When in Doubt, Always Pray in Case of a Natural Disaster
You know… every time I seem to be in the threat of a natural disaster, I always pray that the electricity doesn’t go out (my job depends on electricity), and… it always seem to work. Let me explain.
Last year, the south experienced a severe winter storm that had almost ten million power outages and killed several hundred people, especially in Texas. At first, I was excited to play in some snow with my dog Phoebe (who had never experienced snow at that point in her life). Needless to say, I was disappointed. Instead of the snow being soft and easy to form into a ball, it was as stiff and hard as ice. Speaking of ice, some of it started to stick to the power lines, and I prayed to Hell and back that the electricity wouldn’t go out (and if it did, it hopefully wouldn’t be out for too long). Well, our electricity went out, but it only stayed out for two hours, so that was good. We didn’t have to worry too much about surviving without electricity, and at least we didn’t get any tornadoes.
Then, there was Hurricane Ida, a category 4 hurricane that occurred sixteen years after Hurricane Katrina. And if you know anything about Hurricane Katrina, you would know how fatal and devastating that disaster was. I was six when Katrina occurred; we were without electricity for about a week. It was Hell- literally Hell. I guess my mother remembered Katrina more than I did, because she went and bought a lot of survival stuff in case the electricity went out again, while I prayed like crazy that none of it would happen. A lot of schools even closed in late August in case Ida ended up as bad as, or worse than, Katrina. But, what do you know? Ida was nowhere near as bad for me as Katrina was. I guess the Mississippi government must’ve learned their lesson from Katrina, because the worst my area got was some gusty wind and rain. We never did lose our electricity, but I don’t think I can say the same for those in southern Louisiana.
Yesterday (as of the date of this article’s publication), my area had a wind advisory that later turned into a tornado watch. The weather reporter was even thinking there might be some hail and that some people might have power outages. I was in the bathtub combating menstrual cramps when I first heard that, and I prayed like crazy twice that the electricity wouldn’t go out because that would absolutely terrible timing for me. At first, the lights in the bathroom started flickering a bit, and I was thinking the electricity was gonna go out. But luckily, the lights flickering and the Wi-Fi and cable going out for a couple of minutes was the worst we got from all of that, so that was good news.
Listen, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most religious person in the world, but I find it hard to believe that all those instances of praying didn’t save me from any more disasters. Maybe I’m just lucky or privileged or whatever, or maybe there is a God out there somewhere protecting me from any natural disasters. Whatever the case may be, I think I’m going to stick to praying in case of a natural disaster. It’s worked three times in a row for me; why shouldn’t it work the next few times?
