PUERTO RICO

I couldn't think of a thing to blog about today. I'm still reeling from all the disasters hitting us lately. The damaging hurricanes hitting Texas and Florida. The deadly earthquake in Mexico.

But Puerto Rico's problems stand out.

The president has been busy campaigning in Alabama and arguing with the NFL and chastising his Health and Human Services guy Price for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on flights for business as well as personal travel. Obviously, the president has little time for Puerto Rico. Maybe because Puerto Rico speaks Spanish? Or maybe because a Trump golf course in Puerto Rico went bankrupt? Or maybe because he thinks Puerto Rico's a foreign country?

While he dithered, Puerto Rico suffered. I won't show a lot of pix on the misery people there are enduring, but I did steal this photo and caption from the AP (couldn't resist the cat):

In this Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 photo, Maribel Valentin Espino sits in her hurricane-destroyed home in Montebello, Puerto Rico. Espino and her husband say they have not seen anyone from the Puerto Rican government, much less the Federal Emergency Management Agency, since the storm tore up the island. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Things aren't much better today but I believe a nudge from Hillary Clinton steered the president in the right direction. He finally sent the hospital ship Comfort there and put in a three star general to oversee operations and waived temporarily the Jones Act that kept any but US ships from transporting goods to the little island. (A lot of US shippers stood to lose money; the fact that the devastated Puerto Rico would pay twice as much to get supplies didn't bother the shippers. Or the president either, evidently.)

If you want to donate to relief efforts, here is a page from the NY Times that lists charities and rates them. The first four seem to be the best buy for your buck.

Also, the Salvation Army is an old dependable, with a large percentage of its donations going to the intended recipients. Not only are they helping Puerto Rico, they are also there for the other islands hard hit by Maria.

And there is always the Red Cross. It's not one of my favorite charities, but it's been around a long time. Be sure to choose "Hurricane Maria" to direct your donation.

Let's all be thankful for what we have.

HURRICANE IRMA

Thanks to everyone who asked about us during the latest hurricane.

Irma came visitng up here last week, but by that time, she was a tropical storm. The power went out in lots of places, but we were fortunate. Trees fell on houses in lots of places, but we were fortunate. Rains caused flooding in a few places, but we were fortunate.

In fact, the only sign we've had a storm near us is this tree in the lake. (Or what's optimistically termed a lake. I'd say it's more of a pond!) That line of bushes at the back of the water is actually a tree that was on the right side but fell into the water. That's our closest damage and I'll certainly take it and be happy!

Last year about this time, we fled our little island before Matthew hit and came home to find, though lots of houses suffered, we had only a small tree on the house that left the roof intact. So our move this spring was especially fortuitous because this year, Irma inflicted a lot more damage on the beautiful islands off Georgia's coast. They say it'll take months to fully recover. And this just as the results of Matthew were nearly obliterated.

But we are safe and sound in our new north Georgia home. Oh, we lead a charmed life and are duly thankful!

SEEN AT THE BEACH

On one of our walks after the hurricane, we found the beach changed but still a repository for the most interesting items. Of course, we always find individual shells. But now we have colonies of them washed up together:

This day, there was also a horseshoe crab shell that its owner had abandoned to grow a better one:

We thought at first this was some kind of sea animal but now we're pretty sure it's a part of a plant or tree or bush. It looks like a woody root. There were several of them, some smaller and some larger:

And though these yucca plants were in the dunes rather than on the beach, they were happily blooming despite the storm recently weathered.

Beautiful day and lovely walk!

BEACH CHANGES AFTER THE STORM

Once again, our beach has undergone a total repositioning of its sand. As we come out past the dunes, we look southward and see a tidal pool. The ocean is on the left.

When we go north, there is stretches more of sand. There used to be a long and then a short sandbar out in the water not far from shore. The shore has now effectively sucked up the sandbar, making the beach twice as wide or more. Then we get to the amazing part.

Once a wide river flowed between the sandbar and upper beach. Now, as we stand on the new part of the beach, we can see it has become more of a narrow creek, flowing down to what has turned into a tidal pool. You can still see the rip rap (big rocks) on the edge that kept the sea from washing the sands away.

And this pier once jutted out into the river. A river that was way too broad to cross except by swimming and currents made that dangerous.

The houses seen behind the pier are glad of the beach changes, I suppose. For years, they were in danger of being washed away by the ocean. Now it's way out in front of them!

HERMINE

Hurricane Hermine, or the remains of it, came through a week or so ago. We were lucky. First, it came ashore as only a category 1 storm. Then, by the time it got to us, it was mostly high winds and rain. Not too bad. Our power went out but only for about four hours, though some houses were out longer. And we only had small debris in our yard while others had trees down. Some pix:

The beach access at the park near the lighthouse:

Fence and telephone wires down

:

The awning on a convenience store was blown down. This is right next to our favorite Southern Soul barbecue which wasn't harmed, thank goodness! We can still eat!

So now that Hermine is gone, a lot of people are deciding to take care of trees that might fall and do some damage.

Threatening pine being taken down:

The only tree we had that might have hurt the house, partly fell a couple of years ago and we had it taken out then. So we feel pretty safe. I'm just hoping any other hurricanes are as mild!

HURRICANE PRACTICE

So the entire year and a half we were at the lake, there was a drought and the lake was low, low, low. This spring it finally started raining and the waters started rising. The view was looking good, the boat dock was floating, looked like the summertime waters would be great for swimming and boating, etc.

Then we sold the house and moved permanently to the coast. So guess what's going on here? Not a hurricane, thank goodness, but it is a tropical storm. Even Jim Cantelore from The Weather Channel is broadcasting from the beach. (You know how excited all these weather people get during hurricane season.)

Yes, T.S. Beryl is promising lots of rain and high winds in our area. And people are going home for Memorial Day tomorrow, to play on the lake and enjoy remembrance ceremonies outside instead of hanging out down here to be cooped up inside.

Can't blame them. It is a little annoying, though, to find the weather so uncooperative no matter where we go.

But at least we aren't being evacuated
.