Hurricane Gustav

I wanted to give an update on my family for those interested.

First, as of Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., my parents and sister are ok. I heard from my mom on Monday night, but didn't hear from my dad until Tuesday. He's been busy working on the clean-up. He does tree work and has been working until 2 or 3 a.m. getting trees off power lines.

Now, I shall get on my soapbox. Stop reading if you don't wanna hear it. hahahaha.

When hurricane Katrina hit and people were stranded in the flood the entire country was in an uproar. I won't rehash that storm, but just wanted to remind us all of how mad we were after Katrina hit.

When Gustav was passing over Cuba, the gulf coast took notice and took action. The largest evacuation in the history of Louisiana took place. Not only did they get 2 million people out, they had a plan! It was done in an orderly fashion. The cooperation of several states made this possible. State and LOCAL governments from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama (more..??) all coordinated to get buses, trains and planes ready to evacuate those who could not otherwise leave due to illness, incapacity or lack of transportation or money.

No money for the gas to leave? That's ok, meet at these designated points and a bus will get you. Not only will it get you, we will drive you to safety. You, your children and your PETS. Yes, pets. Then we will feed you. House you. Engage you in games, provide television, etc.

When Gustav was out over Cuba, it looked to be a monster storm. Ok. Let's be honest, ANY hurricane is a monster storm. But this one was shaping up to be really bad. So everyone took action. In the New Orleans area 90% of the people heeded the mandatory evacuation. WOW! That's a large undertaking.

While watching the coverage from my safe home in north Texas, I was nervous: was my family ok? What about friends in Louisiana? In the midst of my fear was anger. Anger at the news reporters that almost acted disappointed that more doom and destruction didn't occur...and these were the reporters in New Orleans. The ones near Cocodrie, Houma, Morgan City, Baton Rouge didn't quite feel the same.

As great as our technology is, we cannot always predict every nuance of a hurricane or tornado or earthquake. Gustav gave a few surprises by moving a little west. The winds also died down a bit. Made landfall as a category 2. {Oh, no! You said it would be a 3 or 4. Did you cry wolf?}

NO! Guess what? When Katrina made landfall, the max sustained winds were approximately 120 mph. Gustav made landfall with max sustained winds of about 115 mph. Those few mph difference were the difference between a cat 3 and a cat 2...but what does this mean? {Oh, Gustav was only a cat 2. You evacuated us for nothing...} Let's be clear. A lot of damage was done in this storm. The major damage wasn't in New Orleans, but people lost homes! No electricity! I can't even call my parents! No landlines, no power to the cell towers! NOTHING! No email! I have to cling to the 4 or 5 minutes I talked to my dad on Tuesday!

ARGH! I'm guessing that if an evacuation hadn't taken place and people lost lives from falling trees or flying debris we would be saying the authorities didn't do their jobs once AGAIN. And how bad this storm was. But now, everyone is out and SAFE and yet we're questioning whether the authorities cried "wolf". So infuriating. The people were safe. Isn't that what we demanded from Nagin? Bush? FEMA? Governor Blanco and now Jindal????

While I'm on the topic, let me address some of the things that I saw happening here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I saw a large metropolitan area come together to assist our fellow human beings from the gulf coast. Bus after bus and car after car arrived to north Texas to find all of our digital signage on the highways directing them to either an intake/staging center in Mesquite or if they made it all the way to Fort Worth, the signage directed them to the appropriate shelters.

The staging area in Mesquite was at a football stadium. Red Cross and city officials were there early Saturday morning. This wasn't the beginning of the preparation though. Three years of planning led to the orchestration of thousands of evacuees finding shelter and food here in north Texas.

Some had been on buses or cars for 24 hours...making stops along the way. When they arrived in Mesquite they found medical care for EVERYONE, water for EVERYONE, restrooms for EVERYONE. Then the buses would take them directly to a shelter. No guesswork. Will the shelter be full? Where will we stay? None of that! Orchestrated like a grand symphony.

I will say most of the gulf coast guests were thankful. Tired, scared, but thankful. There were a relative handful though that complained! Complained that the food "tasted like prison food" and that after a while the restrooms were dirty. WHAT!?!?!?

Hmmmm...I think "prison" food is better than NO food. I also think staying at the Dallas Convention Center was EXPONENTIALLY better than what went down at the Superdome in 2005.

I cannot begin to explain how unbelievably frustrated I am. As a nation we demanded Louisiana and the Feds do a better job. They did, and now we complain. How ungrateful!

I have never been more proud to have been from Louisiana as this weekend, to see everyone work together and for all of the planning to work. I have never been more proud to now be a part of the DFW community, to see so many reach out to those in need.

I have also never been more ashamed to come from the same state as those that were complaining about how tasty a meal was or wasn't at the Dallas Convention Center.

By the way, while those at the Dallas Convention Center were eating prison food and using a dirty bathroom, my dad stayed behind, working in the storm to remove trees from your homes and the roads so you could return. He is now working 20 hours a day to remove trees from power lines so you can have the hope of getting electricity in the next month. All while eating cold canned food. I think he'd give 20 bucks for a hot prison meal right now.