Thursday, August 26, 2010

30 Day Writer's Challenge | Day 7

Five years ago today Hurricane Katrina swarmed the Bahamas and two days later introduced herself to the Gulf Coast.

Within a week I was on the ground in New Orleans. It was unlike anything I had ever seen and something I cannot imagine (and hope I never have to) ever seeing again. The first day getting to our camp on the other side of the city was a challenge, Diet Coke that didn't reek of mildew didn't exist, finding fuel was near impossible and coming face to face with a soldier and his semi-automatic rifle camped out where we finally found fuel was like being in another country.

My experience there is obviously very different from anyone who may have called New Orleans home during the storm. My experiences from that time are meant for another blog post, but they made me think a lot about what I would have done if I were living in N.O. when they issued the evacuation notice. (Sister) Nicki lived in Houston and evacuated to Aunt Mayme and uncle Denny's north of Dallas.

And if tonight I received an evacuation notice to get out of Atlanta, the biggest question would be where do I meet up with all my family in town to get out of town? But there is no doubt, we would drive to Ohio.

Right?

I mean, I think we would drive to Ohio.

Family...would we drive to Ohio?

Either way we would pack up our 72-hour kits (I should probably put one of those together), our extra clothes (those would be handy to have IN the 72-hour kit), our important items and load up the cars. Obviously where to go seemed clear, until now. Maybe we should have a family meeting to discuss this. Maybe at this family meeting we can eat real Mexican food and Sopapillas.



Where would you go if you were evacuated?
What would you bring?

Would you revolt and not evacuate?
Why?

3 comments:

Nubia Mejia said...

My mom made us kids 72-hour kits for Christmas last year. They're awesome. Mine is in my car. :)

She asked me a few months ago that if the prophet asked us to evacuate and set up a tent city somewhere if I would do it. It's a hard thing to think about, but if the prophet knew of something about to happen, I feel like I should have the faith to follow him. Funny thing about faith...you gotta' jump.

Good post. I never thought about those questions before. Especially where I'd meet my family. I'm thinking PA. We have family there.

Landlocked Shores said...

Reading your post brought back such horrific memories. Memories I needed to remember. It is Hurricane week and the weather channel continues to reflect on Katrina... I remember Rita. The scary sister who threatened Houston and thankfully (yes, thankfully) shifted course and hit New Orleans again and not Houston. I can not imagine what it would have been like had Rita hit Houston with Katrina's work already done so close by.... I still can see very clearly the miles upon miles of car lights when I got to the highway. The movies do not do that feeling justice or even compare by sight. I'm going to stay inland.

Loves
Nicki
(the sister who evacuated to Dallas)

Leviticus said...

Ohio would be the obvious choice for A&L... all the parents are there.

Bigger question is: do you take backroads or stick to the interstate corridors?