Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

• Matthew 7:24-27

We had two hurricanes (tropical storms) recently that have hit the state of Florida in the USA.  Ian was the first storm.  It came from the Fort Myers area of Florida and then took a diagonal swath across the state.  The people along the east coast of Florida got some beach erosion, but if that was the only storm, they would have easily recovered.  The west coast of Florida, where Ian first hit, will be feeling the impacts for a long time.

But then Nicole hit the east coast.  To make it worse, the wind field was extremely wide creating greater storm surge over a large area for an extended period while there was a full moon, or at least near full moon.  This took the damaged spots from Hurricane Ian and did what a young child often does, picking at the scab.

The result was that many homes on barrier islands of Florida are now uninhabitable.  Some homes are simply not there, in that the home fell into the surging water and has now been taken out to sea.

Of course, this all happened some time ago, but you can still see the photos of the houses, maybe ten feet above the beach level.  The houses seem to be suspended over the edge of the hill, or dune line.

And what is a dune anyway?  It is a sacrificial mound of sand to protect what is further inland, but in this case, they built upon the dunes, the things that were meant to be sacrificed in a large storm.

Many of these houses, according to the reporters were not snowbird homes or vacation homes.  They were “forever” homes.

But I looked at the videos and all I could think about was the Scripture above.  Jesus was extremely accurate, and as the parable goes, mankind was being a fool.  But who was the fool?  If the builder who built on sand could care less about beach erosion, is he the only fool?  Then again, he is paid and long gone.  Is the real estate agent the fool?  Again, paid and long gone.  Did the homeowner know that limestone was only 10-20ft below the surface of the sand, but the builder thought it too costly to drive pilings?  Even then, the eventual owner is the fool that has to pay the price.  Sorry, for calling everyone in this case a fool, but Jesus used the terms wise and foolish, and I am simply wondering where does this foolishness start or end in this case.

Yet, the photos will be used by the Climate Change Alarmists so that they can say.  “This is what Climate Change did to these homes.  Your home is next until you make us the rulers of the entire planet so that we can fix things.  Sure, everyone will be dirt poor except for the billionaires becoming trillionaires off everyone else’s misfortune, and of course, the politicians in their gated communities being safe.  But in your starvation, realize that we did this for YOU.”

The Billion Dollar Disaster Alarmists will use this to further the cause of insurance fraud, making themselves millionaires or billionaires in the process.  While some insurance companies will say that the damage was something that their policy does not cover, the alarmists will have already made their money.

I am sure that I am forgetting other lobbyists, politicians, lawyers, insurance claim adjusters, etc.

But let’s reexamine ourselves and our motives for living in a storm prone area.  I know those people are suffering.  They may have lost their life savings, along with everything they had saved over the course of their lives.  Yet, we can take none of it with us.

This was such a clear example of not paying attention to God’s Word, that I felt I needed to write about it.  I have seen no reporter make this connection.

As I often write, we need to repent and turn to God.  We might need to read the Bible again to see what other warnings God has given us that we have ignored.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.