Hell and High Water

It's hell and high water....that you're goin' through.
But come hell or high water, I'll be here waiting for you.
- T. Graham Brown

In 1997, the Red River flooded so badly the town of Grand Forks, ND had to be evacuated. Then, in one of the buildings downtown, a gas main broke and fires started. A news photographer captured pictures of buildings gutted by fire, completely surrounded by water, and the caption read, "Come Hell and High Water." The Grand Forks Herald made the decision to keep the newspaper going at all costs as a way to keep feeding information to the townspeople in spite of all the hardship the flood was causing, and doing so won them the Pulitzer for public service. Those pictures have been immortalized in Midwest history.

And today we saw a similar horrific disaster play out half way around the world, only on a magnitude far, far worse. And unlike the Red River flood, no one knew it was coming...an earthquake in Japan that registered 8.9 on the Richter scale. And a tsunami following it that not only devastated Japan, it has reached all the way to the US. Hundreds dead. Towns obliterated. Unimaginable destruction. Nuclear power plants damaged. Countries brought to a stand-still. Flooding, and fires. Hell and high water.

I had an accident once, water skiing. It sounds like a silly thing to bring up maybe. But I learned in that accident how unforgiving water can be. I learned that water is not "compact-able". If you hit it at a high rate of speed, you will injure yourself. It's why belly-flops hurt. It's why water skiing wipe-outs or boating accidents can be so serious. And so I watch these tsunami waves crash into the houses and shatter them like toothpicks, and I know why there are no survivors. I am horrified. As important as water is to me, as much as it calms me, I am sickened at these images and absolutely horrified.

Hell and high water. The families affected by this are in my prayers.