I think...no...I know that the world is going crazy. Figure this: by the time that we reached the 14th of January, two huge natural disasters had already made global news. 22 people are now confirmed dead in Australia due to the worst case of flooding in generations, and this death toll is almost certainly going to rise considering the fact that cleanup is well under way and yet there are 9 people still missing. After a week of seeing devastating images of families in Queensland perched on roof tops of cars being swept away by currents, I was shocked to hear on the 13th of January, approximately 500 people had perished in more floods in Brazil. Floods of ‘biblical proportions.’ It seems that The Day after tomorrow isn’t actually that far away. For some reason, be it us humans with our CO2 emissions, or just some angry higher power up in the sky, our world is getting more and more volatile.
Luckily, where I live there is a great lack of crazy weather phenomena. When the word ‘hurricane’ is used to describe UK weather, it tends to result in nothing more than a few dislodged roof tiles and maybe even a fallen tree. But it just makes me wonder...the snow in the winter of 2010 was enough to bring the entire country to a standstill. The six inches of fluffy white stuff in Kent caused people to flock to Tesco in order to stock up on powdered milk and potatoes as if preparing for a nuclear war. Trying to get a train/bus/taxi was futile, and I honestly couldn’t see why. A few days before Christmas, the snow was particularly bad and I was sent home from work. On my 14 mile drive home in my tiny, blue Polo (called Viv), I was dumbstruck to see huge Jeeps and Landrovers pulled over on the side of the road, their drivers too nervous about venturing on in such ‘treacherous’ conditions. I trundled past them, admittedly smug-faced. To be honest, driving in the snow is a piece of cake. You just need to, well, not be a moron.
If a bit of frozen water falling from the sky managed to cause such a debacle, then what would happen if something actually serious hit us? We watch the news in amazement and sorrow, and thank our lucky stars that such devastation probably won’t happen to us...through natural causes anyway. However, as time moves forward and freak weather becomes increasingly common, it becomes more and more likely that something big is coming our way...and when it does, just how well prepared will we be?