Preparedness comes from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions. And yes, very lucky. My wife’s nephew (and family) had their home destroyed and 40 miles from us. A tree knifed through the house and thrashed about. Fortunately for them, they were staying with his in-laws who have a generator.

Our new house has no trees within 100 ft. I’ve seen the damage trees do perhaps a few hundred times. We are also 20 ft above the 500 yr flood stage. I have seen whole subdivisions built below the 100 year flood stage. To me, that should be criminal negligence by the developer, architects and general contractors.