Jul. 09, 2002 ~ We've all seen the pictures
on the news of the flooded areas of Texas. One of the most striking images is that of the house floating, boat-like, down the river. About nine years ago the family and I vacationed in that area, and we floated lazily down that same river.
Have you ever been to a brand new place, somewhere you've never been, and felt like you'd come home? In a literal sense, as if you'd been spirited away at birth and by some miracle found your way back? That's the Texas Hill Country for me. Particularly New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.
It's something I can't explain easily, and it probably doesn't make any sense. Let's just say that I have a special fondness for the Hill Country. I wanted to live there.
So there it was on the news, the Guadalupe River, wildly overflowing its banks. New Braunfels and Boerne, with so many streets washed away, homes damaged, lives lost. It's hard to reconcile those images with what we remember. That gentle place has been badly hurt. It will be years before they recover. Yet... one image tugged at my heart-strings. We've seen photo after photo of all the devastation, of people crying as they return to their ruined homes. But you know what I can't forget? Last night on the news we saw a handful of stranded cows, standing belly-deep in water, surrounded by more water, as far as the eye could see. Those cows are probably going to die. They won't lie down in the water; they'll just stand there until they drop, and they'll either drown or die of exhaustion. Those poor people... I know. Their losses are unimaginable. But what I keep remembering, when I think of the flooding, is the picture of those doomed cows. Yes, I know that all cows are pretty much doomed from the start. Few people keep them as pets, after all. Still.
Update: Bonnie, who lives in the area of all the flooding (though thankfully her home is high and dry!), wrote to tell me that she saw a bit on the news about cows, that she thinks they may be okay. She wasn't sure if they were the same ones, so I thought I'd do an online search. What I found was shocking... the article said that tens of thousands of cattle had died and many more had swum or been washed miles from home. And the human death toll... 29 so far. That sounded much higher than what I recalled, so I looked at the date on the CNN story. 1998! But it was in the same general area, which is pretty sad. Guess I'll check out other news sites.
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