New year, old challenges

Wow. What weather these last two weeks, ending the year with both a groan and a whimper. Last Tuesday’s flood, blown in with rain and mild temperatures, was a stark contrast to the seven inches of snow and bitter cold a week earlier, the Tuesday before Christmas. Then kids could be forgiven for thinking the Washington Street sledding hill would be open all month, maybe all winter

Recall 2021’s post-Christmas week weather: days of record cold, snow and First Street businesses virtually shut down.

Who wanted to – or could – visit La Conner? This year’s pre-Christmas shopping week had echoes of last year’s post-Christmas shopping here.

Do not bet that two years of similarly ugly weather offers a pattern. Some say the best prediction of future activity and behavior is past activity and behavior. Twin years of rough weather does not make a trend in climate. Still, preparing for channel flooding is both a good and necessary investment independent of any two years – or decades – of flood tides.

The almanac and meteorologists chart end of year tides based on the annual position of the moon and earth to each other. Last year’s Jan. 12 Weekly News photo of the king tide was at the boat ramp under the Rainbow Bridge. This is a town on a saltwater channel on the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean. King tides – and floods – happen.

The climate has already changed, whatever ongoing committed drastic action governments take – or fail to. Locally, heavy lifting requires supporting physical work with planning, including funding investments.

But whether it is channel or river flooding, king tides or snow melt, last week shows that getting ahead of emergencies is a difficult dance. As Dave Hedlin says, “Nature always bats last.”

While natural disasters will be devastating to specific people and communities, all of us share the uncertainty. Collective decisions and investments are needed along with the individual changes to electric cars, heat pumps, composting and walking. We need to encourage creative thinking to get our decision makers for the town, the school district, the county and the state to have the courage to move past the status quo and stretch into a future where the only certainty is uncertainty and into a different and more difficult time.

We need to have the courage to continue investing and facing the cost of building into a sustainable future year in and year out for decades to come. Our society has failed to do that with starter homes and the massive quantity of apartments needed for the masses of working Americans all across the country. It is one thing to say that more is needed as we dismantle homeless camps and after we pump out garages and tear out carpeting. It is much harder to fund ongoing measured assessments of generational long term needs. Think of an adequate electric regional ferry system as an example.

Here is the only certain prediction. We live in an epoch of natural and therefore social changes. Choosing to make small changes, one after another, together, in concert and through mutual discussion and decisions will lessen the surprises due all of us.

Committed to you

With the struggles people faced with seven inches of snow and Swinomish Channel flooding a week later, many stayed home, tending to personal crises. The La Conner Weekly News went to the printer twice last month because of the commitment and stick-to-itiveness of staffers Marissa Conklin and Rhonda Hundertmark, with husband Fred shoveling snow and proofreading.

We think of hospital workers and first responders as unsung heroes working around the clock to meet the community’s needs. Newspapers published on printing dates require staff coming to the office from rural hinterlands after snow Dec. 20 and wading through ankle high water into the office Dec. 27– and higher water leaving – to get the last two issues out.

This paper – and every issue – is for its readers. The Weekly News delivers because of its staff.

My thanks to Marissa and Rhonda for their ongoing efforts week in and week out. And to Fred, too.