We are starting this blog while a natural disaster is unfolding in the Punjab region of Pakistan. Our family has so far been only lightly affected, while cities just a couple of hours away are under water.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes in evacuations underway across the entire area. Nearly a thousand aid stations have been set up around the district, in what has been measured as the worst flooding since 1988.
But as I said, our family’s city has been spared so far.
Today we sent them money so they could buy soil, sacks, and duct tape—so they can build makeshift levees at the gate facing the street and across the courtyard.
We’ve instructed them to be ready to tape over all the floor drains and place heavy furniture on top if they start hearing bubbling sounds from them. That would mean the water is no longer flowing down. It’s backing up.
If everything has gone according to plan, a tractor will have delivered a substantial load of soil to them today, and they will have bought a larger number of sacks to fill.
In the best case, they won’t need to do any of this.
In the next best case, there will be mild flooding, which these measures should handle.
According to our analysis, there shouldn’t be any worst-case scenario for this city. Let’s hope we’ve assessed the situation correctly.
In a couple of weeks, the storm is expected to be over, and we hope the measures will have protected our family well.
By then, eight large plastic planters should arrive for them. After that, the soil will switch jobs—from Security Guard to Lunch Lady. Then it will be time to start growing vegetables and herbs in them.
We’ll show photos from the plantings when things begin to sprout.