Disaster Privilege

I read the LA Times article on The Beverly Hills hotel turning into an upscale evacuation zone. And It reminded me of one of my own stories.

The first year I was in the Seattle area, I lived in the poor section of Mercer Island and I worked at Starbucks in a store.

The Hanukkah Eve windstorm swept through and took out the electrical power on most, if not all, of Mercer Island. The house I was living on still was standing like most, if not all, the homes on the island. But, since we depend heavily on electric heat in the Pacific Northwest we didn’t have any heat. Luckily, it wasn’t that cold, so we survived by throwing on an extra sweater, and layering on blankets while sleeping.

One day while working at Starbucks, a man came through the line. He was reasonably well outfitted and appeared to be financially comfortable. At one point he said to another customer that they, especially his kids, couldn’t stand the lack of electricity, so they had gone off to a hotel until the power came on.

That folks is financial privilege at work. Spending yourself out of a problem, and it was a privilege that I didn’t have at the time.