There were no hurricanes in Nebraska where I grew up. There were blizzards and non-stop springtime tornado warnings but nothing like this. Weather issues were almost an adventure for me as a child. There was inherent danger in the tornadoes but we were never hit so reality that nature can bring suffering and even loss of life was a foreign concept. Now in my twentieth year in Houston, I've lived through Hurricanes Rita and Ike, respectively. I have a better sense of what to do before the storm. I had two flashlights, a week+ worth of food, a full tank of gas, more than $100 in cash, candles and matches, about ten of our WCS Honduras bottles filled with water in the fridge. I froze about ten plastic containers for ice in case I lost electricity. I filled up a five gallon container in case I needed it to flush the toilet in the event the water went out. When I took showers, I closed the drain so I would have that, too, just in case. Perhaps my best decision was to make a week's worth of coffee to store in the refrigerator- can't live without the caffeine. In the end, I got by easily in contrast to those who were hard hit. I never had to use the water or coffee or flashlight or candles and I still have much of my food left- I made several crock pots. The week both crawled by and flew by. Seven night ago, we had no idea what to expect. Now we know.
That brings me to the picture at the top of the page. In 2005, I attempted to evacuate Houston soon before Hurricane Rita struck as our then mayor urged. Perhaps a million of my fellow citizens also heeded the advice. I left at 3 AM and traveled only 50 miles up US 59.... in sixteen hours. I had no food or water- I naively was going to drive to the home of relatives in Arkansas, stopping at a McDonald's along the way. I was so thirsty- it was in the 90s and I was afraid to run my AC because of the threat of running out of gas- that I began to fantasize about the water fountain outside our WCS weight room. In Cleveland, Texas, a deputy told me the smartest thing to do would be to go back to Houston and I did, making it in about an hour. There was zero traffic back into Houston.
Before I left for Rita, I gave my neighbors, the Reeds, the food I had in my refrigerator. Now, I had to sheepishly knock on their door and ask for it all back. They graciously returned it. There was one other thing; they gave me two bottles of water as I had none, just in case. I've kept one of them in cold storage. I doubt I would ever drink it- I'm not sure water has an expiration date. But I need a constant reminder to be ready, to be prepared come what may. In Matthew 24:44, Jesus taught this:,
For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.
In Matthew 25: 13, He said much the same thing, adding you don't know the day or hour.
The weather is so unpredictable, even as the forecasting has improved. I was prepared in a humanly way for Harvey but in a direct hit, it would not have mattered. Some escaped and some tragically didn't. Most will go on but some won't have that opportunity. There is a day coming where all of us will be called to account. That chilled, vintage bottle of Deja Blue, now on its third refrigerator, is a sober reminder to me that that is what I inevitably must prepare for. And inevitably, we will be closer tomorrow than we are today.
Applicable quote of the day:
If there's a choice between tap water and bottled water, the consumer can make that choice. In a very large geography in the world, that choice does not exist.Muhtar Kent
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