When I went to look at my blogs and realized it has been nearly a month since I posted something, I was a little shocked. The last few weeks since I returned from the NFA have been a blur; trying to get caught back up at home and at work evolved into a lot of planning and gathering information and talking with other US&R professionals around the nation as we had to deal first with Gustav and then with Hanna. And it's not over yet with Ike and Tina- no, sorry, Josephine - on deck.

I'm not kidding when I say I have been trading hats on an hourly basis around here for the past week; one minute having to work as the Task Force Liaison and talking with other state US&R representatives to plan response operations, to working with others to understand the mass of paperwork and cost analysis required for pre-deployment documentation, to then helping our own task force get ready to go to the Gulf. Then, just as a deployment there was imminent, along came Hanna, pointed right at my home on Hilton Head Island. Then it was the planning and plotting associated with what would happen if this storm hit our resort island with an average daily population of 110,000; working with our other great chief and company officers at our department to determine our needs and how we would handle things. Of course, there's also the stress of getting my own family away to safety, but weighing it with the needs for my wife's new business, making sure that her showroom and warehouse was secure and ready if we called for an evacuation (since I wouldn't be available to help once the order was decided upon).

So now in the relative calm of Hanna moving on up the coast, I keep the rest of you above us in our prayers and hope Hanna spares you all like she spared us, but with a watchful eye to the south at the two others moving along, like silent trains toward their final destination, knowing we could be on their list somewhere. I think it sounds like I will leave shift in the morning and walk with my family to the beach. (What good is taking the risk of living this close to it if we don't go and enjoy it?) Inside me I'm just hoping that on Monday, that Ike and Josephine (isn't that a blues duet?) either head out to sea or find something else creative to do with all of that energy. Something tells me, however, that come Monday morning, I'll be back at it again, just like this week, in one way or another.

When my daughter asks me why there are hurricanes, since I have been involved intimately with them for so many years, I have a few stories to tell. I have heard that despite all of the destruction, hurricanes hold a vital place in the regeneration of our environment, between the rainfall, and other means. When it comes to Emma, though, that's not enough, so I telll her the story of an old man I met while deployed to Katrina. When I was helping him move a box, I said aloud, "You know, sometimes I wonder what God is thinking when He creates these monsters." The old man looked at me and smiled. He said, "I think God knows what he is doing. I lost everything, but I never would have known the love of so many people had it not been for this storm. I never would have known this many people cared for one another. I think that's what God wants us to know."

When a man who has had his belongings scattered into Lake Ponchartain and his meager home reduced to a slab with a pile of 2x4 matchsticks on top of it tells me that he's okay with God's plan as has been somewhat brutally executed, I guess I need to be okay with it too. Somewhat skeptical at times, I'll admit, but I guess okay with it. But that's part of being a Dad, I guess, as well. I need to reassure my children that so long as we have each other, and our love for one another, then really, the loss of all of our earthly possessions is pretty insignificant, when compared to those who have lost much more.

So with that, be prepared and may God be with all of you in the path of all of these storms, and every other storm we encounter. Let your family know how much you love them, and remember, it's really all down to the perspective you have on the situation as to the lesson you will take out of it.