While tracking Hurricane Ida, I searched social media for additional information. I saw posts asking why anyone would stay in Louisiana after all the hurricanes and flooding they’ve experienced.

My blood boiled.

Why in the world would anyone live in California where mud slides take out houses in seconds and wildfires roar through the state every year?

Why would anyone live on in Minnesota where ice storms are a certainty and mosquitoes, the size of a small bird, are a constant pest?

And why would anyone live in Texas where the summers are brutal, the roadways are packed and a tropical depression can drop 50 inches of rain on a coastal city on any summer day?

The reasons are basic – family, friends and familiarity.

People in every state deal with natural disasters. Hawaii experiences powerful tsunamis and uneasy volcanoes, and Alaska has weeks where the sun never sets. But the snowy landscapes in the north and the white-sand beaches on the islands are unmatched in their beauty and majesty.

Alabama and Mississippi get bad press for their educational systems, but their beaches and rural country sides are lush and unspoiled.

Arkansas is often singled out as survivalist country, but this state has gorgeous hills and thousands of bubbling creeks shaded by oak and hickory trees.

Although the New England states deal with frigid “nor’easters,” the warm colors of the leaves in the fall can’t be beat, especially when driving on quiet country roads through covered bridges.

The Midwest takes a beating in the press for being boring “fly-over” country. The miles of rolling green corn fields from Iowa to Kansas are unequaled, and these states have earned their title of “heartland.”

The Wild West is hot and dusty in states like Montana, Utah, Colorado and the Dakotas, but just try and find a more gorgeous sight than the sun setting in the Rockies or snow-kissed firs in the winter.

New Mexico is criticized for their tough summers, but their red and orange canyons are a painters’ heaven.

Some of us look at the dry desert lands of Arizona and Nevada as home while others prefer the lush greenness and rock-filled rivers of Georgia and the Carolinas.

My birth state, New York, has brutal winters and high taxes, yet their gentle mountains and busy metropolitan cities offer something for everyone.

No matter the climate or the potential for a natural disaster, every state is home to someone.

We’ll roll the dice and take our chances with hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes because 99 percent of the time, life is ordinary.

In that ordinary, we find the extraordinary kindness of friends and family and the grit and determination to keep going no matter what happens.

Louisiana and Mississippi have a huge task in front of them, and many are still recovering from past storms. But just as they’ve done many times before, these Southerners will roll up their sleeves and not only clean up their homes but those of their neighbors.

The barbecue pits will be smoking, neighbors with power will house those who lost theirs and donations will pour in from those who escaped Mother Nature’s wrath.

Cousins will arrive in pick-up trucks with shovels, and strangers will reach out in their communities, offering whatever help they can.

Because families take care of family.

It’s going to take a lot more than a hurricane, mud slide or tornado to stomp out the spirit of those who come through adversity with their can-do attitude intact.

Things can be replaced and life will go on. That’s what we do in the places we call home.

 

 This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.