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During the traditional brunt of Virginia's hurricane season, Douglas Powell's poetic roll call of named storms illustrates their human costs.
Douglas Powell, known artistically as Roscoe Burnems, is the first poet laureate of Richmond, Virginia, and author of the poem “Who’s Next?” Its verses form a kind of litany of named hurricanes, and an exploration of the human, cultural and property losses that each one brought about. Flooding, not wind, is the most destructive hazard associated with hurricanes.
The poem is published here, with permission of the author, as a reminder that September through mid-October is historically Virginia’s most active hurricane period.
Powell is a National Poetry Slam Champion, TEDx Youth speaker, three-time published author, and star of the poetry and comedy special "Traumedy," available on Amazon Prime and other platforms.
“Who’s Next?” was first presented publicly at ArtWorks Gallery in March, as part of the opening of ArtWorks and DCR’s Flood Awareness exhibition.
Who’s Next?
By Roscoe Burnems
From the USA Today: “Flooding killed 116 people in the United States in 2017. It is still the most lethal type of weather event in the nation. Floods are responsible for about $6 billion in damage annually in this country. Much of the severe flooding in America has occurred around the Mississippi River and in Texas, as well as along the Gulf Coast and Florida, because those areas are vulnerable to hurricanes. Floods have shaped the history of our nation, wiping out some communities forever, and forcing others to start a new life in another part of the country.”
And a country often chooses silence
Even when the rivers and oceans are screaming
And devouring gurgling bodies
Buildings crying for help.
The negligence is palpable
Even when people gripping palisades
Pass by and peak tides
Peek through levies
So many nameless bodies but we all hear the names
Of the hurricanes turned villain
Harvey
Houston, Texas
89 fatalities
$126 billion in damage
Houston, known as “The Big Heart”
Stops beating, if only for a moment
A city that once opened its arms to Katrina victims
Then had to grab on to all it could hold together
Hands spread across The Space City
sunken to constellations of rainfall
60 inches tall
Sandy
New York City
233 fatalities
$88 billion in damage
This time it's Big Apple
But it’s citizens bobbing in the current
Subways become submarines
And the richest city nearly becomes a wasteland
To a lack of urgency.
And dire uncertainty leaks
All the way down to Jersey’s shore
Katrina
Louisiana
Nearly 2,000 fatalities
$104 billion in damage
Call her the Evil Queen of Hurricanes
The empress of ending lives
The deity of natural disaster
Whatever you call her, make sure to talk about her legacy
How she nearly washed away a culture
How she nearly made an exhibit of Louisiana
A memory we would have seen in a museum of history
A relic we would've only seen in underwater adventures on film.
Now a myriad of documentaries track the carnage
Andrew
Florida
65 fatalities
$27 billion in damage
Nearly ended the Everglades
Guess nothing last forever
But the destruction lasted long after he was ran away
The coward
Leaving death through Dade County and beyond
Almost made the peninsula, an island
Galveston
Texas
12,000 fatalities
Countless amounts of damage
It ain’t your usual name
But this won’t your usual storm
Winds that shot through like a revolver
The Wild West got run down by the worst outlaw of them all
A city unprepared for the fall
Crumbled at the weight of the downpour
Enough lives to fill up a Texas stadium
And we still blame the water
But with no action
The question is not who will save us
But what name will destroy us next?
Copyright 2022 Roscoe Burnems. Published with permission of the poet.
Categories
Dam Safety and Floodplains
Tags
dams | flood control | rivers
