While you are reading this, I want you to take a second to look around you. Are you at home, surrounded by all your things? Things that you have spent the last few years of your life acquiring, some may have been in your family for decades, others you may have just bought and paid way too much money for! (We have all been there) Are there pictures hanging on your walls, pictures of your kids, family, friends, pets?
Maybe your diploma or your marriage license. Do you have your children's baby pictures tucked away in a box somewhere you think is safe? What about your other important documents, like yours or your children's Birth Certificates, your Social Security Cards, Tax Papers and returns, The deed to your Home or Car, Life Insurance Policies? What about the computer you are reading this on? What do you have saved on it that you can't replace? Do you own or rent your home? Neither is the correct answer, so it is only for reference purposes. How much equity do you have built into your home? How much do you pay in rent? Can you afford to live for a few months, if nessecary, on what you have in the bank right now? What if what you pay now was doubled overnight? Could you still afford it? And the most important question of all.....DO YOU HAVE INSURANCE? ....Are you waiting for your wife/husband to come home from work? Did you just get home yourself?
Or maybe, you are at work now. Look around at your desk, do you have pictures of your kids on it. Those little candid snapshots you took during a backyard cook-out or a family reunion. Maybe a school picture or two? How long have you been at your current job? A year.. maybe two? Longer? Look around you at your co-workers. How many of them would you consider to be your "friends"? Who do you socialize with when you have time off? Surely you have people you are friends with nearby. Maybe family members you help out from time to time now that they don't get around so well anymore. Are you good at your job? Maybe you just received a raise or a promotion after a big project. Do you have company insurance? A 401k or a pension? Do your employers respect your abilities and reward you accordingly? Have you finally gotten that flexible schedule you needed?
When you get off of work tonight, what will you do? Stop by the bank and deposit your paycheck. Maybe grab a six pack or a bottle of wine on your way. Pick up a pack of smokes, maybe you'll rent a movie. Say you're planning a night out, will you go to the same place that you have been going to for years? Hang out with those friends we spoke about earlier? Maybe to the restaurant you found where you can good food and good service (It's hard to find ,I know). Could be that you plan on having one of those cook-outs this weekend, or going to the river, how about fishing with your kids?
Now I want you to stand up. Given the fact that most of us are over 5ft tall, look at everything that falls below the level of your eye. What do you see? Is your furniture lower than your chest? What about those pictures on the wall, your filing cabinet, or your computer? Now imagine a 6ft surge of water coming through your house in a matter of minutes. What would you lose in that few minutes? Everything? Can you imagine the cost to repair all that? Sheet Rock, Studs, Floors, Cabinets, Wiring, Appliances, Furniture, Electronics, Doors, Counter tops, Carpet, Tile, and so on and so forth. How about the cost to replace all your family's clothing, the dishes, silverware, all the toiletries, sheets, and towels? If you have children.. Can you ever replace their baby pictures, the things you saved from when they were little? Do still have the negatives? They are wet now too. Saved them to the computer? Also Wet.
Where would you stay while your home was being repaired? Family? What they were in the exact same situation that you were in. Only worse. Where would you go? A hotel? Can you afford the cost to live in a hotel room for more than a week, possibly months? What if your kids had no one to play with and were crowded into a small hotel room for days on end? With only three days worth of clothes for all of you. And barely any cash because your bank is regional and is non functioning. And what if you still had to pay the Mortgage? The Electric, Cable, and Gas Bill that were "estimated usage" charges. What if your insurance won't cover the damage? What would you do to bring money in? Will you be able to find a job that will pay you what you made before? Will you have the same benefits? How would you prove previous employment if every company you had ever worked for suddenly went out of business or declared bankruptcy on the same day. What if every person spoke to today suddenly moved away all at once? Who would you talk to? Imagine all this happening in as little as 35 minutes.
This is how long it takes for a Flood caused by a Hurricane takes to ruin someone's life. Since Katrina, as an "affectee" ( I refuse to be called a victim, as you are only a victim if you allow yourself to be) I have hear people say over and over.. "At least you still have your 'life'." While it is true that both my family and I are all safe and accounted for, is a heartbeat and the oxygen we breathe all that make up a "life?"
Or is a "life" really made up of the things we accomplish with it. If you died tomorrow and you had only spent your life existing, what would be said about you at your funeral. NOTHING! Because you went through life with a heartbeat and breathing air, but you didn't accomplish anything. If I had died in Hurricane Katrina my obituary would have said " She was a mother, a hard worker, a friend and devoted family woman." Since the storm I have been reduced to "coward, dumbass, evacuee, mooch, and worst of all "Victim".
"Life" is about living! And with living comes acquisition! You strive to acquire the things that you want from "life". Maybe your goal is to have a nice home with nice things in it. Maybe your goal is to be successful in your career, or well liked in your community. "Life" is what we make of it. The memories we build for our children , the memories and accomplishments we build for ourselves. If I died tomorrow my obituary would most likely read "Hurricane Katrina Victim". This is not how I want to be remembered, so I am trying to move forward, past the despair, past the debt, past the loss of all that I had accomplished for myself. I have gotten back to trying to build good memories for my children, to trying to repair the damage wrought by this disaster that is now my "life". I am trying to move past victim. To upgrade, if you will, to survivor! And eventually, make it a distant memory for myself and my family. So the next time you hear about someone whose "life" has been devastated by a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, or even a flood, Please don't say "At least you have your life".....
Just a few Facts:
Hurricane Katrina - General Facts
Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005 as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 145 mph with higher gusts, at 6:10 a.m. CDT near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. Making its way up the eastern Louisiana coastline, most communities in Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parish, and Slidell in St. Tammany Parish, were severely damaged by storm surge and the strong winds of the eye wall, which also grazed eastern New Orleans.
A few hours later, it made landfall for a third time near the Louisiana/Mississippi border with 125 mph Category 3 sustained winds. However, because the storm was so large, extreme damaging eye wall winds and the strong northeastern quadrant of the storm, pushing record storm surges onshore, smashed the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast, including towns in Mississippi such as Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Gautier and Pascagoula, and, in Alabama, Bayou La Batre. As Katrina moved inland diagonally over Mississippi, high winds cut a swath of damage that affected almost the entire state.
Category 4 Hurricane
Storm Surge reported at 200 miles wide and 29 feet high
Maximum sustained winds 140 mph at landfall (unconfirmed)
Lowest minimum pressure at landfall was 27.108 inches (918 mbar) (hPa), making it the third strongest hurricane
on record to make landfall on the United States.
Some 1 million people were displaced by the storm along the U.S. Gulf Coast. About half of those
are from New Orleans, where nearly all 450,000 residents were evacuated.
More than 3,800 animals have been rescued in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Humane Society said.
More than 236,000 customers without power.
The American Red Cross was housing more than 207,000 evacuees in 709 shelters across the country. It has served over 5.9 million meals and raised over $578 million for relief.
228 confirmed dead
More than 75,000 homes, including apartments, condos, and mobile homes destroyed in six coastal counties
(Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone, and George)
Widespread loss of jobs, livelihoods, and income
500,000 Mississippians have applied for disaster assistance from FEMA
Extensive destruction of poultry and livestock populations
Temporary roofs installed on more than 41,000 homes
30 foot storm surge recorded at Biloxi, MS is the highest ever observed in America. Record storm surges that had not occurred in at least the last 150 years, inundated the entire Mississippi coastline, destroying many historic homes
