Today we turned toward home in two ways. First, we are half way through our first trip so we are heading toward home. Second, our agenda for today was to visit Marlene’s home town, Lynn Haven Florida.
Our first stop on today’s agenda was a Florida Visitor Center.
We got some brochures for the Florida portion of our trip. We also got some fresh Florida orange juice. On our way to Lynn Haven, we began to see the devastation of Hurricane Michael that hit the Florida panhandle last October. We saw thousands of trees that had been snapped by the forceful winds.
The interesting thing to note about these trees is that they mostly fell toward the south in a hurricane that was moving mostly north. The swirling winds are very destructive.
It has been said that you cannot go home again. This mostly means that things change so that it will be different when you return. For Marlene, it is also literally true.
This is Marlene “standing in her old bedroom” of her house in Lynn Haven. It was one of very many buildings of all shapes and sizes that were destroyed by the storm. Marlene’s cousin still lives across the street from her old home. He lost almost 20 trees in a small yard. His house was damaged, but he has repaired it. The house on the other side of her old home was virtually undamaged.
Churches, businesses and many other structures were also severely damaged.
We were awed by the power of the storm. We like to think of our selves as in control of our environment, but we are not. A single bolt of lightning is extremely powerful. A category 5 hurricane has more power than we can comprehend.
All of this is even more amazing when you see this next picture.
It is the beach. Lynn Haven is next to Panama City Beach. The last place on our schedule for today was a walk on the beach and in the gulf. This is the same gulf from which that massive hurricane unleashed its fury only a few months ago. A storm that is still causing havoc and still is displacing many people and families months later. We are not as big and powerful as we think we are. There are bigger, more powerful forces at work that we cannot control or direct.
But for today, the gulf is a place of peace and calm – at least in Panama City Beach.