Back in June of 2001, Tropical Storm Allison (I think it was Allison) came through Houston. Actually, the way it came through was really quite funny. First, it comes inland from the Gulf, and hits us. Then it just sits on top of us for quite some time. Then, it moves northward, kind of toward Dallas. Then, it stalls, and comes back down over the top of us again! Anyway, back to the story...I have always shared that excitement over the storms, and kind of get happy when a storm like that is heading toward Texas in the Gulf. As it turned out, Allison didn't do us any particular harm, though I woke up at 2:00am (after it had been constantly pouring down rain and sometimes hail for many, many hours), only to find water all the way up to the house. If the water would have risen another inch or two, we would have flooded. I thought it was fun to have the experience.
Several days later, I went with a group from my church to help out some people in a more inner-city (and incidentally lower-lying) neighborhood. These people's houses had water lines 4 and 5 feet above ground level. They lost all their furniture. We spent the whole day ripping out carpet, tile, and sheetrock, moving the furniture to the front yard in hopes of salvaging something, and otherwise cleaning out a real mess. It was bad. Really made me wonder about whether I should want one of those hurricanes or tropical storms heading my way. Sure, the thunder and lightning and rain is fun, but the collateral damage just isn't cool.
-Douglas
