No disaster is fun—seriously, we would all prefer doing something other than running or recovering from a flood, tornado, or fire. But a positive-side of things short list might include “disasters, a chance to meet new people.”
Take Sarah Farr and Nick Stanley. We bumped into them the other day while they rested at a Red Cross shelter after a fire burned their Edina, Minnesota, apartment building. Sarah heard the fire alarm before Nick, “Sarah woke me up. And I said, is everybody else outside? Could this be a false alarm?” Then they saw lots of people standing on the lawn. Once outside, they watched and waited with the others. “It was the first time we talked to many of our neighbors,” says Sarah.
The fire spared their unit but no utilities meant no re-entry until officials gave the A-Okay sometime later. So, rather than coach surf with friends or family, the two slept in their SUV and eventually made their way to the Red Cross shelter. And yay for that! We got to meet two sweet peeps who turned out to be Hawkeye fans. (Some of us aren’t Hawkeye fans per se but Iowa farm family connections make us supporters in spirit.)
It was nice meeting you, Sarah and Nick, and we wish you the very best. But if we meet again let’s agree that it will under more fun circumstances.
P.S. We’d still like you bunches even if you’d turned out to be Cyclone fans.
American Red Cross 