Being Prepared

By Marcia Mickelson

I'm a bit of a procrastinator, not always prepared. It takes something like Hurricane Ike to see the importance of preparation. We live in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the hurricane looked like it was coming right toward us last week. We just bought our house 3 months ago, and luckily the previous owner already had plywood cut to the size of all our windows. The plywood is used to cover windows to protect against harsh winds and rain. The previous owner had never used them, but she was prepared. She had them just in case. We were lucky, through no preparation of our own, that we had the plywood ready. On Wednesday, we went to The Home Depot to buy screws to put up the boards.

There was a huge line of 20-30 people in line for plywood. Home Depot was all out of plywood, and the people had been waiting for 2 hours and would likely wait for 2 more hours for the truck to come with more plywood.

We also went to Wal-Mart to pick up items for our 72 hour kit. No, we did not have one. I know we're supposed to, but now we have it. When we first moved to Corpus, one of the first things people at church asked is if we had our plywood. That's how important it is to be prepared here. We also had a lesson in church on being prepared, what to do in a hurricane, what to have in a 72 hour kit. Preparedness is really stressed here. It's very important to be prepared, as we found out this last week. I hope to be more prepared and less of a procrastinator in the future.