Praying for Everyone Impacted by Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene unleashed its fury across the Southeast after leaving at least 49 people dead in multiple states, leveling communities, knocking out power and stranding many in floodwaters following the historic storm’s landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane.
Living in Columbia, SC for the last 40 years I've become accustomed to hurricane season each year probably in a similar manner that others who live in other regions of the world have their specific natural disaster risks.
More times than not though these "uniquely named storms" seem to miss us and go somewhere else. So while from a percentage perspective those who are directly impacted by these devastations is statistically a small number, the damage is very real and in many cases can permanently changes lives.
Even take lives in some cases.
Science has significantyly improved during the past few decades with weather forecasting and storm tracking models. For this I am grateful for.
But to be perfectly honest when I was completing my undergraduate studies at the University of South Carolina in the mid 1980s I and most of my friends never took the hurricane storm warnings very seriously. In fact, we used the occasions to have hurricane parties...
Call us naive, young, and dumb I guess.
Then there was "the big one" that changed everything for me.
Hurricane Hugo in 1989 was predicted several days in advance to be a "big one." By then I had completed MBA school and was in the working world.
I remember vividly hearing the warnings and wondering why people were going to the grocery stores and filling their cars up with gas. I mean we were 100 miles from the coast and thought surely that was far enough to be safe.
Well long story short, it wasn't.
Much of the South Carolina coast was completely destroyed. Hugo's devastation was widespread much like Helene's.
Columbia experienced wind gusts upwards of 140 mph. I thought the roof was going to blow off the house I was in that dark scary night.
I remember co-workers loading up their trucks with chainsaws, food, water, and other supplies saying they had family on the coast and they were heading there not knowing when they'd be back.
Much of the same occurs every time a major storm like this hits anywhere in the world.
The cost of destruction is typically estimated in the billions of dollars but I always wonder and think it's probably higher.
So I when I heard earlier this week that Helene could be coming our way I took it seriously and kept a watchful eye on the reports.
Many people in its path experienced varying degrees of loss. Some were total including those who lost their lives.
By relative comparison, Columbia was spared the worst but that's not to confuse the fact that its damage was severe and lasting.
Ultimately though, I'm asking you to join me in praying for all of those affected by this most recent natural disaster.
Tom Winterstein
ChartPros Founder
