5PM: No major changes. Dorian is still a severe hurricane with 150 MPH max winds. The NHC track continues to indicate a too-close-for-comfort recurvature, with the closest pass Wednesday. All depends on where and when it stalls out, which is expected Monday. pic.twitter.com/Y382eUlGOh
— Charleston Weather (@chswx) August 31, 2019
For David Shorter, Thursday morning brought back a monumental memory.
He was in the seventh or eighth grade at West Ashley’s Blessed Sacrament School in the 1960s when a construction crew installed the twin spires atop the new Catholic church next door. The schoolchildren were allowed to step over the steeples before they were hoisted into place.
Of course, Shorter also remembers them being blown down by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and the church’s brick towers have stood unadorned ever since. At least until Thursday.
Shorter was among a few dozen who gathered just outside the church to watch as a construction crew hoisted the first steeple back into place.
“I ain’t missing this for no reason,” he said. “Twice in a lifetime.”
The spectacle was so dramatic that those involved waited until after the morning rush hour on Savannah Highway, reducing the chance of causing any wrecks. Thursday’s weather was near perfect: clear skies and only the slightest breeze. But a computer glitch with a construction crane ended up delaying the lift until the lunch hour.
But by 1:20 p.m., the first one — weighing almost 3 tons — was stood up and hoisted off the ground….
A few dozen gathered just outside the church to watch as a construction crew hoisted the first steeple back into place.https://t.co/xzmq5NlGiL
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) August 2, 2019
Watch it all, and be forewarned, you are not going to make it through without Kleenex–KSH.
“History suggests the honeymoon began in England in the 19th century when couples would travel the country visiting family and friends who couldn’t make it to their ceremony,” said Kara Bebell, who owns and operates the Travel Siblings, with her brother, Harlan deBell. (The New York-based company specializes in romantic getaways.)
Then the honeymoon evolved into the first time a couple got any prolonged alone time or to consummate the marriage. The modern honeymoon became more of an opportunity for newlyweds to celebrate alone and reconnect after the stress of a wedding.
In recent years, honeymoons have regressed, Ms. Bebell said. “Couples want validation from followers and friends,” she said, and oftentimes they do that with photos and hashtags.
Of all the sick social-media things I’ve read lately, this is one of the worst. We are a seriously disordered society.https://t.co/bhxZw75snr
— Fleming Rutledge (@flemingrut) June 24, 2019
On his own in Costa Rica, Max had figured out how to get Chica into the US, and convinced someone at American Airlines to let her fly on his lap, because they wouldn’t let dogs fly in the hold due to the heat. Thereafter, he and Chica settled in to their little apartment downtown near the White River canal, and each of them began their new life, together. Max had saved Chica. And Chica had saved Max.
One afternoon three months later, when Max was walking Chica, she saw something she hadn’t seen in Costa Rica. It was a squirrel, and before Max could stop her, Chica chased that squirrel straight out onto Indiana Avenue. Right in front of a speeding car.
The car ran over Chica. My son screamed. In that brief moment everything that Max had worked for, everything he had overcome, everything that he was living for, was gone.
This is a special edition blog post. Nothing to do with finance, and everything to do with life, and why you gotta stay in the game. Apologies for how personal it is, but my son and I needed to tell it.https://t.co/ioPVi2NLM5
— Drew Dickson (@AlbertBridgeCap) June 17, 2019
A Cape Cod restaurant saw a rare sight Monday when it received a brilliantly blue lobster as part of a shipment.
Nathan Nickerson, owner of Arnold’s Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, received the colorful crustacean in a batch order from Ipswich Shellfish Group.
— RoadTrip_NewEngland (@RNewengland) June 16, 2019
The exhibition, which launches on Tuesday (June 4) and runs until Sunday July 14, showcases a collection of images throughout the history of the cathedral, since the parish church of St Peter became a cathedral, to the present day.
Phil Lickley, the cathedral’s communications, marketing and events officer, explains the exhibition, taking place in the cathedral’s Art Space, will be split into three elements including a display of photographs taken of the cathedral, including the renovation work carried out in the Fifties and Sixties; of events and activities throughout the year; the clergy who have been involved with the cathedral over the years and special events such as the recent visit in May by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in May.
