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Fool that I am, I normally do not worry much about
hurricanes. I have come through a few. During my years of
living on the coast, I evacuated in the face of oncoming storms
along with everyone else. I still have a home on Hilton Head
Island to which I hope to retire one day, so I hope it does not
get wiped out by wind or water. But Hilton Head has not been hit
by a hurricane in over 100 years, so I have become blasé. But
this one worried me. This one was powerful enough and wide
enough to do major damage without ever reaching land. It could
just skirt the coastline on its northward journey and act like a
giant weed-eater swirling away huge chunks of coastal Florida,
Georgia, and the Carolinas...including my little house. Not a
happy prospect.
As the storm drew nearer, a Sheila Watson of Charleston, SC
wrote to friends on the internet with a prayer request:
I would ask for prayers from each of you, not that we
are spared (that's as silly and fruitless as asking to
be spared from hurts in life) but that we find courage
and strength to make it through. Specifically, please
pray:
Other than those specifics, pray as the Spirit moves
you. If Floyd takes a different turn (you can't trust
these storms), apply the prayers above to the people
wherever it does hit.(1) In the face of Hurricane Floyd's threat, Sheila, her family,
and two to three million people (depending upon whose estimates
you hear) headed inland - the largest peacetime evacuation in
American history - clogging highways with more traffic than they
were ever designed to handle and creating gigantic ribbon-shaped
parking lots. The next evening (Wednesday), Sheila would write
again:
Probably so. Fortunately, the catastrophe that could easily
have occurred did not. Floyd weakened as it moved north, so by
the time it made landfall at Cape Fear, it was only a strong
category 2 storm, and much less dangerous than it had been
earlier.
Of course, as we in North Carolina know, a good deal of
damage WAS done, most of it from flooding. According to news
reports, the storm left at least 20 people dead, a number which everyone expects to rise. Hundreds of
homes along the coast and inland have been destroyed - property
and crop damage is in the billions. More than 200,000 folks are still
without power this morning. Whole cities have turned into brown
lakes. And the water could cover much of eastern North Carolina
for a while to come - some rivers are not projected to crest for
several days. President Clinton is scheduled to tour the
devastated areas tomorrow. Governor Hunt has declared this
weekend a time of prayer statewide for hurricane victims.
And pray we have, and pray we will. Meanwhile, here we sit.
Relatively unscathed. In the safety and peace of a church
sanctuary on a beautiful late summer day. And we reflect. Where
is God in all this? People have long called hurricanes and other
like events an "act of God." The Bible suggests so. The prophet
Ezekiel believed that God used tremendous storms as a weapon to
punish the unrighteous: "Thus says the Lord GOD: In my wrath I
will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be
a deluge of rain, and hailstones in wrath..."(3) Likewise the
Psalmist catalogues those elements of the natural world that
follow God's commands: "fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy
wind..."(4) The most famous of all the stories is Noah and the
flood.(5) The biblical view is simply this: God controls this
world...and that means nature too.
The story of Noah leads some folks to believe that God uses
nature as a weapon. Ten years ago, that eminent theologian,
Tammy Faye Bakker declared that Hurricane Hugo's destructive
visit to Charlotte was God's vengeance on the city for the mean
treatment Jim Bakker got in the pages of the Charlotte Observer
(although she never explained why the steeple of First
Presbyterian Church was damaged but nothing happened to the
newspaper building). Last year televangelist Pat Robertson
warned that the city of Orlando might well get a direct hit by a
hurricane because it permitted the display of rainbow flags out
of respect for gay people. Said Robertson, "I would warn Orlando
that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes and I
don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were
you."(6) Robertson does have some experience with hurricanes - in
the days leading up to his presidential candidacy in the late
'80's, a hurricane headed toward his headquarters on Virginia
Beach. Pat said he prayed that the storm would be diverted, and
it was (it made landfall at some neighboring city). He never did
explain though, why, if his prayer was so powerful, he did not
just pray that the storm head harmlessly out to sea. If you see
Pat, ask him.
Why do we have hurricanes? Hurricanes arrive, not because
God is out to get some sinful city, but because the prevailing
winds, ocean currents and frontal zones combine in ways that
create them. This is so in good times and bad and without
respect to the moral climate or condition of the people who
happen to be living in a storm's path. Jesus made it plain. We
remember it in the venerable phrasing of the King James Version:
"[God] maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
It is interesting that that statement occurs in the context
of Jesus' teaching on love: "You have heard that it was said,
'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to
you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so
that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes
his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and on the unrighteous." The point, of course, is that
God cares about ALL of us, even those we might not be getting
along with at the moment.
We can add to that those we do not even know, and that is
one of those wonderful side effects of disasters like Hurricane
Floyd. The Governor called for prayers for the victims of the
storm. We will do even more. In addition to our prayers,
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is rushing $50,000 from the One
Great Hour of Sharing offering to both New Hope and Coastal
Carolina presbyteries and stands ready to provide additional
financial assistance as damage assessments become available. As
soon as the flood waters recede, volunteer work teams will be
dispatched for clean-up, repair, and rebuilding. People WILL
reach out to other people. Good.
