Marauders and the Little Rock Hilton

There are nine Red Cross disaster recovery vehicles parked at the Hilton on University. When I first saw them this evening, pre-logic, they were just a fleet of emergency vehicles and I thought something horrible must have happened in the hotel. But when I realized they were identical and simply parked, my best guess was that they were caravanning to Florida, camped out here while they wait for Hurricane Ivan to blow in like a marauding invader. I was right, as it turns out.

KUAR: Red Cross Using Little Rock as Staging Area for Florida Hurricane Relief (2004-09-09)

Charley was something; I was home that weekend, on holiday between the summer and fall sessions. We kept the TV on and tried to get ahold of Aunt Lin or one of the kids or Aaron. Charley was small and fast. A couple of weeks later, Labor Day weekend, I was home again, and Frances was set to hit right at the town where I'd spent a few days with some friends this May. I lit a candle and checked my email a lot. Frances was huge and slow.

Now they're waiting for Ivan, who sounds like the most ferocious monster of them all.

It's got to be exhausting. You can handle anything, I've always thought, as long as you know when it's going to be over. You just pace yourself and think about tomorrow. But this is like being bone-tired nearing home, concentrating all your energy on staying awake and alive for the next mile, and then finding out you have to drive a hundred more.