I've never thought much about how very many lives are affected in one communal storage area like that.. But seeing the storage units with roofs ripped off and contents strewn about and so very many people trying to save what was still left of theirs, it occured to me that while a home sustains great damage and has a terrible effect on one family's lives.. those little storage units hold many lives in it's grasp.
The damage at that storage complex was incredible. Some people weren't even in town.. some had no way to pick up their things as of when we were there.. and while things hadn't been ruined by rain.. yet.. the potential was just a matter of time, before salvageable goods turned into ruined goods.
We talked briefly to one man who had much of a jewelry business tucked into one unit.. Much there was ruined or lost completely. He saved what he could.. took everything, I'm sure, to go through at home or elsewhere. Another unit was loaded with shoes.. New shoes? Am not sure, tho all the over-stuffed racks were marked with sizes. With so much debris everywhere, each shoe would have to be cleaned thoroughly to ever look new again.. and even then, I can't see how that would have been possible. Maybe it was Amelda Marcos' hideaway...
The storage unit that faired the best was the one where everything had been storaged in totes or sealed plastic bags.. One of the bags had ripped open and goods were bursting forth with air expansion.., but when we were there, all that was needed, was for those things to be washed. Of course, if they were new, they'd never be new after a washing, but they were still there.. and definitely useable. I loved that even tho things were in plastic totes, the owner had thought to tape the tops down to the tote bottoms.. Plastic totes, depending on the brand, don't always seal very well... but only one of these totes had broken open. A lesson for the rest of us, as we pack away our treasures?
No matter how we try to pack our things, we only think that the storage unit will always be there protecting our items.. These things were packed as if the storage unit might not always be there... Extra care was taken to protect their goods.. and in the end, that extra care paid off. Most all their goods were still there.. safe and sound...packed tightly together... despite the fact that the roof and wall was gone.
One beautiful Harley laid on it's side in a storage unit.. it must have been stored in one of the sheds, but from what others had said, it had been somewhere else and he put it in that unit (maybe because his own unit didn't exist anymore?)... just to put it out of the way until he could pick it up. I don't know if that's true or not, but I know that everyone who saw the black-and-chrome sparkling in the sun, had an intake of breath.. followed by a groan or a sigh and a shake of the head.. The good thing was that the side we saw looked pretty good... No one asked what the other side of the vehicle looked like, each of us picturing it in our own minds... as we let out another sigh.