Life at Bradford Cathedral through a lens https://t.co/egacymASL7 pic.twitter.com/QmTdpUPAG5
— Telegraph & Argus (@Bradford_TandA) June 2, 2019
“A unique program at Harvard Medical School sends aspiring doctors of human medicine to Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo, where they learn to treat lemurs, frogs and other animals. The goal: to learn how our worlds interact and improve care for all.” Watch the whole thing.
In photos: #MemorialDay weekend 2019 https://t.co/ngwDmGYuo6 #memorialday #military #death #sacrifice #usa
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 27, 2019
In pictures: Easter celebrated around the world https://t.co/fedh8eqvdy
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 21, 2019
That leaping dolphin, one of the most beloved animals of the South Carolina coast, might be dying off in front of our eyes.
Nobody knows how many are really out there. More dolphins are dying tangled up in yards of crab pot lines and other marine gear. They are backing away from their usual behaviors as beachgoers and boaters crowd them.
The local population of the sea mammals is smaller than many people realize. Some people think the waters around Charleston are home to thousands of dolphins, said Lauren Rust of the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network.
But the last survey by a federal team was done more than a decade ago, in 2008. It found only 350 living in Charleston area waters.
The dolphin, one of the most beloved animals of the South Carolina coast, might be dying off in front of our eyes.https://t.co/LkLFRn19h1
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) April 7, 2019
When Cyclone Idai struck the Southeast Africa coast last week, it swept away everything in its path, including churches, schools and homes in the Mozambican port city of Beira and beyond.
By Sunday, the number of confirmed deaths caused by the storm in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, already surpassing 700, continued to rise as churches, Christian relief organizations and agencies raced to aid the three countries most affected by the tropical storm.
After causing extensive flooding as a tropical storm, the cyclone — traveling at a speed of up to 177 kilometers (106 miles) an hour — made landfall on the Mozambican coast on March 14 and continued inland. On Saturday, agencies reported that the number of deaths had reached nearly 750 and was expected to rise in the three countries.
Last week, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said the number of deaths in his country could reach 1,000. Initial government estimates said nearly 1.8 million people were affected by the floods — including 900,000 children, according to UNICEF….
The fields where my grandfather and his brothers once played football are currently covered by several feet of water.
My grandpa Bert was born in a small Nebraska town called Oakland, a couple hours north of Lincoln, just down the road from Senator Ben Sasse in Fremont. Like much of northeastern Nebraska, these towns are now in crisis, battling the historic flooding that has devastated the state’s farms and ranches, killed three people, and dislocated thousands.
Currently the state estimates $439 million in damages to infrastructure, $85 million in damages to homes and businesses, $400 million worth of cattle lost, and $440 million of crops destroyed, placing the total damages, by my count, at around $1.3 billion….
Sadly, I cannot help but see this quickening destruction happening in my home state. The flood has soaked thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses to ruin in places that already struggled with a trajectory of economic decline and despair brought about by forces outside their control.
To understand the impact of these catastrophic floods in Nebraska—what they will mean for the communities in the weeks, months, and years after the rivers recede and the roads clear—we have to look at the state of the farmers, the men and women who have loved this place even when no one else did.
In the aftermath of this year’s flooding, many Nebraskans will show the generosity and persistence that defines this place and many others like it.
But rural America needs more than the occasional profile highlighting its ordinary decency https://t.co/wGgLLwDzT0
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) March 22, 2019
War's aftermath: Charleston, SC in 1865. pic.twitter.com/zWxiWHQrDw
— History Lovers Club (@historylvrsclub) January 16, 2019
At the turn of a new year, people often anticipate weddings, births, reunions, a promotion or other joys. Few greeted 2019 this week by counting on a flooded home or a dreaded cancer diagnosis.
Even Jamie Aten, a disaster psychologist who founded the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, wasn’t prepared for the news he received in 2013, when his doctor told him he had Stage IV colon cancer. Only 35, he had a wife and three young daughters. His academic career had just begun.
But as his oncologist told him, “You’re in for your own personal kind of disaster.”
Indeed, Aten would come to see his encounter with cancer through his field of study, which concerns resilience on the community level (he studied Hurricane Katrina) as well as the individual level.
Now 41, Aten has written about his journey in “A Walking Disaster: What Surviving Katrina and Cancer Taught Me About Faith and Resilience,” which will be published Jan. 14.
In a recent @RNS interview, @WheatonCollege‘s @drjamieaten speaks about his forthcoming book, A Walking Disaster: What Surviving Katrina and Cancer Taught Me About Faith and Resilience. Read it here: https://t.co/YNmO8QrfrG
— Wheaton Experts (@WheatonExperts) January 8, 2019
Today is Three Kings’ Day! It is a day celebrated by Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians and among many Hispanic communities around the world. This is Epiphany of the church calendar when the magi’s arrival bearing gifts for baby Jesus in Matthew 2 is celebrated. pic.twitter.com/edET6RHfA3
— Museum of the Bible (@museumofBible) January 6, 2019
In pictures: World celebrates Christmas https://t.co/v92Q73OaJG
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 24, 2018
The fish are moving, and so is an entire industry.
Aboard the Stanley K and the Oracle, two 58-foot vessels, Buck Laukitis and his crews chase halibut across the Bering Sea worth $5 a pound at the docks. As sea temperatures rise and Arctic ice retreats, the fish appear to be avoiding warming waters, migrating northward where they cost more to reach, federal fisheries biologists say.
Twice this past fall, the Oracle sailed 800 miles north from the seaport of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, before finding the halibut that a decade ago lived several hundred miles closer to home. Each voyage took twice as long and yielded half as many fish.
“It keeps me up at night,” he says. “I woke up at three in the morning. I couldn’t sleep thinking about where the fish are going.”
“I woke up at three in the morning,” says an Alaska fisherman dealing with warming seas. “I couldn’t sleep thinking about where the fish are going.” https://t.co/SLAIEJwnmu
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 22, 2018
Iain Provan:
The book of Jonah provides one of the most effective examples of humour in the Old Testament. “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it,” God commands his prophet (Jonah 1:2)—but “Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish” (1:3). In the ancient world, this is just about as far as one can go in the opposite direction. “Get up and go,” God tells Jonah in the Hebrew—but Jonah goes down to Joppa, down into the ship (both in v. 3), and down into the ship’s hold (v.5). His lack of piety contrasts starkly with that of the pagan sailors, who end up fearing the Lord greatly (v. 16). They know better than Jonah, who claims to “worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land” (v. 9), but is trying to escape from him on both. The sovereignty of God over the sea is soon demonstrated, as a great fish astonishingly shows up to rescue Jonah from his watery grave. He thanks God for saving him (2:7-9), but he takes a very different view when God later saves the people of Nineveh, who repent—hilariously and unexpectedly—upon hearing Jonah’s ridiculously brief sermon (3:4). By the end of the book, Jonah—“displeased and … angry” (4:1)—is the only creature who has not repented, including the Assyrian cows (3:8)! The humour presses home the message that the people of God are characteristically much less interested in the lost than God is—the God who is “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity”(4:2). They prefer judgment to redemption, whereas God’s preferences are the other way around.
Read it all.Lakewood, CO: Iain Provan is going to be in your neck of the woods next week! Join Iain for an evening lecture at the Davenant Institute. Free admission, RSVP required. Nov. 15, 7 pm. https://t.co/udROaVN3JO pic.twitter.com/8dGi5cfTkF
— Regent College (@regentcollege) November 8, 2018
Scant attention is devoted to how we might avert the next catastrophe or whether we need to change the ways we function in a world where “extreme weather” no longer lives up to its name.
Climate change has caused our seas to rise and fueled ever-more powerful storms that hurl massive amounts of water from the oceans and clouds. And while much of our attention has been focused on the fragile coast, South Carolina’s inland communities have repeatedly taken a beating, as well, most recently from the trillions of gallons of water dumped by Hurricane Florence.
Consider that the tiny town of Nichols, a 90-minute drive from the coast, sank beneath floodwaters for the second time since Hurricane Matthew drowned the community in 2016. Rebuilding was still under way when Florence caused the nearby rivers to again jump their banks.
Climatologists and risk management experts say South Carolina, like much of the country, is woefully unprepared for these new threats, partly because the resources to help people understand and prepare for flooding are decades out of date.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood risk maps don’t consider several key factors, including sea level rise, development trends and extreme rainfall that can exacerbate flooding. Yet they are still the primary guides for how and where homes get built….
Planning, rather than rebuilding the same way again, is key: How will South Carolina cope as 'extreme' weather becomes the new norm https://t.co/CdmNLSyc9N via @postandcourier
— Mike Fitts (@MikeFittsat140) September 24, 2018