Well, word comes now that my new home may be in the direct path of the oncoming hurricane, Rita, evil twin to Katrina. Currently the meteorologists are projecting the path will bring the hurricane to our front door. A category 4 will wreak havoc and devastation to this area. All of this is terrible news for a couple of reasons: the people who recently relocated to this area from Louisiana had just begun to settle in, and now they may be forced to evacuate again; and on a personal level, we've only been in our new home for about two months, and much of the furniture and goods we have are brand new. We had figured when we moved, why pay moving costs on the old stuff when we could sell it and buy new stuff? The heartbreaker is, there is a distinct possibility if Rita makes landfall here, we could lose it all, and our dream of owning our first home would have a serious damper on it.
So, wish us all luck. If you pray, I'd be happy to accept those on our behalf. I'll try to keep you up to date on what is going on. Our plan is to evacuate if by Thursday the storm is still predicted to make landfall here. We'd go earlier, but it is unlikely our jobs or the schools will close down until the last possible moment. It's going to be a nightmare getting out of town either way. Today, Wednesday, I tried to buy water, but all the stores had been cleaned out. There are already long lines at the gas pumps to fill up cars. DH and I will be putting together emergency supplies tomorrow and packing sleeping bags and clothing, just in case. We'll be gathering together all of our important papers, emergency food, first aid kits, and getting emergency cash, too. I was able to purchase stable food supplies, so we got lucky there. Oh, yeah, and somewhere in there I have to grade 75 Freshman Composition papers to return to my students by Thursday. Ack!
Frankly, in some ways, this is just surreal. At least we have warning...In Los Angeles, we didn't have tornadoes or hurricanes, but when an earthquake hit, it was without warning. Of course, we didn't have "earthquake seasons" either. Here, even if we survive this, we always have next year's hurricane season to look forward to. Yeesh.
TJB
1 comment:
Thank you for letting us know your plans. We will/have been praying for you all. Just remember it's only stuff and stuff can be replaced. Let us know where you guys wind up. Unfortunately, they are now saying that it could become a cat 5.
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