isabel cometh.

This morning in the Washington Post:

For ingenuity, simplicity, reliability, inexpensiveness — for grace, even, and for the ability to give comfort in a howling storm — it is hard to beat the humble sandbag.

It is an object of engineering haiku. It is perfectly designed to fulfill its large purpose with a minimum of resources. After the sandbag’s centuries of service in humanity’s stalemate against rising tides and apocalyptic deluges, no one has thought of anything better. A small amount of effort yields big dividends. Who could put a price on dry basements in Brookland and Capitol Hill, dry Smithsonian museums on the Mall, dry boutiques in Annapolis and Alexandria — all fortified against Isabel today with sandbags?

Isabel will be my 2nd direct hit by a hurricane - Gloria in 1985 was my first, and there was a spate of tropical storms in Texas. And then there was also the typhoon in ‘88 in southern China.

So.

Sandbags ahoy.