Katrina Part 1: Uh, Maybe You Should Have Evacuated
Writing by treason on Monday, 29 of August , 2005 at 6:09 pm
I was up most of the night watching the coverage, so when the phone rang and it was from assisted living and they were telling me my mother was complaining of chest pains, I had just enough time to get a cup of coffee and get dressed. I was out all day: first at her doctor’s office, then at Walgreens, then back at Walgreens for a new prescription that was delayed because they couldn’t interpret the doctor’s handwriting. While I waited for them to get in touch with him, I sat with my mother at her place and watched FNC.
I figured if I put her in front of the TV, it would take her mind right off her chest pains. It worked.
“Why would people live there?”
“You should talk!”
This coming from a woman who lived near both the San Andreas and Calaveras faults. But I can’t point fingers. Would I have evacuated? Let’s just say that tomorrow there was a looming disaster in my city and I was told by authorities that I had to get out.
It would be tough. I’d have to make the decision to leave my house and all my possessions. I’d grab food, water, toiletries, some clothes, a battery operated radio and flashlights, and eyeglasses. I generally wear contacts, but there’s no way I’m going to deal with them without access to plumbing. I might even grab a back-up pair of specs. (That old Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith — Time Enough At Last — made a lasting impression on me. As soon as I got a job I bought several pairs of eyeglasses and convinced my sister to do the same. No one myopic should risk being without corrective lenses. There are three things I’d do if I were rich. Pay for poor people to get their eyes tested and get glasses. My myopic sisters and I had to go years without glasses and it was…well, more on that another time. Second, I would pay the veterinary bills of people who couldn’t afford them. Third, I would give money to people to create businesses and, in turn, they would have to do the same once they were successful. Shoot - throw in dentistry, too. I was twelve before I ever saw a dentist, and my sister went to a dentist only once. She tried everything to remove a tooth and when she realized nothing was going to relieve the pain, she agreed to go to my other sister’s dentist to have it extracted. She was in her forties, I think, at the time.)
Do I have all my “important papers,” photographs, and any other must-haves in one spot to quickly grab before I run out the door? Of course not. I don’t even know if I have my birth certificate in this house.
The dogs. This is the hard part. T and I are on no medications, but the dogs are. We’d have to grab food and water and meds (need a can opener for the wet food and a way to refrigerate insulin - oh, don’t forget the syringes!), and plastic bags. Hopefully we’ll be able to get them out of the car for regular breaks.
We have credit cards, cash, and the dogs - we’re good to go. Oh, wait. My mother. She’s diabetic, too, and has Alzheimer’s. Her list of meds is a mile long and she has no bladder control. Now things are getting complicated. Would it be easier to stockpile supplies and just stay put? Don’t have a lot of time to decide.
I will say, however, that in the case of Katrina, I’ve watched a lot of hurricane coverage in my life but this time it was different. They kept showing that mass moving towards the Gulf Coast states and talking about 170-190 mile per hour winds. T and I both agreed that this was going to be bad - so we watched. And it was.
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