The great English poet John Milton (1608-1674) is most famous for his epic poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained[1].
To help you recall your high-school English literature: Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) recounts the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The poem comprises over 10,000 lines of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter – think Shakespeare) in multiple volumes. Paradise Regained (1671), shorter, at only 2000 lines, focuses on Christ’s success in resisting Satan’s temptation.
Now to the present day. Hurricane Milton – carrying its attendant storm surge, high winds, flooding and tornadoes – has come and gone. It was the second-strongest hurricane ever so-far recorded in the Gulf of Mexico. It made Florida landfall on October 10, where it rapidly weakened in intensity, then losing its definition as it passed over the Bahamas on October 11.
But the hurricane’s impacts linger. Fact is, many are only beginning to be felt. In effect, the storm is writing three narratives – and with a bit of help from ChatGPT – in unrhymed iambic pentameter[2].
Hurricane Milton’s Paradise Cost.
To start, some two dozen Floridians died.
Some context: this loss compares to that
Of Hurricane Helene’s toll in Florida.
The total national deaths were ten times more.
These losses pale beside the toll of storms
In nineteen twenty-eight’s Okeechobee,
Where more than twenty-five hundred souls were lost,
Most victims found within the bounds of Florida.
Property damages show a different trend;
The Okeechobee storm’s loss, half a billion
In current terms, reveals the cost of storms.
Yet Milton’s damage reaches far beyond,
One hundred times that sum, perhaps fifty billion.
The total losses stemming from Helene
Are likewise found within that fifty billion range.
Hurricane Milton’s Paradise Lost.
But this is only just the starting point.
Experience and science both predict
That losses will continue to increase.
Property loss differs from business costs,
Which in this modern age can match the toll.
At Milton’s peak, power outages struck homes,
Affecting millions, six million were told
To evacuate, and many closed their doors.
For workers slow return to jobs once held,
While studies on the deaths from disasters show
That long-term rates can rise tenfold from strikes.
These losses stem from homes that once were safe,
From savings spent to cover what’s uninsured,
From corrosion of community health,
And from the rise of substance abuse as well.
The toxic season of political strife,
Of fake news, and conspiracy theories
About the storm, the aid, and forecasts too,
Have added to the burden many bear.
The twenty-four hurricane season has changed
The view of many Floridians who came,
Believing they had found a paradise,
With hurricanes as minor, rare annoyances.
Yet storms have painted Florida anew,
A hotbed of disruption, risk, and grief,
Where some decide to leave the sunny shores,
And move inland or seek the north once more.
Hurricane Milton’s Paradise Regained.
Yet worse may come with warming and rising seas;
By twenty-one hundred, if no action’s made,
Florida might shrink to a third its size today.
A recent article in the Times suggests
Three phrases sum up options facing all:
To fight the water, build the sea walls high,
Or live with it, put homes upon the stilts,
Or pack your bags, a choice that’s hard to bear.
Florida will not face this threat alone;
It seeks support beyond its borders wide.
This problem is not just a state affair,
But rather one that touches all the land.
A British tale of giving land to sea
Offers us hope, not through mere imitation,
But by expanding all the paths ahead.
It’s tempting to reimagine this state
As paradise, where many people thrive,
An open site where whole nations may come,
For restoration and for renewal.
Bottom line? Hurricane Milton was – but, still evolving and developing, will remain – a tragedy. Out of respect to those who died, and those survivors who live, but are living the nightmare of trying make their lives worth living while awash in a sea of government red tape and public oblivion to their plight (because the nation is moving on to focus on politics), we need to think through recovery. We need to do better than rebuild-as-before. That only condemns those who follow to even greater pain and loss. If we are to retain or regain the natural paradise that is Florida and at the same time minimize future suffering, we need to build a new social contract with each other and with the generous but sometimes dangerous and sometimes fragile real world we live on.
(Posted this day, with apologies to both John Milton and Hurricane Milton – and a tip of the hat to ChatGPT.)
[1]Two interesting facets of Milton’s life: First, he wrote these poems while blind (!). Second, federal-employee-readers of LOTRW might take note; Milton’s career included a stint as a civil servant. His job? He was responsible for Latin correspondence for the so-called Commonwealth of England – the name Britons gave themselves during that particularly tumultuous period between the execution of Charles I and the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. Milton’s circumstances following Charles II’s return to the throne were awkward. Given the parallels to today’s politics, personalities, and great uncertainties, Milton’s experiences and how he survived them might contain instructive lessons.
[2] Full disclosure; I’ve made only the most cursory examination of ChatGPT’s work, satisfying myself that it has the feel of blank verse and comes close to the intent and meaning of my original text (allowing for some license). More discerning readers may come away unsatisfied. And I flunked the IQ test of getting a few supporting links into the iambic pentameter. Here they are:
