Opus 2017-293: On the Street: Hide or Ignore?

I have been keeping track of Hurricane Harvey.  Since I am in the area being effected I have a little more concern than much of the country but I am far enough from the center to be safe.  We are now to the point where we get into the heart-warming stories of rescue and the sad stories of death and destruction.  Recently I was reading in Proverbs and came across this verse.

(Proverbs 27:12 KJV)  A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.

One of the things that comes clear in times like this is that a lot of people are suffering more than they need to.  All many of them needed to do was pay attention.

There isn’t much you can do when you home is right in the path of a level 4 hurricane.  You can batten down the hatches but you can’t fold up your house and put it in the trunk while you drive to Kansas.  I accept that.  Just as I can’t do a lot when someone is driving toward me on the wrong side of the road.  You do the best you can.  But if the person trying to drive me off the road is doing so at 1:00 A.M. on New Years morning and I am in my car because I wanted to get some more ice cream from the local all-night market, I am the one who put the ante in the kitty.  The home owner, who has known that the hurricane is coming for days, could have made a trip to the local home improvement store and bought some plywood, nails and even a hammer.  Then if things develop you are ready to board up your windows.  It is a little late to do it when the first branch gets blown through your window.

One of the biggest defenses against tragedy is to think and plan ahead.  We bought some property in Texas a few years ago.  We are from California where it never rains but we know places in that desert where floods have raged and destroyed.  So when we bought we investigated.  There are maps available that will tell you where the flood plains are and where the 100 year floods can expect to hit.  We also checked for local drainage systems.  A constant question was, “What if it floods”.  A few years ago there was another flood in the San Antonio area.  Houses were wiped out and people rescued.  It was like Harvey on a smaller scale.  This type of event is common in Texas.  Guess where our home is?  On top of a hill. 

When you see someone being pulled out of the windows of a submerged car, ask yourself, “How did they get there?”  The car did not drive itself.  Usually the water doesn’t rise 5 feet in 10 seconds.  The places where it does are clearly labeled in Texas with warning signs and depth gauges.  The radio and internet have been getting boring with their warnings about flash flooding.  I have only lived here a few months and I know that of the three roads from my house to a hospital there is only one that is safe in times of rain.

So let’s pull the people off the roofs and out of their cars.  Let’s give them a warm blanket, cot and a hot meal.  While we are doing that let’s engage our brains and look to the decisions we have been making as individuals and as a country.

Blessings to you and pray as much for the rescuers as you do the ones being rescued.

homo unius libri