Passing and Negligence

There was considerable flooding in our area due to the thunderstorms last Thursday night. People are still picking up the pieces. And, as impervious as I thought we were...we aren't. You see, we have a storage unit where most of our not-so-monetarily-valuable items were stored, those things that nobody can replace because of the value they hold in our hearts - not to mention about $100 of books.

This doesn't seem like much, considering the thousands of people who lost everything, including their homes and the clothes off their backs. Still...one loss is as hurtful to one person as the next loss is to the next person.

What really galls me is that my losses, however small and seemingly insignificant, could have been avoided. The owners and managers of the local Uncle Bob's Self Storage were able to get to their location as early as Saturday, when a few hours' worth of telephone calls would have provided ample warning to the tenants of their units to come and inspect the damage, salvage what they could.

The problem? The phone call didn't come until Tuesday, five days after the floodwaters ran. Had it been two days later, some things could have been saved. But five? Now, the argument is that these people may have been trapped, or maybe they were dealing with their own personal losses. My sympathies...but that's beside the point. When you are a business owner, your first responsibility is to the people you serve, not to your own interests. And while one person or even two or three may have been unable to traverse the waters, it is completely implausible that every single possible person was trapped.

It's simple - negligence. Yet one more example of people taking our money and failing to provide the best service possible, regardless of extenuating circumstances. Flooding is uncontrollable...but as with anything else, what you do to fix the problem or alleviate the pain is all on you.

Shame on you.