Reader question:

Please explain “waiting out the storm” in this passage:

Many small businesses are so fearful of today’s economic turmoil that they’re waiting out the storm. Instead, they should be proactively and quickly adapting to the new economic realities.

My comments:

Here, “the storm” refers not to real storms but to the economic turmoil facing small businesses today.

In other words, no thunders and lightning flashes in the night sky, no gust and wind, no flooding and things of that nature.

To “wait out the storm” is easy to understand literally. When there’s a storm going on, it is best to lie low – find a place safe and stay put – until the storm runs out of steam.

Until the storm ends, in other words.

It is unwise, for example, to engage in any outdoor activities in stormy weather, unless you don’t mind being hit by lightning or getting drowned when the whole place gets inundated.

In our top example, though, the economic turmoil today is likened to stormy weather. In this situation, small businesses understandably want to be careful. They don’t want to invest any money in a recession, for instance. Instead, they want to lie flat, so to speak, and wait the storm out instead.

But if all businesses take the same attitude and do nothing, how can the economy recover?

Good point. Hence the advice: They should be proactively and quickly adapting to the new economic realities. In other words, be active and look for opportunities that must be in there, somewhere in this changing economy.

Easier said than done, I know.

Anyways, “waiting out the storm” is a useful idiom we’ve learned today and it means to wait and do nothing for the time being until something unpleasant, such as a difficult economic situation, improves.

In other words, do not do anything rash.

And here are media examples of waiting out the storm, literally or in the figurative sense:

1. Hundreds of men trying to flee the assault on Fallujah have been turned back by U.S. troops following orders to allow only women, children and the elderly to leave.

The military says it has received reports warning that insurgents will drop their weapons and mingle with refugees to avoid being killed or captured by advancing American troops.

As it believes many of Fallujah’s men are guerrilla fighters, it has instructed U.S. troops to turn back all males aged 15 to 55.

“We assume they’ll go home and just wait out the storm or find a place that’s safe,” one 1st Cavalry Division officer, who declined to be named, said Thursday.

Army Col. Michael Formica, who leads forces isolating Fallujah, admits the rule sounds “callous.” But he insists it’s is key to the mission’s success.

“Tell them ‘Stay in your houses, stay away from windows and stay off the roof and you’ll live through Fallujah,’” Formica, of the 1st Cavalry Division’s (search) 2nd Brigade, told his battalion commanders in a radio conference call Wednesday night.

Many of Fallujah’s 200,000 to 300,000 residents fled the city before the assault, at which time 1,200 to 3,000 fighters were believed in militant stronghold.

Later Prime Minister Ayad Allawi (search) imposed a 24-hour curfew on Fallujah and ordered roads in the area closed, providing the legal background for the U.S. blockade.

Troops have cut off all roads and bridges leading out of the city. Relatively few residents have sought to get through, but officers here say they fear a larger exodus.

- U.S. Won’t Let Men Flee Fallujah, Associated Press, November 13, 2004.

2. The seemingly never-ending saga between Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets has been a major storyline that NBA fans have been closely monitoring since late July.

As the Nets continue to wait out the storm while asking for a titanic haul in return for Durant, a league insider revealed that the situation in Brooklyn, particularly on the player’s side, is going to be more extreme than expected.

Marc Stein posted on his Substack that Durant is closer to calling it a career rather than playing another game in a Nets jersey.

“During summer league in Las Vegas, one of the most well-connected team executives I speak to regularly insisted to me that, based on what he was hearing, Kevin Durant was more apt to retire than play again for the Brooklyn Nets. This was in early July,” Stein wrote.

“I told the tipster that I simply couldn’t believe that. I was a loyal subscriber to the theory that Durant The Hooper loves playing basketball way too much to adopt such a stance.”

Durant has mostly stayed away from the spotlight since requesting a trade and is willing to let things play out, but for him to retire seems a little bit too much even for him.

- Kevin Durant May Use ‘Extreme Tactics’ To Get Traded After All, IBTimes.com, August 16, 2022.

3. The remnants of Hurricane Beryl had Heartland residents bracing for flooding and severe weather on Tuesday, but one couple in southeast Missouri is feeling the wrath of the storm for the second time.

A Dexter couple caught some of the worst of Beryl in Jamaica last week. The Category 4 Hurricane struck during their vacation and they say it’s something they’ll never forget.

“Wednesday morning it was amazing, the weather, if you wouldn’t have known the hurricane was gonna hit you would’ve had no clue because it was absolutely perfect weather, one of the nicest days is what’s crazy,” Dustin Dunning said.

Hours before Hurricane Beryl hit Jamaica, Dustin and his wife said the weather was beautiful. The calm before the storm.

“That morning I woke up and I just felt really heavy and scared so I was like let’s try to leave,” Heather Dunning said.

Even a day before the storm hit they say there were no flights anywhere. So, they stayed and waited as resort staff tied down beach chairs and boarded up windows.

“They had a meeting that morning, it hit Wednesday, that morning at 11 o’clock we had a meeting and they kind of updated us and told us they wanted us to be in our rooms by four that afternoon,” Dustin said.

They say workers at the resort kept everyone calm and made them feel safe.

“They gave us candles and they packed up like food packets for us if we got stuck in our room,” Heather said.

They could see the trees shaking and even hear the heavy winds. Locked inside their room, they waited out the storm.

“The winds were so strong like we were sitting in the room and my wife’s like ‘I just heard glass breaking,’ and I was like ‘I did too’ and you’d hear trees snapping,” Dustin said.

“The doors were creaking,” Heather said. “It sounded like it was gonna come through any minute, it was very scary.”

- Dexter couple recounts their experience with Hurricane Beryl in Jamaica, KFVS12.com, July 10, 2024.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：張欣   編輯：丹妮）