Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/16/hurricane-beryl-spares-one-house-on-union-island-its-made-of-plywood-and-irony.html
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Contributed by Natalie Dressed.
If religious faith really worked like that, it seems like a lot less people in the world would be suffering needlessly; just sayin’.
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See, but the prayers of those seeking safety are off-set by those seeking to “destroy their enemies”…
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One thing I really appreciate about Dr. King’s theological grounding (and I think that this is likely true of lots of Black churches in the tradition of the struggle and the Catholic social theology, etc) is that he saw god acting through people’s actions, rather than being this being acting outside of our actions. To act in a godly way is to be engaged in the struggle for greater freedom, peace, and security for all… you can see god when you see people acting in that way, to free all of us from tyranny, hunger, want, pain, etc. God isn’t there in this house being preserved, he’s gonna be there when the people of Union island are working together to rebuild and are helping each other in the process… God’s active through human action, and that’s pretty much it… it’s a force that drives us to DO good in this world, not a force outside of us that does some invisible magic to help the elect…
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Well stated.
I am not religious though I do believe in something greater than humanity which connects us all.
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Tornados and hurricanes result in weird and unpredictable patterns of destruction sometimes. Here’s a current overhead shot of the neighborhood I lived in in Wichita Falls, Texas, from the time I was born until 1978. A massive F4 tornado hit the town in April, 1979. We had just moved across town. Every home you see in this shot had to be rebuilt after that tornado. Except one. Our former home survived with very little damage. At the time, people also believed you needed to open windows in the event of a tornado, otherwise the pressure difference would cause the house to explode like a bomb. The then residents of our old house were out of town when the tornado hit. The house was locked up tight. No explodey. The house is still there today. It’s the one labeled 4654 Bunny Run Dr. It ain’t God. It’s Chaos.
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As far as I’ve heard concrete and concrete block construction is the way to go for hurricane resistance. Wood frame; not so much.
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“Bunny Run Drive” 
That’s just off “Road Kill Road” isn’t it 
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So God sent the hurricane to demolish everyone’s home but his, apparently. Everyone else had better ask what they did to make God mad.
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Did they pay their dues?
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It ain’t god, it’s Goddess
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still chaos.
that is all.
chaos, uncertainty, entropy.
call it what you will.
IT won’t answer.
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No, Brookdale, actually. You can just see it on the bottom right. Bunny Run is a U shaped street. Both ends intersect with Brookdale. I have fond memories of living on Bunny Run Drive. It is a funny street name, though.
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Somebody read their House Building Bible.
Matthew 7:24-27
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
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While the building materials were ordinary, I wonder if they used HurriQuake nails or similar fastener.
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There’s nothing much special about plywood, but it’s a step up from OSB that support most new homes in earthquake zones. I just wonder whether it’s faith, actually, that saved the house, or strict adherence to a vegetarian diet and a weekly Saturday holiday. Also, the article doesn’t say whether or not he boiled spaghetti before his power and gas stopped functioning.
Sounds like survivorship bias to me: what about the rest of the religious people who decided to stay in their houses because god? We won’t hear their testimony because they are dead.
I didn’t pay an awful lot of heed to religion when I was a kid (never my scene) but I was taught that this was exactly the way god didn’t work at all. This would be called vanity. You do the work of god because of love. God was supposed to make the world with all that love in it, your job was to do your part.
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I remember that myth and its so weird; where is this coming from? I mean, the pressure difference is something like 10-20% in the center of the tornado, so every housing structure that encounters the max pressure difference at that point is already destroyed by the tornado, right?
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