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Sometimes chance makes the weather.
Sometimes people just want to see other people drown.
"We lose our levee before dark. It's not our sandbags that fail, or our backs. It's the meat of the levee itself, months of saturation leaving it soft and pliable, and porous. Two, three, then four places give way from below, water boiling up, nothing left to do but retreat and curse the luck of it. For just an instant, I consider slipping off to see my house one last time. It's back from the river, on slightly higher ground, and maybe there's hope. For the ten thousandth time, I entertain the image of building a private barricade, saving my property with a single superhuman effort. But one of the painful lessons in a disaster -- a lesson that always comes as a surprise -- is how weak and ineffectual each of us is. The difference between human and superhuman amounts to about two rows of sandbags. Which is rarely enough, I've learned. Time after time after time."
Robert Reed is a prolific author who has seen a few deluges. He is best known for his Great Ship saga. His novella, "A Billion Eves," won the Hugo Award in 2007.
Genre: Science Fiction
Sometimes people just want to see other people drown.
"We lose our levee before dark. It's not our sandbags that fail, or our backs. It's the meat of the levee itself, months of saturation leaving it soft and pliable, and porous. Two, three, then four places give way from below, water boiling up, nothing left to do but retreat and curse the luck of it. For just an instant, I consider slipping off to see my house one last time. It's back from the river, on slightly higher ground, and maybe there's hope. For the ten thousandth time, I entertain the image of building a private barricade, saving my property with a single superhuman effort. But one of the painful lessons in a disaster -- a lesson that always comes as a surprise -- is how weak and ineffectual each of us is. The difference between human and superhuman amounts to about two rows of sandbags. Which is rarely enough, I've learned. Time after time after time."
Robert Reed is a prolific author who has seen a few deluges. He is best known for his Great Ship saga. His novella, "A Billion Eves," won the Hugo Award in 2007.
Genre: Science Fiction
Used availability for Robert Reed's Our Prayers Are With You