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| Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Jonathan Monken discussing Thursday's weather predicament makes things seem more ominous than they really are for most people. Photograph provided by State of Illinois |
But
let’s be honest. I really suspect that the bulk of us had our days tampered
with much less than those individuals of West, Texas – the rural town near Waco
where some fertilizer ignited and exploded.
THE
END RESULT killed or maimed a significant portion of that town of some 2,400
people.
Most
of us just had our lives inconvenienced by the rain – although I couldn’t help
but notice that The Weather Channel Thursday morning gave equal play to both
the Texas explosion AND heavy rains hitting DuPage County.
Some
of us may have got stuck on the interstate for a couple of hours – turning their
typical half-hour commute into an ordeal.
Others
may have had their basements soaked. Although for many, that happens whenever
there is a heavy rainfall. It’s not the end of the world as we know it!
IN
MY CASE, I have a stinky bathroom. Or perhaps I should say, a
stinkier-than-usual bathroom.
For
it seems that the creek that runs right by my residence did rise to
higher-than-usual levels due to the steady rainfall that began Wednesday
afternoon and was still ongoing as I write this commentary on Thursday. Weather
forecasts are predicting that Mother Nature’s waterworks will come to an end
early Friday.
Whenever
that creek level gets high, it interferes with the sewage lines in my
neighborhood. In my case, the other end of the block gets hit with flooding.
My
place usually sees the toilet bowl water levels fluctuate.
IN
THIS CASE, I woke up to the feel of cold toilet water all over the bathroom
floor. It seems the bowl overflowed sometime during the overnight hours.
My
day started out with me having to mop up the bathroom floor. A couple of other
times, I had to re-mop as more water came.
Yet
we’re not talking about large amounts of water. It does not seem to be
spreading to any other part of my humble abode. I have a smelly bathroom that I’m
probably going to have to get down on my hands and knees and scrub clean before
I’ll feel truly comfortable using again.
But
that is do-able. It is not tragedy.
SOMEHOW,
I SUSPECT my story is closer to the real-life impact – a minor inconvenience –
of Thursday’s “state of emergency” than any images people would create in their
minds.
Now
if, by chance, someone out there reading this is suffering a major calamity, I
feel for you. But it would be wrong to think that everybody is in that
situation. Which is what I remember from the date Sept. 11, 2001 – which for
many of us was merely a date on which we had to go home early from work when
city officials evacuated the Loop – “just in case” something was plotted for
Chicago too.
It
wasn’t!
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| PERRY: Oh, be quiet!!! |
The
true disaster is that aforementioned incident in West, where as I write this
some three people are dead and about 170 suffered some form of injuries. And
about 50 homes were destroyed by the explosion – which some have said had the physical
impact of the kind of bomb the military might drop on an enemy in wartime!
WHICH
OUGHT TO be the focus of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s attention these days – helping
those people in their time of need.
Instead
of trying to defend those tacky radio ads his state is spending precious tax
dollars to make ludicrous claims that the Lone Star State is a preferable place
to the Land of Lincoln in any aspect!
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