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Observations on a Life on the Gulf Coast During the Hurricane Season
Jim,
With [hurricanes] Gustav and Ike paying us a visit, I thought I would send
you a note regarding the importance of self reliance versus shelter life.
Living
in the
Gulf South, hurricanes are something you have to prepare for. Government support
and shelter will not be there for you in the way you might think. Your lack
of supplies or resources when you most need them, depending on the emergency,
could mean a thoroughly miserable experience for you and your family at best;
or [something far] worse if the emergency is wider and deeper in scope. Start
making your preparations now, when they’re not needed immediately and
are readily available. When the time to act arrives, don’t hesitate,
and you will find yourself in safer territory long before the rest of the
unprepared
and
sometimes frantic
crowd.
Hurricanes are simply a part of life in the Gulf South. Out West there are
earthquakes, wildfires and even volcanic activity. Elsewhere in the US we have
to prepare for tornados, blizzards, nor’easters, floods, et cetera. And
these are just what nature can throw at us and often does. Barely a day goes
by where
we are not reading about some unfortunate people caught short in an unexpected
event, and unprepared for [the] emergency. In addition, in today’s world
there are legitimate man-made concerns, such as terrorist activity, industrial
accidents
and the
threat of economic collapse as highlighted in your most entertaining and informative
novel; "Patriots".
In short, I don’t think anybody; anywhere
is 100% immune from some sort of emergency or cataclysmic event. The time to
start
preparing
was yesterday. The time to stop, is never. Always look to improve
and renew your preparations.
Before Hurricane Katrina, I thought that I had my act together. My wife laughed
at how prepared I always was. I took great pride in her labeling me as her
little
Boy Scout.
But I soon found that I wasn’t. After the storm passed I discovered that
the recoil [starter] spring on the generator was broken. (I hadn’t checked
it for the last couple of years). And although I found a way around that, I
only
had
enough gas to run it for a few days. I figured it would all be over quickly
as had been the case with so many other storms that merely brushed by and brought
little more than an inconvenience. My easily prepared food was also limited
to a few days, maybe a week at best. Water I had enough of for a week or two.
I soon realized that I was little better prepared, if at all, than anyone else
on my street. Sure, I was the first one with boards on my windows, and I had
a generator; but that was about it.
Taking it a step further, I had these preparations for myself. My wife and
family had evacuated. In the event there was an emergency where they wouldn’t
be able to evacuate, with generator power for a few days, food and water maybe
the same, we would have found ourselves in dire straights all too quickly with
little or no choice other than to rely on charity. If we were creative, we
might have been able to stretch it out for almost two week, at best.
Cleaning up after a storm and trying to put your life back together requires
a lot of extra calories and is certainly not the time to scrimp together a
minimal diet.
We were lucky, however, in that we had saved money for a grand family vacation
the following year, so there were funds available to take care of everyone
for three weeks while they were evacuated. Fortunately for me, I am a police
officer, so decent hot food and support was available to me. Not to mention
being able to take home a few gallons of gas each day for my generator. Had
I of been Mr. John Q. Public given the same set of circumstances, I would have
been in line for Red Cross meals twice a day before long, and totally without
power unless I went from 8-to-12 hours per day to 2 or 3.
Again, taking it a step further, if my family needed shelter, given either
a lack of funds or the opportunity to evacuate, and unable to stay in my house
due to storm damage, we would have wound up in line for food and spending the
night in the corridors of a local school which is used for [a public] shelter.
I have worked as security at those shelters. Believe me, they are not places
you want
to spend time in, filled with the homeless, near homeless, mentally ill, infirm
and a rough assortment of folks with near nothing to their name.
During [Hurricane] Gustav our city had several shelters, and by design, they
are not comfortable. One shelter where you could bring your pet (in a crate & with food & supplies
only!) had a huge generator. All of the pets enjoyed air conditioning. The
people, housed in a separate area, did not. The other shelters where pets were
strictly not allowed also had no air conditioning. When asking the Red Cross
officials about this, they stated that their rules demanded air conditioning
and 20 square feet of space per pet. For people, no air conditioning was required
and only 15 square feet of space was deemed necessary. They said they didn’t
want the people to be too comfortable where they wouldn’t want to leave.
They achieved this goal ‘handsomely’. The walls of the school corridors
were soon sweating profusely from condensation and pools of water covered the
floor. Anything like sleeping bags, or bags of clothing left on the floor soon
began to absorb water. Even after 24 hours, the smell began to set in. No one
hung around any longer than they absolutely had to. Mission accomplished. Given
different circumstances and recourses, I’m sure they would have been
more accommodating, but I never want to find out first hand.
The local school board was also what I would describe as less than considerate.
At the shelter I worked at, the folks from the Red Cross were told by the principal
that they were limited to the hallways, cafeteria and gym; that the people
requiring shelter could only be from that area – no evacuees from further
afield; and that 12 hours after the storm passed, everyone had to be out. In
short, evacuees found themselves in miserable conditions, and felt unwanted
all round. The Lord should smile on the Red Cross volunteers who actually manned
the shelter as they worked themselves silly to do all they could for the inhabitants,
but try as they might, they simply could not do much to alleviate the miserable
conditions. I never want to find myself there, and refuse to let my family
go through anything remotely like that.
Today I am far more prepared in every respect, and continuing to improve on
my preparations all around. When I first started getting truly prepared, my
family thought I was a little ‘nutty’. Now, in many ways they see
the need, but still see a somewhat eccentric side to me. They were all born
in a time of plenty. A time where we are accustomed to having what we want
and when we want it. Increasingly, the finer things in life are taken for granted
and many segments of society even demand not only their necessities, but the
luxuries of life to be handed to them, gratis. In time of need, the
more sudden, the deeper and prolonged the emergency, the more severe their
reaction to take
what they don’t have and we do have, by any means
necessary.
Hurricanes are relatively small emergencies. Given the scope of [hurricanes
such as] Ike, Gustav, Katrina, or Andrew, for example, some may say they were
anything but
small.
To many, they lost everything. But on the whole, hurricanes produce short lived,
localized emergency conditions which the rest of the country responds to. Given
a far wider reaching event, such as a [large scale] EMP attack,
economic collapse, pandemic etc, the effects could be very widespread over
a far longer period. It wouldn’t
take long for people to realize that no one would be coming to help.
The 911 telephone system wouldn’t
work, or would work less effectively. Shelters, if available, would be hell,
but for
those of us unprepared, we would have little else to fall back on. This, in
large part, is why I prepare. It is why we all should. - DZ in Louisiana
