The havoc caused by the heavy rains in the wake of, and in accompaniment of, Hurricane Harvey brought America, the world’s most powerful nation, to its knees. This was followed by another hurricane, Irma, in the US and a storm, Aileen, in the UK last week. Thousands of homes were left without power and travel was disrupted when the storm, Aileen, hit Britain with peak winds of 83 mph last week. These storms reminded me of the great storm of October 1987 when incessant winds and rain caused havoc in the UK for two days. This was a violent cyclone that occurred on 15 and 16 October with hurricane force winds which caused casualties in England. Forests, parks, roads and railways were strewn with fallen trees and at least 22 people were killed in England alone. Gusts of 120 mph tore tiles from roofs and the roofers were charging anything from £100 - £150 to replace a single tile.
These hurricanes and other disasters like the mudslides and tsunamis are Mother Nature’s cry for help in retaliation to the flogging we humans subject her to. Stop belching out poisonous gases in the atmosphere or else our posterity will have no earth to live on. So what could be done to prevent such disasters from happening again? This could be achieved by reducing global warming and conserving ecological balance by avoiding the depletion of natural resources like trees and forests – by creating sustainability.
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
