Friday Five: Floods & Droughts

Sally at RevGalBlogPals asks:

Here in the UK we are struggling with floods, other parts of the world have similar problems without the infrastructure to cope with it, still others are badly affected by drought.... My son Jon is in Melbourne Australia where apparently it has been snowing ( yes it is winter but still!).... With crazy weather in mind I bring you this weeks Friday 5...

1. Have you experienced living through an extreme weather event- what was it and how did you cope?

In my five summers of work at Carol Joy Holling Camp in Nebraska I lived through a lot of thunderstorms and such. I've seen a tornado with my naked eye once. I watched a blizzard bury my uncle's Ford Escort one Thanksgiving. But I've never been through something life-threatening like a drought, a flood or even a killing heat wave. Hopefully I never will.

LATER NOTE: I can't believe I forgot this. On October 15 1997, Lincoln, NE was hit with 15 inches of snow overnight. I started the evening watching NU play Kansas at LutheranHusker's apartment, then drove home in light snow, thinking, "Gosh, that's odd - even for Nebraska!" Imagine our shock when we woke up the next morning to a winter wonderland. We'd had a late fall, so most of the leaves were still green and on the trees, which of course meant downed branches all over town. It literally looked like a war zone: streets blocked by trees and snow and power out all over the place. We didn't have classes at the University for three days and the elementary and high schools were out for a week. I think it was Tuesday before my roommates and I could drive away from our house. We watched more movies than I can count and without beer and Kraft Mac & Cheese we never would have survived the storm. The sad thing is what forced us to leave the house: we had all run out of cigarettes. :-)

2. How important is it that we wake up to issues such as global warming?

More important than we can imagine. I knew this was the case even before we watched An Inconvenient Truth this week. The fact that we're out of the Kyoto protocols in, in my opinion, an unconscionable shirking of our responsibility as the greatest pollution creating country on the planet. Frankly, I don't care about the economics because, as Al Gore noted, the planetary concerns are greater beyond comparison.

3. The Christian message needs to include stewardship of the earths resources agree/ disagree?

AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE.

And because it is summer- on a brighter note....
4. What is your favourite season and why?

I'm an autumnal kind of guy. I love the days when the leaves are changing, I need a sweatshirt in the morning and it's just crisp outside. Football is in the air and the combines are in the field harvesting grain. For me, there's no better time to live than October.

5. Describe your perfect vacation weather....

Cool mornings - I mean 50 degrees or so, on the deck of "our cabin" at the resort on the shore of Lake Superior. Cool enough that my cup of coffee keeps my hands warm. Sunny skies and low 70s for the day, just a touch of a breeze. A brilliant sunset at night, which we can see reflected in the Lake as we sit by the fire and snuggle.