General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat Hurricane Katrina Taught Me
I went through it from start to finish.
I have friends, neighbors and family members that went through it.
When you see your livelihood, your home and in some cases, your family members washed away in a 35ft wall of water, it changes you.
It isn't a political event to me. It is a tragedy that I survived and hope no one else endures.
If you went through something you feel was worse, well, it probably was.
It's not about comparing scars, it's about finding the best ways you can to heal them.
Praying in the shower with my cat in my lap that the roof would hold while it seemed to be breathing won't mean anything.
Not to the person praying for their loved one that got sucked out by tides.
It taught me something though. I thought that most of the clothes that get donated don't end up in the hands of the desperate, and maybe they don't. But I saw people hand over coats, shoes, pants, jeans and everything that could help another.
Gratitude is just another word for loving each other enough to be grateful for what we have, and grateful to ease the burden of someone else that is suffering.
That's what Katrina taught me.
livetohike
(22,688 posts)uppityperson
(115,724 posts)Texasgal
(17,136 posts):hugs:
Sissyk
(12,665 posts)delrem
(9,688 posts)Watching your city being destroyed, knowing that foreign armies are now swarming in on all borders with tanks, helicopters, cruise missiles, an entire nation-busting arsenal that knows no bounds, no law except force.
Knowing that it won't end, because the invaders have no care for you or your culture or any of the culture you were born to, and they have absolute power.
Knowing that they profit from your loss.
Imagine how that Iraqi must be reminiscing today, all those years later, knowing that the invader hasn't finished yet.
uppityperson
(115,724 posts)While what you write is true, you seem to be trying to downplay and take away from the trauma and lessons of the aftermath of Katrina.
Not the right day, not the right way for your message.
Please consider self deleting, if you would. Thank you.
onecaliberal
(35,100 posts)Warpy
(112,789 posts)until it was safe to return, one guy with a huge grin saying "Damn! This place is DRY!" I've never forgotten that wonderful grin on somebody who'd probably just lost everything he ever had.
But yes, anyone who has been through a natural disaster or house fire or other catastrophic event will tell you their lives were cut in two at that point, that even if they managed to recover, it was never the same.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)and rebuilt in the early days of the aftermath ... it was unreal.
That's all I can say about it.
I know this is a first world problem, but my GOD, the day the water came back on and I could flush a toilet I was dancing around. Six months after, I drove 50 damn miles to eat at a ... wait for it ... Taco Bell, and was damned thankful.
I know it sounds nuts, but go without running water and electricity, (and yes, even Taco Bell) long enough, and you *really* appreciate indoor plumbing, air conditioning and tacos on demand.
840high
(17,196 posts)Separation
(1,975 posts)I was not a resident, but I was an aircrewman in a Coast Guard H-60 helicopter. I still have issues with what happened there, thankfully the VA has finally pulled their thumbs out of their collective as in my area and I am able to get some treatment for that and other things Ive had to do.
I have quite a few emotions about Katrina and most are not good. When it is your duty to save people and in situations there where you could not, it weighs heavily. Flying over rooftops and not being able to stop to pick up the elderly grandmother or a mother with newborn children because your cabin is so full of people..you mentally make note and promise yourself that you will get them. I am so proud of all of my fellow Coasties, working till you were dead tired, and still going out there. Zigzagging through an unfamiliar scope of operations. We normally are out at sea with nothing but us and the ocean for miles. Trying to call out telephone poles wires, other aircraft and quite a few times rooftops. All while concentrating on on the people you are now hoisting up. I saw so many families huddled together, crying, relieved, terrified, huddled together, sometimes with a pet, all at once. It a lot of emotions that I cant even begin to convey. I remember dropping off sandbags on the levee that was breached. We managed to save over 33,000 people, sadly not all were savable.
Im retired now, I would love to go back there. This time as a tourist. I remember every face that came into my cabin. I would love to see them walking down the streets hopefully with their families enjoying themselves. I doubt they would recognize me now. I move a lot slower, and Ive put on a few pounds. I did pick up one guy who owned a bar and he told me that if he still had his bar I could come back any time and drinks would be on the house. It is definitely on my bucket list.
Here is a video PBS did, its called Paratus 14:50. Its about the job we did during Katrina. The first couple of minutes are about the CG in general. Its a great video. http://video.aptv.org/video/2365552604/
Aerows, sorry for hijacking your thread, I ended up rambling on. Im still not sure what I learned from Katrina.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,591 posts)He was put on body recovery duty. He was a homicide detective and had certainly seen plenty of dead bodies. But that didn't begin to compare to what he had to see, day after day, post Katrina. He had PTSD from it.
mnhtnbb
(31,730 posts)I hear you.
I watched it all, in horror, to see what the people who stayed, or couldn't get out, went through.
Two years later, Aug 28th, 2007, my house burned down. I escaped at 4:30 in the morning in my pajamas while somehow
managing to grab my handbag; my husband ran out of the house in his underwear and t-shirt without
even stopping to put on his glasses; our youngest son--who had just started his senior year in high school--
routinely slept in his clothes, so except for shoes he had clothes on when he ran out with our dog.
A fireman gave my husband a pair of extra sneakers off the truck and a neighbor gave him a pair of long
work out pants. Somebody--I can't remember who--gave our son a pair of sandals and he actually went
to school that morning. The Red Cross arrived with a debit card that had several hundred bucks on it
for us to use, although since I somehow thought to grab my handbag, I had car keys, my wallet, credit
cards and ID. My husband had NONE of those things--or glasses--so our first stop when we could
get my car out of the detached garage (which didn't burn) was to go get him glasses and then buy some clothes.
We had neighbors (she gave me underwear and clothes to put on) who took us in for a couple of days; then other neighbors near by whom we'd never met offered us the use of their house for two weeks while they were going out of state to visit relatives to buy us time to find a rental, which was no small task in a university town where everything had already been rented for the academic year.
Even though we lost almost everything, we had community to help. That's why it's so important that the larger community
has to be ready to step in when a disaster the size of Katrina occurs. It's why so many of us not affected by the
storm could not understand how the Bush administration could fail to act and be so damned incompetent. It had
to be the result of a deliberate choice and how they could be so heartless is impossible to comprehend. Yet, there it
was--the apathy and lack of empathy--being played out day after day after day.
Finding a way to heal the scars is the hard part. I can't stand the smell of fire anymore and I used to love sitting by a cozy fire
in the fireplace on a cold evening. The first time--only days after the fire--we
went out to dinner with both our sons and I had a panic attack from the smell of smoke in the Japanese Benihana type restaurant. I still have nightmares of waking up to the sight, sound, and smell of fire. I jump when I hear sounds I can't identify. If a smoke alarm beeps, my heart rate accelerates.
So, Aerows, I wish you peace in finding a way to heal the scars that Katrina gave you.
malaise
(275,410 posts)Rec