Pastor Steve’s Blog Sep 23, 2018 Even though I have been through two hurricanes these last two years just like the rest of you, I am still amazed when I turn on the weather channel and see what the powerful forces of nature can do, especially when it comes to the power, wind and rain from a hurricane. Now we have Hurricane Florence and its terrible flooding aftermath. I am glad it didn’t come as a Category 4 or 5 as some weather forecasters thought it might when it was some days out. Thank God for that. But the total rain amounts are astounding. To see roads on which Cindy and I travel to and through North Carolina underwater is amazing. Please be in prayer for all those affected by this storm and also be thinking about a financial contribution if you haven’t given already. Let’s put some helping hands with our prayers. I am confident we will be receiving a special offering, on a coming Sunday morning in the next few weeks, to send to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to help with hurricane relief. One additional note. As I watched Hurricane Florence churn in the Atlantic, I wondered just how much energy is generated by one hurricane. I found an article online written by Michelle Z. Donahue on October 12, 2016 for the Smithsonian.com just after Hurricane Matthew passed through talking about just that. The amount of energy generated is almost unbelievable. “As destructive natural phenomena go, hurricanes are among the heavyweights. If not for the gale-force winds and resulting projectile debris, then for the massive flooding that results when one makes landfall and stalls out, a hurricane is a nasty piece of work. Just ask the residents of the coastal Carolinas and Georgia this week as they wring themselves out from Hurricane Matthew’s weekend deluge. In terms of energy stored and released, hurricanes pack a huge punch. Your “average” tropical cyclone might release the equivalent of 600 terawatts of energy, with a quarter of a percent of that as wind; the vast majority of the energy in a hurricane is in the form of heat stored and released as water vapor condenses into rain. So while wind is only a small part of the overall energy output of a hurricane, it still generates vast amounts of power: around 1.5 terawatts, or just over a quarter of the world’s current total electrical generating capacity of 5.25 terawatts. The wind from just one storm is a gold mine of clean energy.”