Preparing for the Worst

On a cold March night, long after most of the 9,000, or so, folks living in Blackstone, MA had embraced the quiet warmth of their beds, three shadowy figures slowly made their way through the town.

Careful not to be seen, the trio cautiously approached the town’s water storage facility which housed the target of their mission—a 1.3 million gallon storage tank that held the drinking water supply for both Blackstone and part of North Smithfield.

It’s crunch time. Number crunching, that is.
Economic turbulence, new regulations, higher costs, Stimulus funding…it all makes for a heck of a budget nightmare. What will next year hold? Will you come out ahead, or will you need some help making it through?

Originally published July 26, 2006

“It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.” Unknown Author

In many parts of the country, the drought of 2002 was the most severe since the days of the infamous Dust Bowl. The total economic effects may never be fully known, but estimates of the drought's damages to business and the environment run well into the billions of dollars.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States.

It was like no other storm in history. More than 1,400 people were killed, and 135 others remain missing.Going beyond its human toll, the storm was also the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, unleashing floods and a storm surge that caused a reported $25.3 billion in insured-property damage across the state of Louisiana alone.