How Hurricane Katrina Affected Me in Mobile, AL
Hurricane Katrina -- Your Thoughts, Messages and Stories Blog
by Special Editorial
Tuesday September 6, 2005
How Hurricane Katrina Affected Me in Mobile, AL
My story is not the typical hurricane destruction type. My husband, daughter and two Japanese Chin dogs went to Birmingham, AL to visit our son and realized once there that we best stay there until the danger was over. When we returned Tuesday morning (traffic was terrible returning to Mobile), we go straight to my office to check damage. It was O.K.!!! Then we go home. The dining room floors (hardwood) were ruined and the aubusson rug but mostly the acre plus yard looked like a war zone diaster. Trees were down everywhere and limbs bigger than me on the ground. My husband is an insurance adjuster so he immediately takes off to start working claims. (The cobbler's children have no shoes!), so I start trying to pick up the pieces. It is so unbearibly hot (no electricity) that I want to scream! I'm either menopausal or just not adjusting, either way, it is awful! I feel like an unwed mother with my husband working 16 hours per day and not able to help, then I feel guilty for being upset as there are so many people far worse off than me. Trying to buy gasoline is taking your life in your hands! I went to six service stations and still couldn't find a single one with gas and I was starting to panic as I was getting farther and farther away from home and afraid I would have to abandon my car and walk so I drive very slowly and go back home. Sleeping is impossible as the 100% plus humidity and the mosquitoes do not let up. The next day I leave at 430A in search of gasoline. I find a station that will open up at 630A so I get in line. There is a truck two vehicles ahead of me that is filling up huge drums. The person in front of me asks him if he can leave some gas for the rest of us and the drum filling guy yells that he has a generator to run. I quickly get back in my car as I am scared a fight or gun battle might erupt as they are both very angry! Then the gas runs out and everyone (about 60 cars in line have to leave). Oh yeah, I forget to mention that I haven't missed a single day of work since the devastion occurred. Hopefully, my employer appreciates my loyalty. I am just so thankful to have a job to go to! The plot continues to thicken but being an eternal optimist I do see light at the end of the tunnel.
Tuesday September 6, 2005 | # | comments (2)