<h3>By Lee Scott</h3>
There is an expression that goes something like this: “God laughs when Man makes plans”. He must have been in hysterics this past week watching people in the Caribbean and up and down the east coast. My husband and I had plans like many others. The dog sitter was in place, the car was packed, things were ready and then we saw the weather report. There was a tropical storm named Joaquin we were told that had a 70% chance of becoming a hurricane. We decided not to leave and just watch. I got on the phone notified the dog sitter, changed the “stop mail” notification, emptied the car and planned on more days at home.

All over the east coast people started to watch. Then Joaquin became a hurricane and everybody started to really pay attention. Weddings that were planned, church bazaars, birthday parties and vacations were all modified or put on hold. As we sat in our home and watched Joaquin hover over the Bahamas for days I thought of all those people on vacations and the cruise ships. There were over twenty-five thousand passengers on the cruise ships that had to be diverted to other areas of the Caribbean. Those passengers were probably not the happiest people since the wind gusts were still pretty strong. And what about those honeymooners down in the Bahamas that planned on a relaxing week of sun and sand? My trip seemed insignificant when I thought of them and saw the postponements and cancellations for church bazaars and other events that required months of work on the part of volunteers.

Over and over again I heard we were lucky because Joaquin was avoiding a direct landfall, but for those of us who had been inundated with days of rain, the concern for flooding, trees down and electrical outages was still very real. Our ground was soft enough for us to be worried about some of our trees might come right out of the ground. Then I started to think about the employers and employees that were impacted. This weather event hit folk’s plans but their pocketbooks too. So instead of leaving on vacation, we went out shopping and ate out at restaurants and tried to support our local businesses. Sometimes, you just have to laugh with God.