I remain convinced that God's hand IS in the midst of events
like Hurricane Floyd - not managing the weather but managing
human response. There are stories of true heroism - the U.S.
Navy crews who rescued eight men Wednesday who had abandoned
their sinking tugboat and were being hurled about by monster
waves 300 miles east of Daytona Beach. Three survivors who
became separated from the life raft launched shortly before the
tug sank were picked up first by helicopters from the aircraft
carrier John F. Kennedy. The helicopters then refueled and
returned to the scene to pick up the other five men, who were in
the raft riding out huge waves.(7) The only word to describe it is
heroic. Those men were doomed. No doubt we will hear more
heroic stories in the days ahead.
There are other stories as well, not so dramatic, but just
plain wonderful. Roger Kiser of Brunswick, Georgia, who writes
occasionally for an inspirational web site called
Heartwarmers4u.com recounted the experience he and his family had
in his evacuation from the coast. He writes:
Suddenly I noticed a woman and her friend stranded along
the road with their hood raised. Their car had overheated.
People were jumping from their cars and dropping off gallons of
their own drinking water to the woman. As we passed, giving her
another gallon of water, the woman was pouring water into her
radiator when it spewed back into her face scalding her on the
side of the head. Immediately three or four strangers jumped
from their slow moving cars to rush to her assistance, offering
her towels, and several men came over to cool her radiator for
her.
Another mile or so down the road a trucker came on the
radio and asked if there was anyone who could tell him where he
could stop and get a soft drink -- he had nothing to drink as all
the stores were sold out of beverages or closed. A voice
responded and asked him his location. He replied that he was
passing road marker 19. The voice came in response and told him to
look on sign post 21 when he drove by it. Suddenly horns started
blowing which could be heard for miles. As we passed marker 21
there sat a cold refreshing Mountain Dew on top the marker.
People who would ordinarily be pushed to their limits were
jumping from their vehicles trying to help anyone and everyone
they could. When we finally arrived in Waycross nine hours later
(a drive that would normally take about 35 minutes) we had
nowhere to go as all the motels for three states were full. We
slept in the automobiles with all the animals. It was also one
of the most restless nights I have ever encountered but we made
the best of it.
The next morning we arose at about six o'clock and just
stood around with thousands of other stranded people. It was
cold, cloudy and the wind was blowing at about 45 miles per hour.
Along comes the local electric company, asking us if we need any
help finding a local shelter. We could not go to a shelter
because we had animals and we were not about to leave our pets,
even if it meant warmth and hot food. There were no restaurants
open for fifty miles so there was no hot food and we could not
find any bread as all the stores were sold out. So we just ate
what we could and made the best of it.
Several hours later an African American woman drove up and
stopped where we were huddled and said, "I know you do not know
me from Adam but I would like to invite you to my home to take a
hot shower and clean up if you wish." [We WISHED!]...
When the authorities gave the all clear, we headed back to
our warm sweet home. Yes, it was a bad and dangerous experience
and one that I never wish to repeat. But the strong winds that
were ahead of us yesterday were the winds of kindness,
friendship, courtesy and love. Not even the dangerous winds of
this deadly hurricane could ever change the determination, the
fortitude or the compassion of the wonderful people who make this
country as great as it is. AMERICA, I am so proud of you!"(8) Amen? Amen. Mark Twain once said, "The rain is famous for
falling on the just and unjust alike, but if I had the management
of such affairs, I would rain softly and sweetly on the just, but
if I caught a sample of the unjust outdoors, I would drown him."(9)
I would say Amen to that too!
Yes, we have had a scary few days, but Floyd is gone now.
Thank God. But another will come...and another and another.
Such is the cycle of nature. Where will God be? Right where God
always is. In the words of Isaiah, "When you pass through the
waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU."(10) Hallelujah!
Amen!
1. Posted by Bass Mitchell, via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1999 09 21," #17, 9/14/99 2. Sheila Watson, via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1999 09 21," #42, 9/15/99 3. Ezekiel 13:13 4. Psalm 148:8 5. Genesis 6-9 6. Quoted by Charles Henderson, http://christianity.about.com/library/weekly/mcurrent.htm 7. NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, 9/16/99 8. http://dispatch.mail-list.com/archives/heartwarmers/msg00421.html 9. Quoted in The Joyful Noiseletter, April, 1991, p. 5 10. Isaiah 43:2
Yesterday we headed inland to Rock Hill, SC (near
Charlotte). It took 10 hours to go what should have
taken 3 hours. It took 2 hours just to get off the
island where I live. The traffic jam on the interstate
is horrendous. The bad thing is that in the next
hurricane, people will remember spending hours (some
the entire night) on I-26 and will not evacuate...In
addition to the specific prayers I asked for yesterday,
I ask also that you pray for people to survive the
evacuation. This is nuts. It wasn't until after dark
that the governor allowed the east-bound lanes of the
interstate to be reversed so people could get out more
easily. Who designed this infrastructure anyway? You
might need to pray harder for our sense of humor to
stay intact.(2)
Traffic was so backed up that we never traveled more than
six miles per hour nor did we ever move forward more than 500
feet without having to stop. I reached over and turned on the CB
radio to see if there was an accident ahead.
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