Everything is relative. Back in June in Castlegar we had a torrential down pour that lasted for days at a time. At the apex, I remember driving around on streets covered with water and vehicles hydro-planing everywhere. For those people who had water damage in their basements and storm damage to their properties, it was certainly no picnic.
But compared to what is happening on the east coast of the United States, our little storm was nothing.
Already, Hurricane Sandy, the so-called Frankenstorm, has left millions without power and caused at least 40 deaths. The expected cost is an estimated $60 billion in property damage and lost business.
There was also an earthquake off the west coast of British Columbia in Haida Gwaii, the former Queen Charlotte Islands. That quake measured 7.7 on the Richter Scale and prompted tsunami warnings on northern Vancouver Island.
With the rising popularity of Facebook, twitter, and the internet, pictures and stories of disasters become wide spread much faster. This is both good – help can arrive faster – and bad – some people have taken to putting up fake pictures from the storm.
At any rate, I’m not about to remind people about the Mayan prophecies. However, these recent catastrophies should remind people to be prepared in case of emergencies which always seem to strike when we are ill equiped to handle them.
