Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey dumped 27 trillion gallons of water on Texas and Louisiana damaging or destroying at least 185,149 homes and taking at least 50 lives. Just minutes away from Little Piney dozens of homes flooded in Smithville. Whole neighborhoods were devastated thirty miles east in La Grange. In spite of 18 inches of rain at Little Piney, we sustained no damage.
It has been heartening to see the response of Texans pitching in to help their neighbors with cash, donations, and labor, yet I can’t even comprehend the total amount of human suffering. I can’t imagine where the labor and resources will come from and how long it will take to clean up and rebuild the coastal areas and inland towns destroyed by Harvey’s relentless winds and rain.
Not being affected in any material way by Harvey, I feel relief mixed with survivor guilt. We have been spared when so many people are displaced, in shock, and grieving. The only reminders of Harvey at Little Piney are a dead tree down, branches littering the ground, and the dramatic refilling of Dragonfly Pond. While the rebuilding of much of the state is daunting, it encourages me that an empty pond with a cracked-mud bottom was so quickly transformed back into a living host for dragonflies. Nature unhampered by people knows how to recover and will. I don’t think the recovery of our state will be easy in any way–buildings and homes don’t repair themselves; yet, Dragonfly Pond helps me to remember that nature can heal and survive in all kinds of adversity, and the pure human spirit is one with nature.
Here are some images from this weekend at Dragonfly Pond–
Common Green Darners
Mirror Images
A Hundredth of a Second
Special Reflections
