Trust the Polygon

Where do you put your trust? Do you know James Span? If you don’t, you probably aren’t from Alabama and you haven’t been in the path of a tornado. Until recently, I had never heard of him. He is quite the celebrity in Alabama. Some predict that if he ran for governor, he would easily be elected.

How did he become so famous? Back in 2011, Birmingham had a category 5 tornado and was unprepared. James Span invented the polygon and led the campaign to trust the polygon. The polygon is the outlined area at risk in the hurricane. The detail of

the polygon is down to the street of the town.

My son Chris and his family live on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. Debbie had already arrived and Thomas and I were delivering my library to Chris’s house. When we pulled in, the skies were blue and the wind was gentle.

But there was an ominous forecast on February 13, 2025. James Span and the National Weather Service predicted that Alabama was a 5 out of 5 risk for a severe tornado. It was predicted to happen sometime between 2 and 9pm. So we, and all of Birmingham, tuned into James Span and his weather forecast. He was drawing polygons west of Birmingham

saying to the people in the polygon,” You are now in danger. Get yourself to a safe location.if you are in a trailer, you need to get to a shelter. If you are in a home, get to an interior location. Then once the storm passed, he would say you are out of danger.

It was now about 7 pm and our phones were all blasting warnings and James Span said the polygon was over our area. The long awaited hurricane had come with torrential winds and rains. We all went downstairs to ride out the hurricane and were prepared to go into the garage, the so-called safest space. Why did we do that?

Proverbs 27.12 says A sensible person sees danger and takes cover; the inexperienced keep going and are punished.

To be honest I did not see danger. I saw the inside of the basement. I saw the faces of my grandchildren. I saw James Span warning us on the television. So we did what Proverbs says to do. We were sensible in taking cover. We were safe where the storm couldn’t hurt us. I have learned to trust the polygon, I don’t know weather but Span does. I put my trust in God because He is the creator of all weather.