Who Came Out Ahead -- The Tortoise or the Hare?

Now that we are a couple of months removed from the inital devastation of Hurricane Sandy, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. 

We received a ton of calls right after the storm from people who wanted to immediately get cracking on their repairs.  Some folks had called us and gotten through to their insurance companies after the wind and water had barely subsided. Of course there were the same frustrations talked about in the newspapers and on the news. Adjusters were swamped and couldn't get out to see the homeowners; if they did get there they were slow to respond with the paper work. Bob was going to look at jobs right and left. Then around the holidays there was a little bit of a lull, as if humanity just needed to catch its collective breath.

In late January we started getting more "new client" calls from people who wanted us to come look at their flood-ravaged homes. Some had already gutted their houses but just waited a while to get ready to rebuild. Some hadn't done much of anything, but were raring to get going now. It turned out to be a common scenario. I found it surprising that so many people had held off for a while after the storm since my reaction to any crisis is to start running around trying to control my environment like a lunatic. It seemed counterintuitive to pause in the face of devastation. I started to ask  people why they had decided to wait.  Some were afraid of being ripped off during the emotional roller coaster immediately after the storm.  Some just needed some mental space from the actual event before they could focus on rebuilding.

Was either method better at getting repairs accomplished?  It's hard to say. Maybe some people mentally just need to get started and keep going to prevent despair from taking hold.  Others might need to separate from a bad event and get some space and some clarity before dealing with it in order to keep from falling apart.  This brought home to me that there is always, always, always more than one way to approach a difficult situation and one route is not "the right way" any more than any other. Not a bad thought to keep in mind.