Can’t fight the weather
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on October 6, 2017.
When we talk about wielding power most of us think of people in positions of authority exercising that power over us, telling us what we can and cannot do.
This week nobody, not even the prime minister, was a match for the weather when it came to dictating. Snow and wind collapsed trees, caused road collisions, brought vehicles to a halt with drivers simply calling it a day, and some roads simply closing.
There is nothing anyone can do to match that sort of power for duration and devastation. You can’t control the timing of it or the ferocity.
In many respects it is refreshing to know that in the end nature simply reigns supreme. Even government officials, who may have the authority, simply don’t have the power when a snow storm comes rolling through.
Still in the midst of fall, only the very organized type of people would have been ready with snow boots at the door and hats and gloves for the household at the ready. The forecast was supposed to be a rain storm until hours before it hit.
Conditions were certainly not for the faint of heart dealing with driving conditions in the fall’s first snowstorm. It was simply an opportunity to admit conditions are not controllable and then go with the flow. You can’t blame it on anyone else and there is very little you can do about it.
In the last month we have seen hurricanes and tropical storms rage through the U.S. and parts of the Caribbean. At least those were seasonal but you really could not call this recent snowstorm seasonal for us. We are, after all, only about a week into fall.
The people who are to be applauded at a time like this are emergency services who somehow reach those in need to provide medical care or attend to those in a traffic accident and there are all those who work overtime to restore power and sweep snow off our streets as best they can.
(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to https://www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions or call her at 403-528-8635.)
