Aftermath Update 2: Misery and Desperation (Updated)

[colorado_ufo]

12. Truly sorry for your situation!

This is life with hurricanes. I wonder how Puerto Rico is doing?

I grew up with this, for 22 years. First hurricane for me was when I was an infant in 1947, a bad one. When Betsy hit, we were without water for two weeks except for the trickle we could get from a fire hydrant in front of the house. No electricity for weeks. We had a gas stove, so we could cook, and the neighbors brought us food from their freezers which was defrosted and going to spoil anyway. Heat and humidity. For a while, could hardly get out our front door due to fallen trees. Our beautiful pecan tree, gone! The oak, the elm, our little swing set that my Daddy built with his own hands. The setup that Mom and Daddy had just completed, to try to start a day care center. And on and on. There was no FEMA. There was no help. A relative in Pennsylvania sent money for Daddy to get a little chain saw, so we could cut up the trees - no money for professional help. He worked and worked and worked.

One hurricane found us with Grandpa in a hospital bed in the house, following a massive stroke (no Medicare then). Sister was a baby. Daddy secured a big sheet of plastic, and we all planned to just try to hold it over Grandpa, if the roof didn't hold on our little house. No where to go. When the winds were at their worst, Mom and Daddy literally pushed on the walls with their hands, to help keep them from buckling. Thank God, they held.

One year after we were married, my husband and I moved to Colorado and have been extremely thankful to be here. We just up and left, with all we owned in a 5 X 8 U-Haul trailer and a tiny Toyota Corona. No friends, no family, no money, no jobs. But we made it. Everyone else has passed or remains in Louisiana and Mississippi; their ties to the area and friends and family and tradition are too strong, I guess, after the family being there for maybe 150 years. Even after multiple evacuations and the nightmare of Katrina. We visit, we do what we can, but we have started a new branch of the family here in Colorado, and now our grown children and grandchildren are branching out - so happy for them!

Sometimes you have to make your own Brave New World.

Prayers for all those who continue to suffer these tremendous storms.