Goodbye Hurricane Helene and good riddance

Hello, Hurricane Helene. Goodbye, Hurricane Helene. Please pardon us for showing a lack of Southern hospitality, but you were not welcome to come in the first place and we are glad to see you go. Speaking of hospitality, you didn’t show much yourself. You just roared in and made a pluperfect mess of things.

You were referred to as a “Monster Storm.” That is what Category 4 storms are. Monsters. You hit our neighbors in Florida with winds of 140 miles per hour and storm surges of 20 feet or more.

Then you came into Georgia and made life intolerable for my friends in South Georgia before you headed up through the state dishing out misery in the form of high winds and heavy rains and abandoning us for the Carolinas and Tennessee.

As of this writing, you have left at least 11 dead in Georgia and more than a million without power, not to mention flashfloods.

Maybe I was too focused on girls when I was growing up, but I don’t remember dealing with the number of hurricanes and tropical storms and tornadoes in Georgia that we have experienced over the past several years: Hurricane Michael. Hurricane Irma. Hurricane Idalia. Now, you. And there is no question that there will be more to come.

Some blame the frequency and strength of hurricanes on global warming. Climate change proponents say that the number of Category 3 or above hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean has doubled since 1980.

Too much greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide and methane, they say. The fossil fuels trap the sun’s heat, leading to warmer water, moist warm air and light upper winds. Hurricanes suck up heat and wind and beef up like a bodybuilder on steroids. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says just one hurricane can churn out about half as much energy alone as all the electrical generating capacity in the entire world. That’s a lot.

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I’m not going to get into the climate change debate. They are those who say it is a bunch of tree-hugger hooey. But no matter which side you are on, we can all agree that hurricanes do bad things.

I will give you credit, Helene; you and your hurricane colleagues are small-d democratic. You wreak havoc regardless of race, creed, color or political affiliation. You kill people. Damage or destroy homes and buildings. Wipe out crops. Cause power outages. Pollute drinking water. Tear up roads and bridges. Disrupt the lives of thousands of people. You are pretty much indiscriminate.

But, guess what? You cause a lot of good things to happen as well. A Democratic president and a Republican governor put aside their political differences for a moment and, instead, put the people first. Both President Joe Biden and Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in Georgia, which allowed federal and state agencies to coordinate all disaster relief efforts. No posturing. No taking political credit. It is rare, but it can happen.

As mentioned, you left about a million people without power in Georgia and reminded us that we are blessed with brave and unsung heroes. I am talking about Georgia Power Company crews and their counterparts from Georgia’s Electric Membership Corporations who will climb poles, battle fallen trees, handle potentially lethal downed wires and restore service. They will be joined by hundreds of utility workers from more than a dozen states who will assist them. I have issues with Georgia Power ham-handed lobbyists, but not their workers.

To the list of unsung heroes I will add Georgia’s National Guard. Gov. Kemp called up a total of 1,500 troops to respond to “dire situations across the state.” I’m not sure what those situations will entail, but I am sure our National Guard will perform superbly. They always do, whether it is in a foreign country or in Lowndes County.

Finally, Helene, you took on one of the most resilient groups of people walking God’s earth. Our farmers. You aren’t the first hurricane to try and knock them out of business. Whether it’s peanuts, pecans, peaches or poultry, Georgia’s farmers will always come back, no matter what you throw at them. What would we do without our farmers? We couldn’t.

Those reading this correspondence will see it on different days in different parts of the state and likely some of the numbers or conditions will have changed when they do. But one thing will not. You gave us your best shot and you failed. We are still here, and you are not. Goodbye, Helene. And good riddance.

You can reach Dick Yarbrough at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.