I'd actually written out a nice long post filled with inspirational platitudes, talking about how people came together, and help came from all over, what with people pulling their own boats down to Texas to rescue strangers,
and how private corporations stepped up and sent trucks full of food and water,
and this guy,
and how we showed the rest of America that we aren't nearly as divided as the media would have us believe, blah, blah, blah...but when all was said and done, it wasn't in my heart to post it. I decided to go a different route. A more personal route.
This is my mother.
Honestly, I had thought she wouldn't be in any danger, because her house had stayed dry during Ike back in '08. This time, her house flooded. When water started coming into the house, she waded through knee deep water to a neighbor's house. Water started coming into that house, too, so they waded to another neighbor's house. When water started coming into that house, they threw in the towel and called for someone to come rescue them.
Once the rescuers got them out of their neighborhood, they tried to take them to a shelter in Orange, but all the shelters were full. My mom ended up in a hotel in Sulphur, Louisiana. Yesterday, my cousin Kathy and her daughter drove down and picked my mother up. They took her to her brother's house, where she will stay until she decides what to do. She got out with her purse and her medications. And that's it.
This picture is of Beverly and James' house (in the back) and Judy and Bill's house (in the front).
They took on three(ish) feet of water in their houses.
They'd all spent the night in their campers, which they'd set up on higher ground. By the next morning, water was only about an inch away from coming into the campers as well. However, family and friends got them out and offered them a place to stay.
Though the flood waters are receding, they still have water in their houses, and can't get in or out, except by boat.
By Thursday, it was my turn. What was left of Harvey blew through here. We got a lot of rain, but nothing severe. At least not here. The worst of it went North of me, however, we did get some strong winds during the night. Here we see Jesse standing amidst the bulk of my storm damage.
My electricity went out around 10:00 PM, and was still off when I got up to go to work the next morning. I'll tell you something, it's mighty dark at 3:30 AM. You don't really realize how much light you have -- the nightlight in the bathroom, the face of the clock radio, streetlights shining through the window, even the green power light on the window unit -- until you don't have it. It was pitch black in my bedroom.
All those camping lanterns I had from when Cody was in cub scouts...yep, couldn't find a single one. I got dressed by the light of a single candle and a toy lantern that I found in his bedroom.
I wasn't going to get caught in that situation again, boy howdy. Today, I went to Wal-mart and bought the biggest lantern I could find.
And forgot the batteries.
Hey, I gotta be me!
There's a lot of people out there trying to find someone or something to blame all this on. Trump. Man made global warming. Whatever, they've got to find something to blame, but there really isn't anywhere to place blame. These things just happen.
It's called weather, people, and despite all our technological advances, we are still pretty much at its mercy.
All we can do is prepare the best we can, and rebuild when it's all over.
Until the next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment