A great story amidst so much of Hurricane Irma’s tragedy is Richard Branson making the most of things, emerging “from wine-cellar bunker after Irma ‘utterly devastated’ his private island:”

Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group who said he would ride out Hurricane Irma on his private Caribbean island, has emerged from his fortified wine cellar unscathed.

“All of the team who stayed on Necker and Moskito during the hurricane are safe and well,” Branson said in a blog post Thursday, which he explained was transcribed with a satellite phone after the storm brought down all lines of communication.

“We took shelter from the strongest hurricane ever inside the concrete cellar on Necker and very, very fortunately it held firm. …

“All of us slept together in two rooms,” Branson wrote. “I haven’t had a sleepover quite like it since I was a kid. Strangely, it’s a privilege to experience what is turning into possibly the strongest storm ever with such a great group of young people.

“We were listening to the parrots in their boxes in the next room chattering away. Watching the tortoises congregating together, as if they sense what is coming our way.”

A few hours before Irma’s impact, Branson wrote that he planned to retreat with his team to his concrete wine cellar below “the Great House.”

As one does.

“Knowing our wonderful team as I do, I suspect there will be little wine left in the cellar when we all emerge,” he wrote on his blog.

I heard that Winston Churchill said something like, “There’s nothing more exhilarating than being shot at and having the bullet miss.”