This post is an article I wrote the evening after hurricane Ike hit my home. Unfortunately I did not have power or internet and was not able to publish it until today. I will be following up tomorrow with a post I wrote a couple days later (again without power or internet).
Last night I was hit by a category 2 hurricane. Ok, it wasn’t quite a direct hit. The eye of the storm shifted about 25 miles to the east instead of right over my house. This dropped the top wind speed by about 15 MPH and that was just enough for us to escape serious damage. We personally were lucky. We lost part of our fence and a few shingles on our roof. A couple screens were ripped off, wadded up, and thrown at our house.
All in all this is not conducive to a good nights sleep!
The winds surged and at times roared. When it was at it’s peak I could hear my windows straining and I’m stunned none broke. Like I said we were lucky.
Not all of my neighbors were so lucky. One lost most of their shingles. A good friend just a few housed down the street had a tree resting on his roof. Several neighbors had leaking roofs. The number of branches on the ground was prodigious!
A further complication was the loss of power. 3.5M Houstonians (metro) were in the dark. As I write this only 100k have power back. Most will be in the dark for a week or two. The worse hit areas may be down for 3-4 weeks.
Yes, the damage is amazing.
But there is a positive
My mind has a need to find a purpose or a lesson in any situation and tends to go into overdrive as things get worse and worse. Several business ideas popped into my head and started fleshing themselves out. Solutions to problems magically appeared. These should start showing up in Wealth and Wisdom over the next few months.
W are also now closer to many of our neighbors. Our friends are now proven and closer than ever as we cleared branches and debris. For the neighbors we don’t know well we are now friends as we helped each other recover.
8 Lessons Natures Wrath Can Teach Us
1) Preparation is critical: We had a full supply of the necessities. We filled up our gas tanks. Our propane tank (and a spare) were full so we could grill for a week or two. We had several days of water, candles, and batteries.
As a result we are not desperate. The lines of people looking for food and water are mostly due to lack of preparation. This is what is flashed across your evening news!
2) The best laid plans: No matter how well you plan life still happens. In our case it was my chainsaw. It worked fine a couple of months ago. Today was a different story. Gas started pouring out when the fuel lines failed due to old age.
3) Have a backup plan: Once the chainsaw went down things got more physical. A good old bow saw is a godsend when your chainsaw stops working!
4) Who needs to workout when your chainsaw is broken? Clearing downed trees is a hell of a good workout.
5) Thank god for neighbors with generators: While I won’t be watching American Idol – not that I did when I had power – I was able to run my refrigerator and freezer. This will keep our food from spoiling for a week or two until we get power back.
6) Most people are good: It warmed my heart to see everyone pulling together. It also reminded me that friendships are formed and tested in times on need.
7) But some people are bums: Several neighbors strolled out after all the work was done.
Don’t think this wasn’t noticed by everyone else!
7.5) Karma: My bonus lesson is that karma is alive and kicking. We spent several hours working with a few neighbors clearing the storm damage. We did it to help our friends and neighbors while expecting nothing in return.
It turns out our neighbor has a generator. Guess who has extension cords stretched to his house? Suess who is not worrying about his freezer?
Karma.