By Joan Wilson

Colin asked me to republish my poem I wrote about Hurricane Ivan as it is the start of the Hurricane Season.

We must not get too comfortable in thinking it won't happen again. It WILL happen again and so far we have dodged a number of bullets recently.

So here it is. BE PREPARED!!

“IVAN” - THE TERRIBLE

By Joan (Watler) Wilson

“What?!
You going to celebrate your 70th
birthday,

But
you never heard hurricane coming our way?”

“You
joking, we never had a hurricane for years, I know

The
last big one I believe was about 60 years ago.”

*

“Well, I can tell you we’ve booked a place to celebrate

And
if Ivan is coming he better not be late

With
plenty friends and good food, we’ll sit and dine

Something
we haven’t done for a long, long time.”

*

Well,
celebration is over and we all departed

Winds
are blowing hard the hurricane has started.

Getting
through the night was very nervous indeed

Ivan
was approaching with his gear in high speed.

*

We
couldn’t do much to stop Him, we could only batten down,

Plywood
and shutter from shops all around

Talk
about chaos with queues of people scared

Hardware,
and supermarkets, gas stations everywhere.

*

Winds
picking up and bits flying overhead

“167
miles per hour,” the weatherman said,

“With
heavy gusts of 200 miles per hour and more.”

Ivan
was a category 5 hurricane not 4!

*

You
think Andrew and Gilbert were bad when they came

Ha!
Ivan put both of those hurricanes to shame!

With
5 to 10 foot of water rising downstairs

We
could do nothing but say our prayers.

*

Appliances
gone, and our gas and water mains cut

Vehicles
flooded and completely full of dirt,

Winds
still howling and our roof shaking

Still
we sat very calm and kept on praying.

*

For
almost 24 hours Ivan fury kept pounding us

Spitting
out caskets and turning metal to rust,

Big
boats anchored and thought securely tied

Wrenched free and hurtled away for almost a mile.

*

Imagine,
95% of homes were damaged

And
almost half our cars destroyed,

We
looked like a country that had suffered many wars.

Trees
down, homes down and everywhere scarred.

*

But
still we are grateful to God for sparing us

Putting
our faith in him and in him always trust

For
he is the maker of the universe he built in 7 days

So
we’ll give him all the glory and trust him always.

*

Six
weeks later the trees are all budding green

Ivan
was an experience for most of us not seen

So
pick up the pieces and live your life again

An
experience like Ivan we’re unlikely to see again.

END

I said "unlikely". I have revised my thinking. Unfortantely with the global warming I'm seriously afraid it is LIKELY.