Tag: Texas

The Blue Tsunami 1: Breathing Out

It’s been a week since the midterms and I’m still riding the incredible high we’re all feeling. I sent off my mail-in ballot at the start of October and bit my nails for three weeks  (3 weeks!) as it traveled really, really, really slowly from Germany to Washington State. Finally I received word that it had arrived and my vote had been tallied.

Phew.

Then I returned to fretting about how the midterms were going to end. I live overseas because I fell in love with a German, and ever since I moved here it’s my ritual to wake up every few hours during an election and go in the living room to turn on the tv and see what’s happening. Last week I got up shortly after midnight, too soon to call any races but turnout was reported as unusually high. A good sign?

I went back to bed, got up at 2:30, and then sat glued to the television until 4:00 in the morning…. State races were being called one after the other. North Carolina: blue! South Carolina: blue! Georgia: blue! Maine: blue! Ohio: blue! Michigan: BLUE! TEXAS: blue! KANSAS: blue! I sat on the sofa in disbelief as a blue wave gathered and grew and grew and kept right on growing

And then I went in the bedroom where my husband was sleeping and jumped on him to wake him up, laughing like a wild woman and repeating over and over “It’s a tsunami Uwe, it’s a blue tsunami! North Carolina! South Carolina! Georgia! Maine! Ohio! Michigan! TEXAS! KANSAS!”

Political cartoonist Jack Ohman references the Blue Wave and the Reflecting Pool in his commentary on midterm 2026 elections. 

Jack Ohman/Tribune

I got to watch and take part as my fellow Americans made history. The last time the country went so profoundly blue was right after Watergate. I vividly remember that year, but I was too young to vote then.

I’ve had a week to think about how this feels, aside from fantastic – and what I’ve realized is I’ve been holding my breath for the last decade and can finally breathe out. I know a lot of funky shit can happen and maybe will. But right now I’m far too giddy with relief and joy and the flood of fresh oxygen in my lungs. I’ll get back to the nitty gritty soon enough. In the meantime, I hope everyone is savoring the knowledge that a mandate of love and the common good for all just celebrated a major victory.

We did it!

NOTES: Cartoon courtesy of Jack Ohman/Tribune. I posted very differently ten years ago. Our House is on Fire!

© 2026 Jadi Campbell.  To see Uwe’s photos and more pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.

Follow this link for my books: Amazon.com.

Houston, We Have a Problem

“Houston, we have a problem.” [1]

I watched Hurricane Harvey approach along with my fellow Americans and the rest of the world. Harvey’s Category 4 storm winds devastated Houston, Texas, America’s fourth-largest city. Experts estimate the costs to clean up and rebuild the city at a staggering $75 billion. [2]

Photos of destroyed homes, flooded streets and ruined businesses filled the media. When I watched and listened to footage of interviews with the locals, I had a strange déjà vu.

  • “I know it’s not a safe place to be, but … I don’t know where else I can go.”
  • “I was scared. I’ve seen a lot of things but that terrified me.”
  • “I just lost everything I worked for. Everything. The only thing I got are the clothes on my back.”
  • “We just had to go.”
  • “If they don’t restore power and water for three to six weeks, we have no choice but to leave.”
  • “It’s important for individuals, particularly that are in shelters, to let their family know that they’re safe and well and where they’re at.”
  • “If my kids are safe, my husband is safe, the dogs are with us, who cares.”
  • “There’s no way to get our family out.”

I listened as a young man carrying a small child told reporters that both his home and workplace had been destroyed. He needed shelter and a job, and was afraid he wasn’t going to be able to support his two-year-old daughter. [3]

These quotes come from the survivors of Hurricane Harvey. I’ve heard them before, word for word. These are the interviews I watch on the German nightly news with refugees fleeing Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Iraq. These are the stories of the two asylum seekers I massaged to treat their trauma.

The hundreds of thousands Texans and, later, Floridians who were forced out by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma aren’t all that different from the families escaping war zones. It is devastating when your home is gone. William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says “We used to look at citizens as disaster victims. Now they’re looked at as what we call disaster survivors.”

I’m not sure what conclusions (if any) to draw from the many similarities. Perhaps it’s that we’re all connected. Suffering is not limited to any one region or situation. Regardless of nationality, race, or religion, I hope our compassion is universal. Let’s extend it to families everywhere who lost all they had and now struggle to rebuild their lives.

As a survivor bravely added, “Life still goes on.”

NOTES: © Jadi Campbell 2017. [1] Phrases.org.uk  [2] “Moody’s Analytics, a New York-based financial analysis company, has pegged the destruction to southeast Texas, which includes the Rockport area where Harvey made landfall, as of mid-morning Aug. 29 at about $75 billion, covering homes, vehicles, businesses, infrastructure and lost economic output. Homes and vehicles alone in the region are expected to suffer about $30 billion to $40 billion in damage, according to an email from a Moody’s representative. Regional businesses could see up to $15 billion in damage.” Bizjournals.com [3] Quotes gathered from The Washington Post, Daily Mail UK, Caller Times, Houston Chronicle and personal interviews.

Click here for my author page to learn more about my books and me.

 

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