Hurricanes VS Tornados

This week we are covered by the clouds of Hurricane Paula. She is blowing on Cancun and looks like Paula is heading toward Havana. You may think those places are so far away. They are in other countries.

Miami is completely tied to our neighbors in the Caribbean, Central America, South America. We are tied economically. Miami was named the capital of South America in a business publication. We are tied by blood. It can't be much of an exaggeration to say that everyone here has family members in a neighboring country. We are tied by weather. We are often reminded by the clouds over head. The same storm raining on us is raining on our neighbors even on another continent. 

Last week, it was a joy to see an old friend from high school. She and her family live in Wichita, not far from where we grew up. The economy has been hard on the aircraft industry and Wichita is the world's leading producer of aircraft. I, of course, encouraged her to move near me. I think most of the groovy people in the world live in Miami and therefore any groovy people not living here, ought to move here.

She responded she wanted no part of hurricane season and would rather deal with a tornado. Even though I pointed out there is no preparation for a tornado. Oklahoma and Kansas have so many tornados it is known as Tornado Alley. Kansas is famous for the tornado in The Wizard of Oz. Tornados have the reputation for taking out one house and leaving another one standing next to it. Often they cut a path straight through a town, destroying everything they touch, but can leave the other side of a street seemingly untouched.  In an awful twist of theology, many refer to tornados as if they are the "finger of God" sticking down through the clouds.

Hurricanes, however, affect the entire county/city/state/region. My mom and dad who grew up with tornados in Oklahoma, lived in Miami during the 2005 season of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.  Like so many who are familiar with tornados, it takes a while to understand just how big a hurricane storm is. It is a giant storm. We had so many that season, they ran out of names and used the letters of the Greek alphabet to name them. One of those knocked out the electricity so that more electric customers in the state of Florida were without power than had power.

In reality every natural disaster has its role to play in shaping our communities. They expose our lack of preparation, our prejudices, our greed. They also bring people together and show off our gifts, talents and abilities to care for one another. Neighbors help each other with shutters ahead of time, or clean up afterward. We grieve together. We celebrate together.  We build together. The shared experience may be the only good thing about a hurricane.

Today let's pray for our sisters and brothers in the Yucatan and the people of western Cuba.