Rafe Colburn comments: “I’m always amazed when people who live and work on barrier islands are shocked at the damage that hurricanes do. Barrier islands are just big piles of sand that ordinarily migrate up and down the coast with changes in weather and currents, and yet we brilliant human being insist upon building things on them and doing our best to make them stay in one place. I know people love to live on the beach, but the price of that is periodic utter destruction.” rc3

I feel the same way when I hear people bemoan what they’ve lost in the latest flood without considering whether they should continue to live on the floodplain; and those devastated in the California mudslides and brushfires, etc. etc… We forget we still ought to be humbled by the more formidable displays of nature’s grandeur and power.