Residents throughout Jacksonville were complying with a mandatory evacuation order as Hurricane Floyd approached land in September of 1999. Our teenage sons had been recruited to board up the windows of a neighbor’s large ocean front home. As my husband and I loaded our car to evacuate the threatened city, our boys were still in the middle of their assignment. We drove up to the ocean-front mansion and instructed them to get in the car. They protested as their job was not done and they were being paid by the window. Pulling rank as their mother, I insisted they come now, claiming the homeowners could deal with the consequences of having hired them the morning of the evacuation.
In just over an hour our family, along with one of the boys’ friends, arrived at a hotel in Gainesville where we had reserved rooms. The bands of the hurricane sprinkled the area where we stayed, but didn’t stop our children from playing at a nearby park or stop their dad from running stadiums at the home of the Florida Gators.
Meanwhile, as the children were enjoying their unscheduled vacation from school, half a million people sat in gridlock traffic. The journey that had taken us just over an hour took almost 12 hours for our friends who would meet us at our destination. They passed cars that had run out of gas, people who were forced to go to the bathroom on the side of the road, and people begging for food and water.
Lesson #1. When evil is approaching, don’t wait until the last minute to flee. Just because the day is still sunny and skies are still blue doesn’t mean we can be oblivious to the danger that is approaching. If we fail to heed the prophet’s warnings to flee, we can be caught up, trapped in the midst of those who have fallen prey to deception.
Recall President Nelson’s warning: “In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.” Such counsel can protect us from spiritual gridlock, from being trapped amongst those who do not know the freedom that comes from following a prophet.
Lesson #2. Preparation is necessary whether you stay or go. Everybody in Florida knows that having adequate storage of food, clean water and fuel is necessary for riding out a hurricane. If you go to the grocery store within days of an oncoming hurricane you will find the shelves totally bare of bottled water, batteries, and non-perishable snacks. Floridians know how to stock up. However, procrastination can destroy the best of intentions to be prepared, as a late-comers arrive to find bare shelves. Lesson #1 applies here, too. Preparation is necessary, but last-minute preparation might not be possible.
Our county provides sandbags to help protect your property when a hurricane is coming. But you have to fill them yourself. My husband has joined many residents who arrive with their shovels and their strong backs to scoop sand into polypropylene bags and seal them with zip ties. It takes days to fill enough bags to protect our property, but when our neighbor’s pool has been filled with mud and salt-water, my husband’s efforts have kept ours clean.
To Stay or Go?
One of the dilemmas that we face whenever a hurricane threatens the state is whether to prepare to stay and ride it out or prepare to flee. In either case the property needs protecting. In either case we will need supplies for several days. However, the question is, “will our lives be safe if we stay?” Can our preparation protect us from this storm or is it so serious that we must flee?
This is a question that those in spiritual danger also ask themselves. There are evil influences all around us. Are our preparations sufficient to protect us from the dangers we and our children face every day? Would it be wise to “get out of Dodge?” We don’t know the direction a hurricane will turn at the last minute, so it’s impossible to predict just how vulnerable we will be. Likewise, it may be impossible to predict just how dangerous our spiritual storms may become. A serious conversation with the Lord may be necessary to make this decision.
If you are in the midst of evil, and cannot flee, don’t hesitate to protect yourself from harm. Keep oil in your lamp. Be spiritually strong so when the “winds come, yea the shafts in the whirlwind, when the hail and the mighty storms beat upon you,” (Helaman 5:12). Have your windows boarded up and your sandbags in place. Be in a good place with The Savior, relying on Him to be the bread of life and living water.
Lesson #3. Prior to a hurricane we look out for one another physically. When he was the bishop of a costal ward, my husband was required to have a hurricane plan that he presented to all the members of the ward. He was responsible for their temporal safety as well as their spiritual safety. Ministering brothers and sisters contacted everyone for whom they were responsible to make sure they had a place to go if they chose to flee, or that they had adequate supplies should they choose to stay. Bishops in unaffected areas provided housing for our members who would not be taken in by family or could not pay for accommodations.
In like manner, before a crisis ever comes into our lives, we look out for one another spiritually. Week after week we work to fortify and strengthen one another spiritually in our lessons and with our testimonies so when their spiritual hurricanes arrive, they can flee to the safety of the ward, and the stake. Just as a stake holds a metaphorical protective tent in place, our wards and stakes protect members who are being pelted spiritually with hail and rain.
After the Hurricane
The ragbag in my laundry room is full of yellow “Mormon Helping Hands” t-shirts. (Now days they just say “Helping Hands”). I have been unable to scrub out the dirt and the tar that has permeated the fabric. Days of mucking mud out of houses and ripping soggy drywall from the studs of damaged houses has helplessly stained the pristine uniform volunteers throughout the church wear in response to a disaster. The sleeves of the shirts are torn from being tangled in a branch while cutting a fallen tree off a roof. The smell of rotten food and sweat is impossible to clean.
Hurricane relief efforts are a part of life in Florida. Church may be cancelled, or wards combined, meetings held only to partake of the sacrament. Instead of sitting in an air-conditioned building with pressed-white shirts on a Sunday, sturdy men and women load up their mini-vans and trucks and travel in whichever direction they are needed. They are completely self-sufficient, prepared with their own tents, their own food, and often their own tools. They fellowship with one another as they work, and make friends for the church as they provide welcome relief for those devastated by loss. The feeling of comradery and the joy of service draws them back to hurricane-relief efforts year after year. Those who have been wrapped up in their own problems, suddenly feel less burdened, grateful for their many blessings.
Lesson #4. Hurricanes are an opportunity mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. (Mosiah 18:9). However, it is not necessary for the Lord to send a hurricane in order for his children to learn to comfort one another. Spiritual hurricanes devastate people all around us–families splitting up, addicts in recovery. People whose lives have been torn apart spiritually are in need of “hurricane clean-up” efforts every bit as much as those whose lives have been torn apart physically. Hurricanes remind us how immensely satisfying it is to band together to help one another, to offer hope.
