By Kyle Roberts
Weather nerd, here — guilty as charged.
For the last 10 years now, I’ve had my eyes on the skies as an amateur enthusiast — mostly as a way to cope with some weird anxiety that welled up during the North Louisiana floods of 2016 (which, naturally, has been cured following a tornado and hurricane hitting my town within 18 months of each other).
But still, friends and acquaintances call or text me when there’s something headed our way. And while I’m happy to direct them to a real weatherman, I know just enough to see when we need to be a little more cautious.
This past week was certainly the case. I alerted both my pastor and my business partner days in advance that it would very likely not be business as usual for our church and for the journal, respectively. For our church, frozen roadways and dangerous precipitation in the forecast was the utmost concern for our congregation. For the journal, it was the potential loss of power and internet that could disrupt our operations of sending emails and posting pictures and stories to keep the public informed.
So on the Friday before the winter storm, I walked into Totally Unwired at 1319 North Vienna (adjacent to Q94.1 and the Roux 102) to discuss a possible solution with the owner, Eric Hanna.
Eric is well known around these parts as someone from his background in law enforcement and his business acumen (he’s even leading the restoration of the Gem Theatre in Dubach). Always kind and pleasant to work with, Eric understood the journal’s dilemma.
“Where do you live, Kyle?” Eric asked.
I told him my address.
“This one’s perfect for your neighborhood,” Eric said and handed me a wireless router to use as a backup.
We worked out our solution (Eric was incredibly gracious, as he understood how important the Lincoln Parish Journal is to our community), and I went to the house to test the router. It worked perfectly fine when booted and then went right back into the box as the failsafe option.
And, as we residents know in Lincoln Parish, we got the lucky end of the storm — especially as we saw the devastation to our friends and family to the east and south of us (keep the prayers going up for everyone that got the ice).
My business partner, Malcolm, was out taking pictures and videos in his souped-up Toyota to keep the public informed of all of the major traffic issues and ice warnings all over town. I, with my humble Kia Forte that laughed when I cranked it last week, hunkered down at the house firing out emails and stories on closures.
Throughout, we never lost power, meaning Eric’s router was not used one time. When I returned it to him, he simply restocked it.
Now, that may not seem like a huge deal, but to us at the Journal, it meant the world. It’s a small business helping another small business in the middle of a potential disaster.
We saw this happening last week all over from our local businesses to our mayor to so many more. Some gestures were gigantic — and needed — while there were so many others that were so small they could be lost in minutae. But they were all kind gestures, nonetheless, and very much needed.
And for someone who’s starting to cave into cynicism in his middle-to-old age, my visit to Eric at Totally Unwired reminded me why supporting local businesses matters.
We’re all in this together — not just in winter storms, but life in general.
Totally Unwired is located at 1319 N Vienna St, in Ruston.
