I have been through several hurricanes. I was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi Mississippi in 1969 when Camille came through. She was a Cat 5 If I remember correctly. I was in Morse Code school but we were pulled out of tech school to patrol the back bay area for bodies washing back on shore. Several hundred people killed in that one. In September of 1989, I went through Hugo in Charleston, SC which was a Cat 4 and have vivid memories of how huge pine trees were snapped in half like twigs or just uprooted. Again, lots of people killed.
Then, living in New Orleans in 2005, what we thought would be the mother of all hurricanes KATRINA blew through and over 1500 people died, mostly from drowning. She was a Cat 4 when she hit the Big Easy. It took weeks to get power restored. I remember the Army driving hummers down our street giving out MREs.
Last Sunday, IDA blew through our neighborhood packing winds of 150 MPH. Our whole house was swaying and Linda and I were just praying to GOD that the house would hold together. It did for the most part but two huge 150 year old Oak trees were blown out of the ground like they were a weed. The root balls were 15 ft in diameter. One fell no more that 6 ft from where i was standing and crushed our screened in porch like it was made of contest balsa. The other fell between my house and the neighbors and took out my workshop and fence.
There was a 20 ft storm surge at Grand Isle and most of those houses were elevated to 15 ft and they still got 5 feet of water in them. People were calling in for help that were trapped in their attic from the rising water. One man in Slidell, Louisiana was attacked by an alligator and drug into the waters and they still have not found his remains.
The river Parishes will take years to come back, if they ever do. People are still missing in Lafouche and Jean Lafitte and Grand Isle.
A tornado was spawned and went directly over our house and the howl that thing made is a sound i will never forget.
In Jefferson Parish where I live, they were losing 250,000 gallons of water an hour from broken mains where the falling trees pulled them up and broke them because the roots had grown around them.
I had a generator but there was no gasoline, no electricity , no water and 95 degree heat with 110 heat index. What gas stations did have some gas, lines were a mile long and people were pulling out guns on people who tried to cut the line. Looters were having their way in New Orleans. People in my neighborhood were sitting on their front porches with guns.
I could go on but I think you get the picture. Want to know what Hell on Earth is .....this is it.
So if you get a few minutes, say a little prayer for the people down here, they are suffering.
Linda and I are leaving Auburn in the morning to go to Atlanta to spend some time with my brother and hope we can get home in a month or so.
Mike
Topic: Sitting in a room at the Hampton Inn in Auburn, Alabama (Read 1279 times)