Midwinter Night's Wind

In the middle of the night the wind came up and whistled through the spaces between the window and the wall next to my bed.

You've heard this sound before. A storybook banshee racing down from the tower of a dark castle towards your breezeway. She's wailing at the back door, knocking over your trash can with a force that wakes you with a start.

The clock says 4:15 am. Walt the cat stays close.

The icy keening continues as you search for your fuzzy pink robe and make your way to the window. Walt is looking too.

Nothing is there.

I switch on the lights to break the spell, but the glare is blinding. I light a candle instead. The flame shudders left and right, then disappears in waxy smoke until I light it again in a sheltered corner of the kitchen near a small window that gives me full view of the backyard as the wind jostles the floodlight near the shed.

Again, nothing but branches strewn across the frozen ground.

I'm going back to bed. Pulling the covers up, I make room for the cat and smooth the top of the blankets.

The best thing you can do is try to sleep. With my head covered in blankets, the wailing finally stops.

In the morning, the weatherman talks about the rising West Wind and the need to tie everything down that could possibly blow away in the 50-mile-per-hour gusts predicted for that afternoon.

Keats wrote "Ode to the West Wind" in the daytime, I think, but not an afternoon like this one I'm standing in, holding my hat, zipping closed my windbreaker, and refusing to raise my eyes as I walk along watching my steps one after another on the pavement.

Hurricane Hanna

One thing about a hurricane barreling up the coast, you can feel it coming. Everything gets quiet, doesn't it?

The day you're standing in is more beautiful, more clear than any day you can remember for a long while, but something is going on way out there in the ocean. Something big. Something that can't stop spinning and sucking all the water into a wall hundreds of feet high . . .

From the air, it looks like a whorl of white smoke or a cloud turning like a great wheel, making its way across the water undoing everything in its wake.

We could be in a maelstrom upsidedown. We could be in a backwards clock.

What we all need is a disaster supply kit at the ready, just in case.

The Federal Government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www.noaa.gov) offers this list:

Water - at least 1 gallon daily per person for 3 to 7 days

Food - at least enough for 3 to 7 days
— non-perishable packaged or canned food/juices
— foods for infants or older adults
— snacks
— non-electric can opener
— cooking tools/fuel
— paper plates/plastic utensils

Bedding - Blankets/Pillows, etc.

Clothing - seasonal/rain gear/sturdy shoes

First Aid Kit/Medicines/Prescription Drugs

Flashlight & Batteries

Radio - Battery-operated & NOAA weather radio

Telephones - Fully charged cell phone with extra battery & a traditional (not cordless) telephone set

Cash & Credit Cards - Banks & ATMs may not be available for extended periods

Keys

Toys, Books, Games

Important documents - in a waterproof container or watertight resealable plastic bag
— insurance, medical records, bank account numbers, Social Security card, etc.

Tools - keep a set with you during the storm

Gas - Vehicle fuel tanks filled

Pet care items— proper identification / immunization records / medications
— ample supply of food and water
— a carrier or cage
— muzzle and leash