Global warming from under the bed
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- May 14, 2024
- 601
Rising oceans are a real concern. I have two family members who live on the East Coast, and they love it. So far there hasn’t been a real danger for either of them, but global warming is not going away, and the next big hurricane that blows ashore promises to unleash even more damage to our homes and cities than previous ones.
Admittedly, I am a bit of a worrywart, especially where family and friends are concerned. But it does appear we are getting hit by more hurricanes than in the past. Such storms never seemed to bother Taller Half. In fact, the night we were hit by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, a Category 5 hurricane, Taller Half told me not to worry, turned over and was soon
snoring.
The dog and I weren’t so lucky. As the wind blew louder and stronger, the dog and I got so nervous we crawled under the bed and stayed there all night. It wasn’t very comfortable, but that was the best we could do to calm our nerves.
Taller Half was raised in Central Florida and experienced many storms. Of course, in Central Florida the storms had calmed down a bit before they got to where Taller Half and his family lived. Their home was in a lovely area on a big lake. We often took our family down to visit their grandparents. Our children loved to play and swim in that lake.
I learned to stand guard once I learned alligators lived in that lake. Once I grabbed our little ones and took them up to great-grandmother’s house because I kept seeing a slow-moving wake further out from our swimming area. I got laughed at and called a “silly city girl” when I made our children get out of the water. However, about 30 minutes later, a relative close to the beach called us and said come take a look. On the beach in front of her house was a 9-foot alligator lying on the sand right where our little children had been playing. After that, I was no longer called the “silly city girl!”
Back to global warming: As our lakes and rivers get warmer, more alligators will expand their territory. They are already showing up along the coasts of Georgia and South and North Carolina. They’ve even been seen swimming in a few of the rivers in those states. Watch out, Virginia!