“…the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth…”

(Genesis 7:11 & 12)

(Thurs PM 11/12/09) Over the past forty-eight hours, relentless torrential rains have inundated eastern Virginia. Meteorologists confirm these turbulent configurations are remnants of Hurricane Ida, which came ashore on the Gulf Coast this past weekend. During the early part of this week, this fierce tempest gathered strength and emerged along the Atlantic seaboard, there to fuse with a Northeastern weather front.

These two fronts, the one from the north a high-pressure system, the one from the south (the aftermath of Hurricane Ida) a low-pressure tropical depression, merged and subsequently stalled directly over coastal North and South Carolina as well as littoral Virginia, thus producing the prodigious rainfall the mid-Atlantic coast is now doggedly enduring. Weather reports forecast at least twenty-four hours more rain in this estimated seventy-two hour event. Fortunately, power has not been an issue in my present location; I have spoken to friends in the general vicinity who say the utility company has yet to restore their disrupted electrical power.

This is not unheard of in rural locales where power companies opt to service their more congested districts before dealing with outlying areas. I am sure this makes fiscal sense to them but this conduct tends to irk the country-folk. These are apt to be of meager means generally and they are used to receiving short shrift when it comes to county services. Propitiously, for my part, I live close enough to the small city of Williamsburg for this not to be of significant concern.

In 1991, another storm system coalesced in a similar fashion. Weather wits dubbed that system, The Perfect Storm, which generated a book by the same name and a subsequent movie. I survived that blustery gale on the deck of a fifty-foot shrimp boat off the coast of Belize so this event is somewhat less dramatic, at least for me. Doubtless, others have decidedly more harrowing tales to tell.

Moreover, this time I sit ensconced behind closed doors, whereas last time I was at the mercy of the elements standing astride the constantly shifting deck of the aforementioned shrimper. Suffice to say, I prefer my present circumstance although the adventure of that prior experience provided inspirational grist for the mill that is my writing. Of course, if I was to get out in the current tempest who knows what tales it might rouse or inspire me to write as the case may be.

I am loath, however, to upset my carefully contrived, sheltered sedentariness. I am snug as a bug and plan to stay that way. I have provisions for yet another day of rainfall so I will avail myself of that foresightedness and remain as I am: comfortably dry, snugly complacent and contentedly keyboard bound. I can easily envision plenty of appreciably less appealing alternatives. © Stephen Alexander 2009