Cedar Flats Island

The crest of this patch was 3 hours ago, and much higher!

     The road that passes in front of my house is named Cedar Flats.  Flooding from hurricane Irene turned the creeks into rivers and those rivers cut a couple of paths in the road, one to the north, one to the south, about two miles apart.  Cedar Flats became an island.
     The two temporary rives where running fast and wide.  Big standing waves made rafting down the water flow come to mind and then immediately the realization that it would get you killed.  Those waves were everywhere, born from stuck trees and lifted roadway.
     I did get a good feeling as I walked along our island.  It reminded me of the good feelings I have had while visiting real islands, Martha's Vineyard, Block, the Florida Keys.  I think is came from having my area of living reduced to a manageable size, "A reasonable Size."
  

entrance to the Parkway, the stream is to the left

  This area is populated with a few multi-generational families.  That kind of changes the feeling of the area.  Familiarity, and longevity breed tolerance and compassion, or so it would seem.
     The lack of motorized vehicles and the site of people walking and looking at the place where they live was very different.  Most days people drive by, fast, listening to radios, talking on cell phones, texting, but not looking at the trees, creeks, their environment.  Though people were taking pictures with cell phones, they were looking at the place where they lived.  We talked to and met some people we hadn't known.  We even met a couple who owned our house 30 years ago.  They moved a mile and a half away when they inherited their Grandmothers home.
     I had fantasized in the past about what it would be like if our road where cut off, usually on days when the cars or motorcycles came thru on mass, and at speed.  Thanks to Hurricane Irene, I got to experience it. It was good.  I am sure that long term, I might get challenged by getting things from the "outside world" transported over the water, but for the time, island living was a step down in pace and a step up in quality of life.  The quality came in the form of being able to walk the road with my dog and not worry about speeding cars coming around blind curves and threatening us.  It came from getting to know our community a little better.  It came from direct attention to our environment, local environment.  It came from the deep appreciation of the help we get from electricity to pump our well water and cool our freezer, though we got on fine without it.
     The 4 square miles of island that was Cedar Flats Island for a day was a small gift, a vacation, a disconnect from the faster larger world.  It was a day and an island of a reasonable size.