So, the object of this here blogathon being the raising of money for hurricane-battered libraries, we thought it proper to share our own Katrina story, or more accurately, my folks' Katrina story.
Weird and creepy moment of foresight: A week before the storm formed, my faculty advisor and myself were walking over to grab some coffee, and talk somehow turned to New Orleans, and I said to him, "If you've never been, you really should go soon. It's one of the great cities of the world, but it's due to get hit by a big hurricane one of these days, and the levees aren't in the greatest shape, and given the local terrain, if they ever break it's gonna fill up like a bowl."
So the storm forms and it's on its way.
I call home: "Y'all leavin' or stayin'?"
Home: "We're staying."
Me: "A'ight."
Then the storm gets bigger. My phone rings.
Dad: "Here's the info on our will, and this is what you should do if a tree falls on us."
Mobile, as we all know, got relatively lucky. Dauphin Island, not so much. I found the webcast and watched the Mobile news feed and commenced to pacing back and forth. I called home during the storm and got through.
Dad: (sounds of wind) "Hello?"
I recall stories of my dad spending most of Frederick sitting on the upstairs porch.
Me: "Are you outside?"
Dad: "Yeah. I had to get some important stuff out of the car."
Me: "Don't you think you should be inside?"
Dad: "Ow!"
Me: "What?"
Dad: "Oh, nothing...shingle just hit me in the arm."
Me: "GO BACK INSIDE."
Pacing resumes. The next day I get up, look at the web, and see that Dauphin Island has a new channel through it and several bridges are out, and Mobile has been (relatively speaking) not as bad as it could have been. I call home.
Me: "How's things?"
Dad: "The house is alright, but there's a little roof damage. I'm at the office."
Me: "What are you doing at the office?"
Dad: "Sitting at my desk, looking up at the sky."
Me: "Oh. How's your computer?"
Dad: "Full of water. I just poured it out."
Long story short, we lucked out, the next issue of Mobile Bay Monthly made it to press, and I figured out where I got my sense of gallows humor from.
And, last but not least, special thanks to MBM for their donation to the Blogathon.
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2 comments:
Wow! That's a crazy story!! I couldn't imaging living through something like that...
Hey Guys! Thanks for doing this Blogathon.
One quick story from my family:
My aunt and uncle live in Long Beach, MS 4 blocks from the beach. Long Beach is between Pass Christian and Gulfport. They evacuated, but they couldn't bring their dog because the shelter wouldn't take him. So they left food, water and and a window open for him so that he could get out if he needed to... During the storm a few feet of water rushed through their house. All of the houses in the first 3 blocks from the beach were destroyed right up to the house next to theirs.
When they finally were able to get back to their house a few days later, miraculously their dog greeted them at their door. He was okay and they were able to take them back to the shelter with them. But he sure must have seen some things...
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