Playing with Your Life

Sitting at work today, I found myself glued to the television coverage of Hurricane Ike's impending landfall in Texas. Aside from being concerned for our friends and family who still live in that area -- and along the Gulf Coast -- I found myself praying for the tens of thousands of folks who are scrambling to get out of the storms way, and particularly for the 22 sailors trapped on a freighter in the Gulf of Mexico who cannot get out of Ike's way and who are going to have to ride it out. You know things are rough when the Coast Guard can't even get to the ship to rescue them; they are very much in God's hands now, as is every person threatened by this monster.

I've also been bewildered by the folks who aren't heeding the call to leave; in fact, I saw a report about a crowd of folks who have gone to a bar on Galveston Island there they intend to have an extended hurricane party and ride out the storm. Why put yourself at unnecessary risk?? Why put your families (parents, siblings, etc. - I would certainly hope none of these lunatics have children) in a situation where they spend the next days wondering if you survived?

What is enough for these folks? Apparently, it wasn't enough that the governor and state emergency management officials told them to leave. It wasn't enough that FEMA and the hurricane center are saying this storm could rival Katrina and even the 1900 storm that killed 8,000 people in Texas. And it certainly wasn't a big enough hint when folks who are staying behind are advised to write their Social Security numbers on their arms.

I have absolutely no understanding of why they're doing this. They've got my prayers, though -- and my hope that they live through this so that they can wash those numbers off their arms themselves rather than having someone who finds them later do it for them...