day. 

We shouldn’t complain about our weather when we consider what other places have to put up with: for example, earthquakes in Morocco where some of those affected live in such remote places that it has been difficult for rescuers to reach them. We take our travel and communication so much for granted (even when we moan about problems with buses) that we tend to forget that there are parts of the world where people live in small villages that are difficult to reach at the best of times, let alone when a natural disaster strikes.

Then there have been huge floods in Greece. Photos of people on their first floor balconies while flood water is only inches below them show what Storm Daniel was capable of. For many people here in the UK, of course, the big thing has been whether their holiday to Skiathos can still go ahead. 

And Storm Daniel went on and caused even greater chaos. For some reason when I heard about the floods in Libya I had not put two and two together and had not realised it was the same storm at the root of the problem. But according to this article humans are responsible for the disaster as much as, if not more than, the storm. And it’s not just climate change, which might be (undoubtedly is, in my unscientific view) contributing to the odd and extreme weather we’ve been having. (I’m pretty sure, also in my unscientific view, that we humans are largely responsible for climate change too. But the Libyan disaster has certainly been exacerbated by the way the country has been misgoverned. The dams that burst had not been properly maintained, for one thing. In this specific instance, the authorities knew that storm Daniel had wreaked havoc in Greece and was on its way to Libya. They could have evacuated the city of Derna before it was washed into the sea. People would have lost their homes and belongings but they would not have died in the tens of thousands. But they didn’t evacuate the city. Apparently some were told categorically to stay at home. 

And now bodies are being washed up on the shore. Rescue workers are appealing for body bags because there are so many bodies that there is now fear of disease as well. Some of the missing people may never be reported missing because whole families have been lost. There’s nobody left to report those lost. 

And we can send aid but we should not forget that our government was a party to the meddling that went on and brought about regime change, and not necessarily for the better. And much of our Western meddling all over the place has all been to do with oil supplies. Maybe the internal combustion engine should never have been invented. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!