Life became fragile in 2011. The very ground the earth stood on shook... sometimes to a point where the land itself moved.
We will not forget the natural disasters in 2011. We will not erase from our memory those images of giant tidal waves simply removing villages and cities from the map in Japan. We cannot ever escape the visuals of a whirlpool in the ocean, gobbling up ships and whatever else was stuck within in.. No indeed.. in an instant, an earthquake hit, a tsunami thrashed, and a nuclear disaster began.
Drought in Texas. Joplin tornado.. flooding in the Northeast. Irene hit New York City. An earthquake caused damage to the Washington Monument. It was costly in dollars.. and costly in lives.
Just this past week, a typhoon hit the Philippines and once again... hundreds have perished from the planet.
New Zealand quake.
Flooding in Australia.
Thailand flooded.
It was exhausting even keeping up with the news. It was the year of disasters.. one major one a month somewhere on this planet.
And no, it's not the first time earth has had a bad year. But it sure as hell is one of the first times that the disasters all coupled together were as expensive as they are.
To think, it all started with a few thousand dead birds on New Years' Day.
Hazards and tragic stories were all over the news in '11. Hope '12's a little quieter.