Add prayers to your arsenal

Just checking on you guys to see if things are getting better and noticed the article where the reporter suggests maybe Saipan should have a desalination plant. We live in Key West for 14 years. The Keys look like a long stream of pearls off of the tip of Florida and it goes on for 130 miles to the last key—Key West. So Key West is 90 miles from Cuba and 135 miles from Miami.

We usually get our water from 16-inch pipes from the mainland, but in 2005 when Katrina hit, the line was broken and I think the groundwater in Miami was not safe so we could not use it.

The Navy had built a desalination plant in Key West in 1966 and gave it to our local water company but it had not been used in years. So they turned on the old plant and it worked! It was a miracle to us! Now, once a month, the local water plant turns the plant on and we use it one day out of the month, just in case! So glad the Marines could supply you with water.

Also we had a sister at the convent many years ago, who said if we prayed to the Virgin Mary, Key West would never be lost to a hurricane and we have actually been very lucky. There is a hurricane shrine by the side of the basilica and during hurricane season it seems like there is always someone there praying (it’s become a tourist attraction). So don’t forget to pray to the Virgin Mary, you are really in a typhoon zone. Good wishes to all.

Carol Lorek
Florida