At the Mercy of the Elements

So here it is again: evacuation in the face of wind-driven wildfires.

Second time in two years.

Climate change is real, y’all. More severe winds, higher temperatures leading to lower humidity: boom. Fire.

It disturbs me how little the subject comes up as the whole community freaks out over the fires.

This is not a random event. Once? Maybe. It happened in 1964, and again in 2017.

But two years later. Again?

After continuously record-breaking temperatures, month after month, year after year, this is not a random event. It’s an inevitable event.

I’m sitting at friends’ house, glad to have a place to retreat to. We even still have power, which most of the region does not.

When you start to experience how fragile the bubble of what we take for granted really is, you realize how quickly so-called “civilization” could crumble, given proper circumstances.

I would much prefer to be at home tonight, but home is off-limits and I don’t know when it will again be available.

Still, life goes on. If we lose our home, it’s still just stuff.

But it’s hard to get my mind around the fact that this is not strange.

It is the new normal.