October 2003                                        The Megaphone                                                Page 7

High Winds

*This was written immediately after Isabel. At first I felt it was  inappropriate considering Shawn's death. However it's a timely subject so thought since it was already finished I might as well send it as is. I fully intend to share this past week's days with you ... I just need some time first. Sooooooooo . . . on with the show ...

I have found all the stories from our members as well as those on TV about Hurricane Isabel most interesting. It amazes me that at 50 mph and above the winds can do such damage. The winds of 100 mph and above are serious factors in human survival! At this writing there is an estimated one billion dollar damage amount that will be turned in to insurance companies. Awesome!

I couldn't help but remember the typhoon I survived. In so many ways ignorance is bliss and it couldn't have been more true than at that time. Why, even in the days and months after, we never realized the enormity of it all. Only now, these past few years do I even begin to understand the impact it made and how very lucky we all were to have survived it with very little injuries.

In all honesty, while watching Isabel move across my TV screen, I began to wonder, was it really like I remembered or did I, as so many people did, enhance the story to make it a little bit better.

Funny that I'd never thought to do so before, but during this time it occurred to me to go to the internet and in the search box type in "Typhoon Karen" and see what really happened, comparing my memory to the real facts of the time. Maybe, even unknowingly I had remembered the winds being faster than they actually were and the damage reports being not quite so bad.

I found there was a great deal written about her. There has been only one Typhoon Karen, my Typhoon Karen. I read through many accounts until I came to one written about Anderson Air Force Base, where I lived in base housing.

The device used to measure wind broke at 224 miles per hour. Karen was so very large that she had two eyes and moved at seven mph.

After seeing the damage on TV lately I thought maybe this account was a bit farfetched so I continued hunting, reading through many articles about her. But no, these were the facts and we had absolutely no idea that Karen was of the magnitude that it later was determined to be.

Wind, water and fire . . . the most powerful forces in our world, will continue to fascinate us . . . as long as there in a world for us.

I wrote my own personal account of Karen and serialized it for our Megaphone about one or two years ago. It's funny in a way, but people always have and always will live on the edge of danger and even purposely do things dangerous. It's always, for that particular kind of people, the best, the very best of times.

Like my calling cards say, "Why live on the edge when you can jump off."

Yes, fun is good and adventure either looked for or one that just happens to us becomes the spice of life. Usually, our choice. The people that live along the beach, any beach do so as their own personal choice. They all could live elsewhere, like our very own Karen (Stein) Hollies, but the reasons for living there outnumber the reasons for living elsewhere.

Please, don't always make your choices based on safety and a dull life, step out and find the zest, take a deep breath and jump off! Learn the ecstasy of adventure.

Jumpen Julie
Julie (Stout) Crim '57
Anderson, IN