Here lately every time hurricane season comes around, people who live near the South eastern coast lines brace themselves for whatever comes. It might be a quiet year, but then again it could hold at least one storm or more that could do some major damage. Hurricane Katrina was the last storm that was really catastrophic to those who lived on the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico. No one has come anywhere near to forgetting how bad that was.

In the past a lot of coast dwellers did not necessarily feel that threatened until the last three or four hurricanes that ranked category three or more. It seems that a lot of even the bravest of these home owners have gained a fearful respect for the mighty hurricane. For the most part, the people who have homes on a coastal area, all they can really do is board up their homes and stay or board up their homes and evacuate. Neither one is what they usually want to do, but there is little choice.

Many times there will be several days warning for those living in coastal areas that there is a real threat from a hurricane. This at least allows people to choose what they want to take with them if they are forced to leave. For those who are affected by a flooding river or torrential rain caused by inland storms, sometimes their warning is not as good. When places like the Midwest were flooded recently, they knew the weather was going to be wet, they just did not predict that it was going to flood so much.

Once the heavy rainfalls begin and saturate the ground for several days, that is when the water starts standing instead of being absorbed into the ground and water levels start to rise for rivers, creeks, and streams. The best defense against a rising river is the levees that have been built in areas where the river is most likely to exceed the banks. When it is reported that the levees are in danger of being breeched, this is when people start using sand bags to try and keep the water back. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it does not.

With any storm where high winds and flood waters are involved, people will probably always do whatever they can to prevent their homes from being damaged or destroyed. Sometimes there just is no real defense when Mother Nature throws her worst at us. Out of all the technological advances we have made over the years that do help us predict severe weather, there is not likely to be any real advancements that can help us stop it from coming when it wants to.