Quick answer
The storm is the test both lives were always going to meet. It carries the wicked away entirely and reveals the righteous standing on something the wind cannot reach: a foundation that outlasts the weather.
Read both lines
The whirlwind "passes by": the proverb does not promise anyone a stormless life. The wind comes for both houses, which is precisely what makes it a test rather than a punishment. When it has passed, the wicked "is no more," gone with a completeness the Hebrew makes almost casual, as though the storm simply collected what had never been anchored.
The righteous man's line does not say he is untouched; it says he "has an everlasting foundation." What survives the wind is what was under him, not around him. Structures above ground, reputation, holdings, plans, may take real damage in the same storm. The foundation holds, and the life rebuilt on it is the same life, on the same rock.
Jesus later uses the same wisdom pattern: two builders, one storm, and everything revealed by what was underneath (Matthew 7:24–27). And in His telling, the rock is hearing His words and doing them. The storm does not measure how much a builder heard; it exposes whether a life was built on those words or merely heard them.
Related: Matthew 7:24–27 · Proverbs 12:3 · Proverbs 10:30
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.