Thoughts on the Storm (Prelude)

Well, life here in Houston, TX is about to get...interesting, to use the word in the sense of the ancient Chinese curse. ("May your life always be interesting." Myself, I prefer a little boredom!) As I write this, we are about 36 hours from landfall of Hurricane Ike, and the mood varies from panic to oblivion, depending on who you speak to. I fall somewhere toward the calmer end of the spectrum, but it is fascinating to observe this enormous variation in attitudes.

One part of my life is my profession; I am a construction foreman for a large mechanical contracting company, and we install HVAC and plumbing in new buildings. My current project is a 17-story office building, which is up to the eighth floor so far. My crew and I spent the morning tying down and securing tools, equipment, and about 30,000 lbs of sheetmetal, in the hope that when we return Monday we don't find it scattered across most of the Katy Freeway frontage road. I will be satisfied if the two 150-ft tall tower cranes are still standing after the weekend. The superintendant closed down the site for the weekend, so all the workers could attend to their own homes and families. The nature of construction management is to embrace the worst-case scenario, so as to avoid as muck risk as possible, and minimize the impact of what cannot be avoided; we have to think, "How bad can it get, and what can we do about it before it gets that way?"

Another segment of my life is my church. We had an abbreviated choir practice last night, followed by an impromptu deacon's meeting with the pastor. (I am not a deacon, but I serve as much as I can, and I am often priviledged to be included in planning and decision-making. I do love the small-church family atmosphere!) Our fellowship hall was constructed in the fifties, and was built to a standard unmatched by most contemporary structures, so we have a standing plan to convert to shelter status if the need arises. We keep food, bedding, essential medicines, and other basic neccessities available, and have a co-ordinated team on standby, to open the building, bring people in, feed them, and comfort them. We have contacted our entire congregation, informed them, and we will stay in touch with each other to assist in any way possible. We also make our facilities available to the community, and more than once have had twenty families living there for a week at a time. I daily praise and thank God for bringing me to such a loving and caring church, where I have the chance to contribute and serve in a meaningful way, and display the love of Christ for each other, and for"strangers" as well.

My home was built just after WWII, and in the twenty years I have lived here, we have never flooded. Even during Tropical Storm Allison, when the vast majority of Houston took over 20" of rain in 24 hours, water never came closer than 50 feet to the house. (We were in fact an island, because for half a mile or more in all directions, strees were impassable, and stayed that way for three days. My neighbors acrss the street watched helplessly as water climbed over their thresholds, sometimes rising two or three feet inside their homes.) I will be boarding up windows tonight and tomorrow, and after that we will just sit, watch, wait, and pray.

My dad is probably my greatest concern; he is an old-school fatalist, one of those "It doesn't matter what you do; either the storm passes you by, or destroys everything, so it does no good to prepare." kind of people. He has no intention of leaving, which is ok, I guess, since there isn't really anywhere for him to go. He will not come to my house, because he "has" to stay and watch over his house and his cat. I may be able to convince him to cover the windows and clear the stuff from the yard, but probably only if I do it myself over his objections. Most likely I will spend more time getting him ready than anything else, but that's ok, too; I feel it's my turn to care for him, to "repay" the years he spent caring for me when I was little. Isn't that the way it should be?

Well, there is more to write, but the lines at the stores are long and getting longer, and much remains to be done. I will post more as the weekend progresses, for as long as the power stays on, and then after it comes back. Keep us in prayer, and know that I love you for doing it. Later!!