Countless lines of cars passed me, coming out of the danger zone. The only one heading in the opposite direction was me. A category 4 hurricane had been forecast in Louisiana. “You don’t have to do it,” said my boss. For almost six weeks I had been screwing together two new systems for a customer and now we were on the point of handing them over.

The city was deserted. I couldn’t leave our customer hanging. If I didn’t complete the installation, I wouldn’t be able to get back to it for another month, because I was completely booked. So I drove in. Two machine operators and the boss were waiting in the factory. Everyone else had fled. I had to drive my car into the factory building to protect it from flying parts. I was working on the equipment, the hurricane was raging outside, the gates were rattling, when suddenly all the lights went out – power failure! Game over? No! I kept on screwing as a little daylight was still coming in.

When it got too dark and the storm subsided, I went to a hotel. However, I spent the night in the car as there was no electricity in the hotel either, and in Louisiana the close atmosphere is almost unbearable without air conditioning. The next morning, I drove back to the customer to tighten up the final screws and hand over the machine. As I headed home that afternoon, the system was producing its first parts.