Trick or treat ?

Just as the US presidential race was headed into a final showdown beyond all heated debates and vigorous campaigns into the ballot boxes,nature decided that things were too hot to handle and decided to display her power. And now, for the past couple of days the "Perfect storm" has dominated the airwaves. The estimated destructive power of this superstorm "Sandy" resulted in shutdown of the powerful New York Stock Exchange office for two days in a row. This is the first time the markets have been closed for consecutive days because of weather since a blizzard forced the N.Y.S.E. to close for two days in 1888. Now that is one powerful storm right? This was the "before" part of story, the hurricane now having made landfall and thus gotten weaker, it is now time for the "after" part of the whole episode.

 The havoc wrecked by the hurricane surely needs time to be cleaned up and for many people, the storm was the "trick" that nature pulled on them this Halloween. Many have lost their homes, possessions and their loved ones. Such losses can never be made good but time, they say is a great healer and life must go on and it will indeed... In true spirit of humanity, in the most heavily affected areas, Halloween will not be celebrated normally this year. In New Jersey, there is an executive order postponing Halloween celebrations statewide in the face of the chaos resulting from Sandy's passage. New York authorities postponed the traditional costume parade for the first time in history. After all what is a city without its citizens?

On the other side of the globe, there is a cyclone that has hit coastal regions of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in India. This weather visitor goes by the name "Nilam". It is once again Nature showing us that no matter how ever much technological advances make man feel he is the master of the Universe, reality is far from it.

Will mankind realize its folly and learn to respect Nature before its too late?


All pictures are from Google images