Monday, February 27, 2006
KATRINA....JOHN'S EYE WITNESS REPORT
In winding up my long series of family writing, John was surprised I didn’t mention Katrina. I suppose I’m like everyone else who doesn’t live there. It’s easy to forget it when you aren’t slapped in the face with the aftermath. I keep hearing stories from folks who ARE living it and who are painfully reminded every time they wake up and look around.
We began taking notice from the weather channel when they pointed to the map and said this larger storm was out in the Atlantic…..and they were expecting it to hit the U.S. hard. As the days went by and they talked about a number “five” hurricane….everyone took notice. The forecasters didn’t give any reason to doubt them….how can you scoff at someone who has spent their life looking at storms coming out of Africa.......just because it’s never happened before?
The islands and coastlines in a probable path began preparing for a storm so huge it could wipe out anything in it’s path. This was a serious hurricane. I began feeling uneasy since John and the family live just 45 minutes away from New Orleans. John was a bit of a “storm chaser”…..being raised in Kansas he was effectively fascinated with big storms. Well…..we had a few big “land storms” in Kansas but nothing that could breath fire and destruction like Katrina was built up to be. At least in Kansas you get blown away, not hammered with horizontal wind and flooded.
As a young girl I had my first lesson in flooding. When I was in the third grade, my parents bought our very own home….that was a big deal at the time. Coming out of the depression my dad sweat blood to save enough money to make a down payment on a middle-class house. It had a basement but a dirt floor and just enough room to get to the back and shovel coal in the furnace. Dirt walls were shoulder high on my mother and dad worked hard to shovel more dirt out to put cement block walls in.
…..then WE got the big storm. A heavy rain that didn’t stop for days. It was summer and no one had been down to fire the furnace. Mom went down to the basement for something and walked out in water up to her calves. She let out something like “oh my gosh” which brought me down the steps in a hurry. She said, “Don’t come down here, it’s full of water.” I looked across the bottom and it looked fine to me……well…..you know how much kids listen to their mothers…..I was sure she was mistaken.
I stepped off what I thought was the last step into water up to my gazeebee’s. I had on my new fuzzy house slippers………and yup…..ruined on the spot. Mom was plainly irritated with me for not listening to her and I got myself back upstairs, minus the house shoes. It was sad for my mother. Her trunk that she kept all of the memento’s in was floating in the water and the contents were pretty much history.
At the time I didn’t realize the gravity of losing the family articles. My first little books….my “Suzie the Shy Little Mouse” book that drove everyone to nickname me Suzie….to my first little dresses, made by my grandmother……on and on for all of us….the precious keepsakes were gone. Water would have been one thing but the mud that accompanied the water was too much to save the souvenirs.
John and Barb had been flooded a couple of times with water backing up from the sewer into their home…..and they had their share of loss from flooding. When the big blow was eminent John sent Barbara and Bear over to Baton Rouge to stay with L.J. for safety. Loss of power and facilities was always the norm when a hurricane hit. John opted to stay at the hospital where several others were to ride out the storm. They transported most or all of the patients from the hospital and I’m not sure if any were left or not. John can line us out when he comments.
His documentary of the storm approaching was germane. He wrote about everything from Katrina’s first preparations to the aftermath following. His story still gets first hand information out to those of us who are no longer informed of the recovery unless it’s negative. John is in an excellent occupation for he is able to see things as an observer and report what he sees…..without an agenda or political implications. I know he is the same with his patients. Objectivity with reason and understanding.
He was a voice to take us through the experience with him. It transcended into a drama on a magnitude none of us had ever experienced before. The sound of the wind eventually gave way to bulldozers, linemen, saws and the tools needed to clean up the mess. There has been finger pointing and name calling but the fact remains it was a storm of which no one could have prepared for.
Some things just can’t be avoided with all of our science and technology. Katrina will go down as one of the worst recorded in recent history. (To read his accounts, go to his archives on his site.)
Katrina wasn’t much of a lady but you have to admire her power.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
We began taking notice from the weather channel when they pointed to the map and said this larger storm was out in the Atlantic…..and they were expecting it to hit the U.S. hard. As the days went by and they talked about a number “five” hurricane….everyone took notice. The forecasters didn’t give any reason to doubt them….how can you scoff at someone who has spent their life looking at storms coming out of Africa.......just because it’s never happened before?
The islands and coastlines in a probable path began preparing for a storm so huge it could wipe out anything in it’s path. This was a serious hurricane. I began feeling uneasy since John and the family live just 45 minutes away from New Orleans. John was a bit of a “storm chaser”…..being raised in Kansas he was effectively fascinated with big storms. Well…..we had a few big “land storms” in Kansas but nothing that could breath fire and destruction like Katrina was built up to be. At least in Kansas you get blown away, not hammered with horizontal wind and flooded.
As a young girl I had my first lesson in flooding. When I was in the third grade, my parents bought our very own home….that was a big deal at the time. Coming out of the depression my dad sweat blood to save enough money to make a down payment on a middle-class house. It had a basement but a dirt floor and just enough room to get to the back and shovel coal in the furnace. Dirt walls were shoulder high on my mother and dad worked hard to shovel more dirt out to put cement block walls in.
…..then WE got the big storm. A heavy rain that didn’t stop for days. It was summer and no one had been down to fire the furnace. Mom went down to the basement for something and walked out in water up to her calves. She let out something like “oh my gosh” which brought me down the steps in a hurry. She said, “Don’t come down here, it’s full of water.” I looked across the bottom and it looked fine to me……well…..you know how much kids listen to their mothers…..I was sure she was mistaken.
I stepped off what I thought was the last step into water up to my gazeebee’s. I had on my new fuzzy house slippers………and yup…..ruined on the spot. Mom was plainly irritated with me for not listening to her and I got myself back upstairs, minus the house shoes. It was sad for my mother. Her trunk that she kept all of the memento’s in was floating in the water and the contents were pretty much history.
At the time I didn’t realize the gravity of losing the family articles. My first little books….my “Suzie the Shy Little Mouse” book that drove everyone to nickname me Suzie….to my first little dresses, made by my grandmother……on and on for all of us….the precious keepsakes were gone. Water would have been one thing but the mud that accompanied the water was too much to save the souvenirs.
John and Barb had been flooded a couple of times with water backing up from the sewer into their home…..and they had their share of loss from flooding. When the big blow was eminent John sent Barbara and Bear over to Baton Rouge to stay with L.J. for safety. Loss of power and facilities was always the norm when a hurricane hit. John opted to stay at the hospital where several others were to ride out the storm. They transported most or all of the patients from the hospital and I’m not sure if any were left or not. John can line us out when he comments.
His documentary of the storm approaching was germane. He wrote about everything from Katrina’s first preparations to the aftermath following. His story still gets first hand information out to those of us who are no longer informed of the recovery unless it’s negative. John is in an excellent occupation for he is able to see things as an observer and report what he sees…..without an agenda or political implications. I know he is the same with his patients. Objectivity with reason and understanding.
He was a voice to take us through the experience with him. It transcended into a drama on a magnitude none of us had ever experienced before. The sound of the wind eventually gave way to bulldozers, linemen, saws and the tools needed to clean up the mess. There has been finger pointing and name calling but the fact remains it was a storm of which no one could have prepared for.
Some things just can’t be avoided with all of our science and technology. Katrina will go down as one of the worst recorded in recent history. (To read his accounts, go to his archives on his site.)
Katrina wasn’t much of a lady but you have to admire her power.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
