Our late summer peace disrupted once again; this one is Isaac

I hate August.  I hate the unbearable heat and the stifling humidity.  I hate that our kids are forced back to school early in the month.  And I hate the peak of the hurricane season and I hate the fact that every late August we are going to remember Katrina.

This August was feeling pretty good.  It has been remarkably quiet and this week, we actually got a very tiny hint of cooler(a relative term) and dryer good feel weather.  Twice this week I had morning lows in the sixties; a virtual impossibility in August. 

Many of us in these parts know to watch the tropics with some urgency, particularly between August 15th and September 15th.  This is always the peak of hurricane season during a usual uneventful rest of the season.  When we spotted something approaching from the Atlantic, far to the east, we were told over and over again, this will be a Florida event.  By the way, we were told that just 4 days short of being ambushed by Katrina.  So here we are tonight, an otherwise delightful, quiet Thursday in late August and our peace has been disturbed.  A system known as Isaac, although not yet a hurricane, has been forecasted to move to our general area, anywhere from the MississippiAlabama line, or, in the opposite direction, to west Louisiana.  Somewhere between these points on a map lies New Orleans and the communities to the north where I reside.

I don't mind telling anyone; I don't like this.  Post Katrina, these things make me very, very nervous.  Don't confuse nervous with scared.  I'm not scared because whether Isaac comes here or goes elsewhere, God is on the throne and we will endure.  I can share this; those post Katrina days made all of us, including yours truly, stronger.  With that being said, I will share that I pray not only for safety but that we will not endure power outages, the likes of which we have never seen before and don't want to see again.  We survived on a generator for 24 days.

We now shift from a casual observer to those who must make some preliminary preparations.  Part of that prep must be prayer.  Here is southeast Lousiana we invoke the help of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.  She has been a great advocate through the centuries that New Orleans has existed.

So to my readers, pray for us and all the other good folks along the great American Gulf Coast who will be impacted by Isaac and other storms year after year.  Our Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us.