Technology’s progress over the centuries has brought man out from the caves to exploring space and some of that progress now gives us at least some time to prepare for catastrophic events.

Katrina’s death toll was horrific, but how horrific would it have been without the warning we received because of what the satellites circling the globe and planes flying into the storm gave meteorologists the information they needed to sound the warning.

We have just been hit by two wintry blasts, the first of which caught even the forecasters off guard, resulting in three deaths here in Picayune. The second wintry blast, which hit us this week, came with enough warning that Picayune and Pearl River County, and other locations it affected, were able to stockpile materials needed to keep the roads and bridges from becoming so slippery with ice.

Other items were able to be put into place where they could be quickly deployed to close dangerous bridges and roads if the ice overwhelmed the protections the city and county employees were using to prevent that from occurring.

Not too long ago, the storms, both Katrina and the winter storm, would have struck with little or no warning..

We never seem to think about how far we have come in just a few decades to give such warnings, in fact, we often now are not astonished by what technology has provided but grow angry and frustrated that the warnings didn’t come faster or more accurately.

Instead of that anger and frustration, we should thank the scientists who continue to work to advance the technology to give us the warnings.