Realization...and a question

Y'all know I'm studying to be an ASL interpreter, right? Well, something happened to me today that made me appreciate the fact that I have the ability to hear.

Because the hearing population can for example, walk and hear at the same time, they don't need to keep and eye out for danger. They can hear something first before their eyes are drawn to it. People who are deaf, however, need to pay close visual attention to their environment to avoid dangerous situations.

Now on with my story:

I walk around my neighborhood for about 40 minutes a day, sometimes twice a day, for exercise and just to get out of the apartment. Most of the streets where I live are lined with trees on both sides. Pretty nice, right? Even though some have damage from the Hurricane Ike windstorm we had a few weeks back, the trees are still nice to view while walking.

So, I was looking down at the sidewalk while walking and really deep in thought when I heard a strange noise above me. It sounded like leaves rustling, but really loud. I smiled as I imagined it was probably a few squirrels running around. (We have a lot of those here). The sound grew louder, and now it sounded like something really heavy was falling out of a tree. I heard limbs snap and I looked up just in time to see a huge branch falling down out of the tree right above me. I yelped in fear and surprise as I dodged out the way and it crashed to the ground. It barely missed me. This was followed by leaves falling all over me and the sidewalk which were knocked off the dead limb as it fell down the tree. I stood there in disbelief as I looked at the size of the limb in front of me.

This limb was big...I mean BIG. If it had hit me, It would have definately knocked me down and I would've been hurt. This was a limb that had broken off the tree during the Hurricane Ike windstorm we had, but it hadn't fallen completely down the tree. I know this because the leaves on it were almost dead. It looked like the limb had been damaged at it's base from an earlier time, so I guess it was an easy target to be torn off the tree from the windstorm.

As I brushed the leaves off my pants, shirt, and hair, my immediate thought was, "What if I hadn't heard the branch falling from the tree"? "I would've been hurt and possibly need to go to the hospital". Wow...that thought was unsettling.

Suddenly, I heard someone shout if I was okay and I looked up to see a few people coming out of the nearby homes. They had heard the tree limb fall from inside their homes! It was that loud. I explained that this branch came down from the three and almost landed on me. We talked about how lucky I was and so forth, then we hauled the branch to the side of the road for city pick-up. A guy said he'd call the city to pick it up. I thanked them and I walked the rest of the way home, looking carefully at each tree before walking underneath it. Needless to say, I was glad when I got home.

So, I know first hand that the ability to hear in this particular situation is a blessing for me. Don't get me wrong, people who are deaf are blessed as well in that their other senses are hightened and they use them to avoid dangerous situations everyday. However... I wonder if a deaf person would've seen the dead branch in the tree and avoided it?

Thoughts??