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The following Saturday morning we met at the Stake Center at 5:30 AM. We arrived at the Vidor Chapel at 7:00 AM, just when scheduled. There was an orientation session. The Bishop who is responsible for coordinating the relief effort is an ER Doctor at one of the local hospitals. He got right to the point by stating it is an ER Doctor's nightmare to have hundreds of white collar workers running around in the country using chain saws! There was an opening prayer, and we were dismissed and given assignments as to which families to go to, based on who needed the most help with big trees down on their houses or in their yards. We spent several weekends working in Vidor and Orange and the surrounding country, and demonstrating the positive side of "acting on things." To my knowledge no one was seriously hurt with one of the chain saws, although I personally fell down twice while holding a running chain saw.
Compared to storms recorded in the geologic record, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were non-events. Even with as much damage as was done around Vidor, the hurricane which "acted on" Galveston Island on September 8th, 1900 had a much greater impact on people, on vegetation, on animal life, and even on the geology.134 Official reports cite 8,000 fatalities. At the time of this storm, the highest point in the city of Galveston was 8.7 feet (2.7 meters) above sea level. The storm surge was over 15 feet (4.6 meters). Over 3,600 homes were destroyed. As a result of this storm, development moved north to Houston, and the "New York" of the South lost the possibility of remaining and of becoming a major commercial center. Even today, over a century after this disaster, there are Professors at Texas A&M University at Galveston who are actively pursuing a plan they call Galveston Futures, a plan to prepare for the next "big one."135 Figures 43a-b-c-d show views of an example model which can be used to study alternative Galveston futures, and which was prepared for discussions with these professors.
Like Yellowstone Lake, Galveston Island is an example of a semi-closed or somewhat isolated geological and biological system. Geological and biological systems do act. Yet over the relatively short time frame of human life spans, these systems mostly consist of things "to be acted upon." Geological and biological systems are the realm where science shines. This is the realm where the chemistry and physics and lithology and microscopes and evaluations of physical characteristics of things can be measured and understood. Where the impact of various forces and processes and actions can be modeled and interactions predicted.
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paradoxes
