Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Huddled

We in south Mississippi can relate to huddling with our families when hurricanes threaten. We have a least two days to prepare and make everything safe and secure for our homes and families. Imagine what it would be like if we only had 60 seconds or even 10 seconds to prepare for something that could kill us, our family members, our homes, or our businesses.

People in Sderot have about 10 seconds to seek shelter when the bomb sirens sound. Ten seconds to find a child that may have been playing outside, 10 seconds to shelter kids at school, 10 seconds to leave your car to find a bomb shelter, 10 seconds to choose which children will go in your home's bomb shelter and which ones will have to remain outside: This is what the people of Sderot have had to contend with for over 5 years.

Now, in Beersheba, the longest range yet of any Hamas bombs, the sirens are sounding. Those in Beersheba have a little bit more time, about 60 seconds.

Those extra seconds don't really mean much when it is your family in danger or when you are at work.

2 comments:

Batya said...

People in the areas under attack aren't leaving their homes.

Anonymous said...

When I wrote about huddling with our families during hurricanes, I was drawing on the experience of my family's. We didn't evacuate for Hurricane Katrina, though we did shelter together at my sister's home.

The chaos and fear during that time is hard to describe.

I cannot imagine that the chaos and fear when the sirens sound and the realization there's only a few precious seconds to shelter you and your family.