Welcome to my blog. Most of this first post comes from an email I sent to a friend this morning when the hurricane was just about to make landfall. I am 500 miles away from the coast at the moment and glued to the tv to wait for news.
Thanks for your good wishes. We evacuated yesterday and got to Tennessee last night to stay with my sister. We took some back roads so we didn't get jammed up in the traffic for too long. The trip to my sister's normally takes about 6-1/2 hours and we got here in about 10 hours. Not too bad for an evac.
We didn't bring much with us. When we were throwing things into the car to leave, there just wasn't much I cared about in my house except for my family. My poor little kids were preparing in their own way -- my girls were moving all of their Barbie's upstairs in case the house floods. :-( We brought enough clothes for a week, our family photo albums, our two dogs, and some of the food that was in the fridge. I really hope we don't need our insurance papers because I forgot them.
I'm checking the weather channel right now (I've been up since 5:30 a.m., and it's about 6:20 at the moment) because I can't sleep knowing that the eye of the storm will likely be passing right over my house shortly. If you're looking closely at a map, my house is on the east side of Slidell, LA, which is just east of New Orleans. My husband is very worried about the university and hopes he still has a job when it's over. All we can do is hope and pray that the damage isn't too bad. At least we are all safe.
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3 comments:
Linda Laurel,
Keep your spirit up!
My sister and brother-in-law live in Pearl River on W. Porter River Rd, last heard from them they were in FLorida, Brother-in-law just had liver transplant, hopefully he can find medical follow-up care there. Have not heard anything about Pearl River, still looking.
Be safe, our prayers are with you and your family.
greetings from the safe north, (I read your blog, all of it, please read mine)
I have read your blog. I cannot imagine what you must have experienced. Now you are home, walking through a not-so-well-stocked grocery store to find the things you need, or those that will do for now. I hope your husband will have his job. But I have been in daily contact with a shelter in Alabama. There are still 40 families there who have no place to go. A grandmother who has to sit on a folding chair all this time. Not even enough chairs for everyone. Men who are terribly frustrated because they can not care for their families. Teenage boys and girls who lie quietly on their cot, a blanket pulled over their heads from depression, laying there all day long. I am happy your girls have their Barbies. What joy. This afternoon I will go back to the post office with baby wipes, men's socks, women's underwear and a present for a little girl who is turning four this week. Siple and complicated books to read. I have two homes available, plus my own home and it has been ready since Katrina struck that Monday. There has been no response from authorities and RC/FEMA need to "catalog" people before they can go. WHY? I even had flights arranged. It is a deplorable situation. My husband was a pediatric Resident at Charity hospital in the mid '70s. We lived in the Quarter and our two eldest children were born there. We lived through a serious hurricane thread - the one that hit Galveston.
I'm sorry to "unload" on you. Your BLOG is a wonderful family history, but it gives no credit, no compassion, no love to those who are infinitely worse off than you are: family lost, people displaced, the little they had lost and no idea for their future. My artist friend goes there each day, 7 days a week, to help and try to uplift their spirits. He spends 8-10 hours each day and does his work at night. He also lost everything including his dog, cat and a large flock of rare birds in his little aviary. Praying is great. hands are better.
Dear Marianne, This blog is about MY family. I can only write about my own experiences, not those of others. At the top of every page on this blog it is stated very clearly that this is a FAMILY blog and it is intended for MY family and friends. It is not, nor was it EVER intended to be anything more.
I cannot express to you how devastated I feel when I hear about people such as those you are caring for. I have seen it first hand for myself what people are going through to get this community back on its feet.
But I do take offense to one comment of yours. You have not read my entries carefully, otherwise you would have seen OVER and OVER where I DO give credit, compassion AND love to those who are infinitely worse off than we are. Over and OVER I have stated how lucky were not to have lost family members and all our personal property and how my heart breaks for those who have.
Just because I have not suffered enough by your definition does not give you the right to tell me that I do not feel compassion or love for those who are worse off than I am. If anything, we need to all stick together to help each other, not point fingers at how we choose to share our experiences.
There are thousands of regular people just like me who have returned to the area already who haven't lost "everything", but who still are confused and trying to make the best of a wounded community, and who greatly appreciate what I have shared here. I AM sorry about those who are still in the shelters and I AM trying to help people who are worse off than I am. I have only been home for barely a week, and I have spent four days of it in the sweltering heat doing physical labor and digging out a friend's uninhabitable flooded house. Did you not read that part?
Please try to have a little compassion yourself for those of us who are at the rebuilding stage of this experience, and not be angry at us just because we are able to bounce back more quickly than those less fortunate.
You asked me to read your blog, but you didn't leave the URL, so perhaps you just meant for me to read your long comment which I have.
I would like to encourage you to write a real blog (get started at blogger.com) about YOUR experiences. I'm glad you are helping those people. Your stories definitely NEED to be told. Only YOU can tell them. I can not. I can only write what I know, and this is it. It's not much, but it's all I have to offer.
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