What's your disaster story?

[IowaGuy]

Nearly every person in this country has at one time been touched by floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, etc.

I am struck by the paradox of my own fairly positive personal experiences in dealing with natural disasters, with what I've witnessed at other tragedies and the absolute chaos of how both Bush I and the boy king have dealt with the ones on their watch.

In 93, Iowa and a great part of the midwest was flooded, we lost our water plant here in DM -everybody pulled together, the Nat'l guard was right on top of things, FEMA had their act together, even the Red Cross was, well they were the Red Cross..Feds, state and local all communicated well; neighbors helped neighbors, there was no looting - as disasters go, it actually was relatively stress free.

Compare that with Bush I's performance after Hurricane Andrew (I believe that was it) and the boy kings response now...

[sickinohio]

1. My disaster story began when

the chimp and his crew were placed in office by the courts in 2000 and it hasn't ended yet!!

[IowaGuy]

2. Got you on that.....

it's fundamentally a crisis of leadership during a catastrophe...it seems to have swelled through all levels....

[Liberalynn]

3. Our area has been hit twice by ice storms

we lost power for a few days and in some areas weeks but nothing that would compare to what is happening down South now. It was frightening enough to know you were trapped for several hours by the ice, I can't even imagine what the people in LA and MI are dealing with what they have to.

Also we had a personal crisis once when an SUV swerved off the road and literally ran into our house. We are lucky it is an older farm house and had a really sturdy fruit cellar which stopped the vheicle from doing further damage.

My mother and I did not suffer serious injury and the driver had a broken leg.

It took months to get our house fixed, we had to live out of our kitchen since we could not use our living room. The insurance company was hard to deal with, and things didn't get fixed completely, but in comparison to these kinds of natural disasters we were lucky.,

[Horse with no Name]

4. 100-year flood in Sherman, TX early 80's

I worked at a hotel while I was in college. Around 10-11 pm this guy from Oklahoma came in and said he wanted a room on the 2nd floor cause "we were fixing to see floods like we had never seen". When I went home, the skies were clear. We lived right off of Post Oak Creek but we were on a hill so I didn't worry.
I brought the dog in the house and brought the rabbit in so they wouldn't get wet.
Went to bed and awoke to civil defense sirens and bullhorns in the streets to evacuate.
Looked outside--the water from the creek was rising so fast you could see it climbing the hill.
We left around 2 in the am after putting up what we could, got in the car and left. We had to drive through water and the car stalled.
We had to get out and walk in waist deep swirling waters carrying a rabbit and a dog.
The car was lost in the floods.
All night long the civil defense sirens went off. We sought higher ground all night as the flood waters caught up with us.
Finally around 6 am...the radio station that my husband worked for found us and took us back to the station.
Around 10-11 we drove around looking at the flood damage.
Our house was completely flooded.
By noon, FEMA and the Red Cross were on the scene handing out lunches and cleaning supplies and coordinating disaster funds.
I've always had a good place in my heart for the Red Cross because after living what you know is the worst night of your life--that hamburger they give you tastes better than the best steak in the world.
Of great note though--I left my 1966 Mustang in the driveway because we didn't want to get separated.
The interior was full and when I opened the door, it all rushed out.
I opened the hood and pull out the flood debris, and my car turned over without doing anything else.

[Just Me]

5. Which one: flood, hurricane, divorce, dictatorship, earthquake, poverty,..

,...discrimination, premature loss of friends/family, serious health issues? :shrug: And I'm one of the lucky ones to survive!!!

May I suggest that we focus upon those who need our compassion and assistance rather than indulge in our own battle scars?

[IowaGuy]

6. I understand and appreciate your point.....

I was merely trying to point out the tragedy of the response of our leaders compared to other events in our past....