Storms, Zombies, and a Sustainable Future (Karen's Letter: February 2013)
karenchristensen.substack.com
It began to snow as we drove down the long stretch of Route 183 where there is no cellphone signal and you’d think you were in the middle of a western wilderness instead of in the most densely populated region of the United States. My son and daughter and I were going to have supper with Bill (William H.) McNeill, who lives in a Connecticut village about half an hour’s drive from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The big picnic basket on the back seat was packed with the makings of a Chinese meal: dumpling wrappers, two kinds of filling, and some spicy sauce. As we passed isolated houses glittering with Christmas lights, we talked about living in a world of extreme weather and how we should prepare for the stormy times ahead. Within the past 18 months, there have been three major storms in the northeast of the United States. In August 2011, a hurricane ripped up roads and rerouted rivers in the mountains of Vermont and the Adirondacks. In October 2011, two feet of soft snow took out power across a great swathe of the region, stopping train travel for days. I will never forget driving to Newark Airport the next day to make a flight to Beijing, an eerie pre-dawn trip through upstate New York where there were no lights at all, anywhere, and no food or gasoline to be had. And in October 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck New York City and the surrounding region, flooding lower Manhattan, leaving millions without power, and thousands homeless.
Storms, Zombies, and a Sustainable Future (Karen's Letter: February 2013)
Storms, Zombies, and a Sustainable Future…
Storms, Zombies, and a Sustainable Future (Karen's Letter: February 2013)
It began to snow as we drove down the long stretch of Route 183 where there is no cellphone signal and you’d think you were in the middle of a western wilderness instead of in the most densely populated region of the United States. My son and daughter and I were going to have supper with Bill (William H.) McNeill, who lives in a Connecticut village about half an hour’s drive from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The big picnic basket on the back seat was packed with the makings of a Chinese meal: dumpling wrappers, two kinds of filling, and some spicy sauce. As we passed isolated houses glittering with Christmas lights, we talked about living in a world of extreme weather and how we should prepare for the stormy times ahead. Within the past 18 months, there have been three major storms in the northeast of the United States. In August 2011, a hurricane ripped up roads and rerouted rivers in the mountains of Vermont and the Adirondacks. In October 2011, two feet of soft snow took out power across a great swathe of the region, stopping train travel for days. I will never forget driving to Newark Airport the next day to make a flight to Beijing, an eerie pre-dawn trip through upstate New York where there were no lights at all, anywhere, and no food or gasoline to be had. And in October 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck New York City and the surrounding region, flooding lower Manhattan, leaving millions without power, and thousands homeless.