Sales Improvement Professionals Inc.
Newsletter
THE SIP REVIEW
July 2008
Greetings!

I will probably always remember May 22, 2008. 

Some days you never forget.  I can remember being in English class when President Kennedy was shot, our teacher burst into tears.  But back to this century.  On the 22 of May, we were at home working (not unusual, the office is in the home), McKade was in the downstairs watching a Batman video he had just gotten.  May was out with the dogs, she often takes them to Starbucks.  I usually go with, but had some calls to make.  The sky got dark, and we could see a storm brewing off to the East.  A huge storm.  I remember talking to Mike, this will be a big one, the entire horizon was dark, and the wind had begun to blow. 
 
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Article Sections
No Power!
Damage Assessment
The Aftermath
The Power Goes Off...

Jon and Mike went up to the mall near-by to get a sandwich, McKade and I stayed behind.  At aboutOur Tornado 11:45 the power went off, McKade got pretty excited.  He yelled out "Daddy, turn on the lights!"  I ran downstairs, told him we couldn't, the power was off.  First time he had realized it could go off, he was not exactly thrilled.  He still had two sessions of Batman to go.  I called Jon, told him to come back, he said they were on the way, the power went off at the sandwich shop.  May pulled into the driveway, we had to raise the garage door by hand, no electricity.  We now understood it was a whopper of a storm.  Mike and  I were standing on the back deck looking at Windsor, and I told him I could hear the traffic on the I-25 freeway, never heard it before.  Mike said, that is not traffic, the I-25 is closed.  A tractor trailer had turned over near the exit where Mike and Jon were eating, it stopped all movement North.  We then realized it was the wind.  It was howling, just like people say, like a train in the distance, except it was getting closer, very fast. 

I am fairly brave, have been in mortal combat in the past.  OK, so I saw Mortal Combat, but I am still pretty brave.  But as Mike and I walked around the back side of the home, we could hardly stand up!  We went back to lower rear door and entered the home.  It was all I could do to close the door, the wind had gotten really fierce.  Now it had our full attention.  We ran upstairs, started cracking windows and locking the outer doors.  Now we couldn't find the rest of the family.  We located them in the lower level, huddled in the theater room, candles lit, Jon playing his guitar.  McKade was pretty happy, he has a guitar as well, it was a jam session.  We got out some games, played for a hour or so.  Couldn't call out, the towers were all down, no cell, no internet.  Jon finally got a circuit, called Shalaine, our daughter-in-law, who was at work across town.  She told us the TV said that a tornado had hit about 4 miles from our house in downtown Windsor.  She got home as fast as she could, it was a mess out there.


The Damage Assessment....

Mike had just signed a lease on a townhome in Windsor, it was about three blocks from ground House1zero.  He wanted to go see what if the storm had caused any damage, I rode along.  We went in the back way, it was a scene out of Twister.  Trees were stripped bare of all leaves, cars all along the way had windows blown out (now, aren't we glad we cracked our home windows!), fences were down.  As we got closer to Mike's place, the damage got worse.  Two blocks away in the intersection coming to his subdivision, a semi-truck was blown over on it's side.  One of his room-mates had a family member who was opening a pizza restaurant a couple of blocks away, it was leveled.  I mean, the roof, walls, everything completely gone.  The next subdivision North of him was hit hard.  Homes were ruined, 102 were destroyed, 596 suffered major damage.  One home that was totaled had the side ripped completely off, a baby bed was seen in the upper bedroom, a dresser on the roof.  As Mike and I drove to his home, I realized I heard hissing all around us.  It was gas meters in homes that were torn apart, and natural gas was spewing up into the air.  You didn't hear much else, power was off to 60,000 homes total from this one storm.  In Windsor, some homes were off for a week.  Mike's homehouse2 had the AC unit turned over, but still connected, it was repaired a couple of days later.  I told Mike, we're at ground zero, and we need to leave now.  We got out just as they were closing up the town, it was an experience I'll never forget.  

By that evening, many homes had been spray painted by the National Guard and state police, green circles on the garage door meant it was OK to go in.  Yellow, the owners could go in and get their belongings, then leave.  Bright orange, stay out.  As Mike and I were leaving, the authorities were shutting down the town, no one got in unless they were escorted by military.  


 
The Aftermath...
I don't believe in the insurance phrase, an act of God.  I don't believe he causes these sort of things to happen, life happens all the time.  Only one life was lost, a man trying to outrun the storm in a RV, it turned over as the storm overtook it.  I do believe that many lives were saved by God's grace.  Story after story of folks who were coming home that afternoon, got caught in traffic because of the hail and rain, their home was ruined, but they were not there.  If they had not been delayed, many may have been hurt or killed.

We got our power back on at about 6 PM.  We watched the National Guard, police and fire Releafdepartments in full gear doing all they could to get the neighborhood back to where you could get in to assess the damage.  They set up a storm shelter at the fairgrounds and indoor arena just a mile from our house.  So the boys and I decided to do something.  I travel a lot.  I bring home those little soaps and shampoos, have containers full of them.  So we packed up a couple of boxes, took them up to the shelter.  Along the way, we bought a couple of cases of water, that seemed to be the right thing to do.  When we got to the shelter, the Red Cross was already there.  Just an aside, it's it great to live in a country that has a Red Cross system that can respond in just a few hours. 

We go in, and a woman tells us where to take the water.  We walk into a huge room, cots are set up on one end, and there are a couple of pallets of water at the other end.  We felt a little small with a couple of cases,  but put our water on the floor next to the huge stack already there.  As we went out the door, a guy drove up in a pickup truck full of water.  Over a ton, to be exact.  It was a Ford F-250, and it was full.  So we helped him unload.  As soon as we were done, another truck pulls up, we did the same thing.  All in all, we unloaded thousands of pounds of water, about 75 bags of pillows, teddy bears (that Red Cross thinks of everything!), blankets, and energy bars.  It just kept going.  
So what is the message here?  Not that I have to have a message every time, but I do believe that we learned a lesson.  It was not the fact that our water was needed, even though the other volunteers appreciated us getting involved.  It was the fact that our two cases of water got us to the door to help unload a couple of tons. 

So here it is. 

Closing comments: keep the people affected by these storms and floods on your thoughts and prayers.  I just talked to Mark Miller, a friend with roots in Wisconsin.  He said the floods in Des MedicalMoines and all the big cities are getting all the attention.  What bothered him was the thousands of people in small towns all along the river that are getting shut out of their homes and businesses that we don't hear about.  Cities like  Gays Mills.  Mark said Gays Mills had been flooded out three years ago, and there is talk about moving the town.  Not sure how you do that, move an entire town.  Here is a link http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/9268701.html    for a story about the local meat market in that town, who is trying to get back into his store for the first time after the flood.  It is heart wrenching when you think of people who have lived in one small town for generations  and in a couple of days their whole lives have been turned upside down, and in some cases, your business has been washed away in the flood.   



The next time you think that you getting involved won't make a difference, remember this story.  It will make a difference, and it also may get you in on something even bigger, where your help is really needed, maybe in a way you had not imagined.
 
Sincerely,
 
James Hinshaw
Sales Improvement Professionals Inc.
www.SipTraining.com
[email protected]