Hurricane Ida Was a Warning Shot
If you don’t know yourself before a major natural disaster…boy, are you gonna.
Every few years, Mother Nature kicks you back into the stone age. I guess it’s good to keep those survival skills sharp. Welcome to the Gulf Coast life.
The New Orleans metro area had about five days to prepare for what started as an ominous tropical depression and quickly grew into a major Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Five days seems like a lot, and I’ll give you that, but when you’re dealing with the complexity of nature and politics, things start to get complicated.
Allow me to explain- when a storm is forming in the Gulf or other warm body of water, you watch it. Then you watch it some more. Just when you think it might cause you some trouble, it’s decision time. Do you stay or do you go? Unfortunately for New Orleans, decision time came too late. Ida gained strength rapidly once it hit the Gulf, and all of New Orleans and surrounding areas had two full days to figure out what the hell we were going to do next.
So, what would you do? A storm is in the Gulf- a tropical storm. It might gain strength and come right at you, but it might not. What’s your next move?
Are you planning to evacuate? Great! Where are you going? For how long? Do you have money for a hotel? Do you have money for food? Do you have gas? How are your children going to handle being away for an extended period? What are you going to do with your pets?
You won’t be working, so you might not be getting paid. Are you sure you can afford to leave? What are you taking with you? What if you don’t come back? What are you going to miss? Take the important papers and the photo albums. Take the things that you can’t replace.
Maybe you want to stay. Maybe you have to stay. Are you sure you’ll make it through the storm? How much do you really trust the levees and the pumps? How well is your house built? How’s your roof? Did your neighborhood flood during Katrina? It doesn’t matter because all storms are different. Do you have everything you need? Medicine? Food? Bottled water? Batteries? A radio? Portable lights?
