12 Tevet 5785
Hollywood, known for its disaster movies, now faces a disaster of its own. The city it calls home is burning down around it. Many of those losing their homes are those who have been employed by it.
Jews built Hollywood into a movie-making center when the WASP establishment in New York would not let them into their closed circle. Jews have quite a history with the disaster genre. The Book they brought to the world detailed the first disaster to beat all disasters - the Global Flood. And let's not forget that they lived through the Plagues of Egypt - another tale of disaster. And the destruction of Jerusalem - twice!! And survived the 20th century disaster of the Holocaust.
Disaster awareness is coded in our human DNA. We all know we're always just a moment away from disaster, but we pretend to be surprised when it happens. We know it happens to others, but we pray it doesn't happen to us or to those we love, that we will somehow escape its clutches. It's something you can always count on. There is some disaster going on somewhere on the planet every day.
On a global scale, this disaster taking place in Los Angeles is far, far down the list, if for no other reason than people had plenty of warning to get out of harm's way and help is on hand. I keep thinking back to the flash flood which carried entire towns away in the night in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene just months ago. An accurate death count has never been published.
Fire and Flood - two ways to kasher the earth.
What's happening in Los Angeles today is not the disaster to end all disasters, but it's another step in that direction.
Supplies arrive by plane and by mule in North Carolina as Helene’s death toll tops 130
ReplyDeleteOctober 1, 2024 (only 3 1/2 months ago)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Widespread devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene came to light Monday across the South, revealing a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers and mud-covered highways in one of the worst storms in U.S. history. The death toll topped 130.
A crisis was unfolding in western North Carolina, where residents stranded by washed-out roads and by a lack of power and cellular service lined up for fresh water and a chance to message loved ones days after the storm that they were alive.
At least 133 deaths in six Southeastern states have been attributed to the storm that inflicted damage from Florida’s Gulf Coast to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.
The toll steadily rose as emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding. During a briefing Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall suggested as many as 600 people hadn’t been accounted for as of Monday afternoon, saying some might be dead.