Driving home a little early Monday evening, I felt maybe this was all silly. How many of these storm warnings have we had where nothing substantial comes to pass?
And at my house on the east side of Columbia, we got absolutely nothing as far as storms, which my family rode out in a closet.
Yet the urgency of heeding such alerts from emergency officials was made clear in the seemingly arbitrary nature of how the tornado struck. Just a few miles away, Beal’s Collision Center and other businesses were flattened. Then it skipped a ways and hit again near the library, causing serious damage in surrounding neighborhoods.
I drove out as soon as it was safe and tried to take pictures and confirm early reports of where damage occurred. It was amazing how driving west along Church Street there was no damage, and then suddenly I came upon a bunch of tree limbs sitting in the middle of the road. Then for a couple of blocks there were trees and power lines down, and then before you got back to downtown everything was clear again. But if you left downtown up South High School Avenue, more carnage from the storm awaited.
It just went to show that tornados are unpredictable creatures that must be respected. Weather alerts have gotten very good at predicting when and where potential tornados will be coming. For example, we had advance warning Monday morning that strong storms would be heading through Marion County later in the day.
Yet the science cannot predict how the cyclones will behave when they hit the ground or exactly which areas they will strike. As such, the only way to be safe is to take cover wherever you are when the sirens sound. If nothing happens, you’re no worse for it, and it could save your life if the tornado does sweep in your direction.
I’m thankful that no one, according to initial reports, was seriously injured, and my heart truly goes out to those who have lost their businesses. When you run a company, you pour yourself into its success. To see it all taken away in an instant by an act of nature has got to be a terrible feeling.
Let’s hope all of those affected by the storms are able to rebuild. And I’m confident that Columbia as a community will rally to help, as it did following the December 2014 tornado.
But there is another kind of tornado warning that strikes deeper a deeper note within the human experience. The random mayhem that tornados cause warn us all to remember how our lives are but a vapor that can disappear in a moment. Maybe we ought to — I’m speaking to myself here — change our priorities in light of such.
That point was driven home for me this week both by the storm and the annual Christmas address to the Columbia Rotary Club given Tuesday by Mark McArthur of the Tri-County Baptist Association. McArthur told a story, which I won’t attempt to replicate, that pressed home the point about the importance of helping the “least of these,” especially during Christmas. Anyone who heard the talk couldn’t help but be moved by it to be more generous and caring for others.
This has been a difficult year for me from a business perspective, one of those times where nothing you do seems to work out time and time again. When something good does happen, three things go bad to negate it. And the worst part is with the struggles nationally of the newspaper industry, there is no guarantee that it’s ever going to get better. That’s a tough burden to bear every day and sometimes during restless nights. A newspaper publisher was once a respected position in the community with a lot of influence; most days now it just feels like you’re a punching bag and an object of derision.
Yet, really, what does all that matter? A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, as Christ said. During this holiday season, I’m thankful for warnings to pay attention to that truth.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at csmith@columbianprogress.com or 736-2611.
