Storm devastation is good news for job seekers

Having lived through several hurricanes, I recognize their serial inevitability. 

Some will miss, some will hit. But Hurricane Igor seems to have set his sights on us from thousands of miles away and is marching steadily towards us as if he is on some sort of mission.

There are those among us, clothed in various layers of piousness and righteousness, who might be saying this is a punishment coming at us.

Others, differently clothed, may say this looks like sheer bad luck. 

I reckon it is just the predictable and unpredictable chaos of nature.

A while ago, I described the experience of waiting for a hurricane as similar to that of being immovably implanted on the centre-spot on a football field, watching as a thoroughly inebriated man got into a big truck at the goalpost end, started the engine and then started driving the truck — at speed — all over the field.

At some point, being implanted on the centre-spot, that truck will hit you.

Monster

That’s what it’s like waiting for and watching the approach of a hurricane.

But Igor looks like a monster truck being driven by a singularly bloody-minded individual who is determined to hit you.

So maybe the piously righteous have a point. Or do they?

But with all the talk of hardship and even as we batten down our houses, haul up our boats, lock away our outside stuff and squirrel away emergency ­supplies, there is a post-hurricane bright spot.

With construction in a downturn, Igor will act like the economic stimulus package Government is actually unable to provide.

Igor will certainly lift some roofs, knock down some walls and damage lots of stuff that will have to be rebuilt.

So on Monday, as we crawl out from the noise and battering of the night before, some of us will look, sadly, at damaged homes.

Insurance companies will look at big pay-outs when all the claims are in.

Contractors will look at a big boom in repair and replacement work. And people who are seeking work will, for a few months, find work aplenty.

This hurricane-caused economic stimulus will act like a hit, so I’m told, similar to that from ingesting crack cocaine.

It will be an economic high but it will be short-lived and will mask the wider issue of a continuing slowdown or flattening.

Powerful

So when Igor hits, as it certainly looks like it will, do the age-old thing — hunker down inside your home and remind yourself that nature is all-powerful, totally unpredictable and is not to be toyed with.

Then, as best you can, enjoy the free natural spectacle.

No show on earth compares to seeing and feeling the whole raw force of nature as it roars and screams and blows and blasts. Igor is coming!