We were flying home from Vermont about five years ago and our flight from DC to RDU was cancelled because of a big storm “I don’t remember which”. I had to fly out to San Francisco the next day for work and decided to rent a car and drive us all home. I picked a Jeep something-or-other because of four-wheel drive and ground clearance.
A few hours later we were on I-85 in Virginia, in a hundred-mile corridor of trees, stuck motionless while two people from the highway department cleared downed timber from the road with a chainsaw and front loader. We couldn’t go forward. Going back was no safer.
The pines all around us were swaying more violently than I’d ever seen. I looked in the back seat at my sleeping boy, knowing I could do nothing to protect him if one of those trees fell on us.
This remains the worst decision I’ve ever made. I’m on the verge of tears as I write this, remembering the shame and helplessness I felt.
Please be careful, my friends. Nothing is more important than keeping yourself and your loved ones safe.