Here's a riddle.

Name something that one of every three small businesses in the US bought to protect themselves

in an emergency, but when an emergency happened, it turned out to be useless.

Are we talking about a burglar alarm, a sprinkler system, a gun?

No, none of those.

This riddle is best solved by asking an actual small business owner.

Janice, Jucka, and I'm co-owner of Three Brothers Bakery with my husband, Bobby.

Three Brothers Bakery is in Houston.

It has a few shops there and also sells online.

They are particularly famous for their pecan pies and famous for something else.

Our honorary titles are King and Queen of Disasters because we've been through four floods

of fire, a hurricane, and now a pandemic.

The first flood was in 2001 after Tropical Storm Allison.

It took about three days to clean up.

Before Allison, Jucka had suggested to her husband that they ought to buy flood insurance.

But of course he didn't listen to me.

This left the juckers on the hook for about $100,000 of damages.

But it did inspire them to buy flood insurance, which would cover property damage, as well

as what's called business interruption insurance, which would cover lost revenues in the case

of a disaster.

This turned out to be prudent purchases because in 2008, in 2008, we had Hurricane Ike and

we think a tornado came down the street, ripped off the roof, and we were closed for nine

...