Some days I look around me at the Rocky Mountains, the creeks and streams, the rolling green hills, the big sky and fantastical cloud formations and really feel grateful that I can live in such a beautiful area. Boulder, Colorado, surely one of the prettiest towns in one of the most majestic states in the USA.
But it’s not just here that’s pretty, it’s our planet. Really, if you take a deep breath, slow down and think about it for a minute or two, Earth is a pretty astonishing place, an extraordinary planet that offers stunning vistas, amazing sunsets, beautiful terrain and quite varied bioclimes.
Which is all the more reason why it’s painful to read of weather related and other natural tragedies like the terrible tornado that leveled the sleepy little town of Moore, Oklahoma. Man-made disasters sometimes feel like our own collective hubris or greed, but when Mother Nature just turns her wrath on us, the results can be quite devastating and deadly.
The photo above? That’s what some brave soul in Oklahoma photographed then, one hopes, ducked inside and found shelter before it arrived.
Initial reports have between 25 and 50 people killed from the Moore tornado — a tornado that was over a 1/2-mile wide, with 200mph winds — including a number of children who were taking shelter at their local elementary school, along with their teachers.
Weather happens and we can’t control it. But we’re not powerless. You can do what I did: donate a few dollars to a charity that can help get some relief to the locals, to help them try to rebuild their lives and to be able to mourn the loss of so many people from their town, so many children, without having to live in a tent or tiny FEMA trailer.
Me? I donated the equivalent of a few meals out to the American Red Cross to help them out. I can’t jump in my car and help dig out or rebuild, but I can help in just this one small way.
Now, how about you? Isn’t it your turn to help out? Just click…
