Crystal Beach, Galveston TX

The desolation and destruction suscitate a dual feeling of sadness and wonder. First the sadness of so much destruction and how it must have impacted the permanent or occasional residents. But looking at how nature seems to have ignored the markers posted by man and property limits it can only remind me of sand castles, build by my kids, that show for a short lived time all the signs of elaboration and permanence that will soon be swiped by an inexorable wave. I am amazed and bewildered that anyone would consider not only building but rebuilding on a land so close to a mean sea level that many scientist predict will be raising. A few months past, only miles from here I attended a well known sand castle contest where I was mostly impressed by the industrial and large scale nature of the tools used to build sand art, a far cry from my kids plastic buckets. This time they are rolling the trucks.