Re: Gerard and the storm

[Guest guest]

that I should, but can't. I have always wondered how people got through disasters. I still do

,

Being a newbie, I have not of course heard Gerard's story. When everything happened on the Gulf coast, I was just very VERY glad I was no longer down there. The ex inlaws and the friends I still have are in Mobile, and there was not a lot of damage there, and for that part I am glad.

As far as how people get through disasters, I think the answer is always pretty much the same - one day at a time. It gets it us through illness, tragedy, divorce, death of loved ones -- all the things that we don't ever really get over but we do get through. I can remember times in my life that I could not think in terms of one day at a time, I could only think about what it would take to get me through this hour, and I took it hour by hour. Life is like an onion - we peel it away layer by layer, and many times we cry.

JanetStart the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

[Guest guest]

Well said, Janet!!

Re: Gerard and the storm

In a message dated 1/15/2008 7:04:44 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, labtrek1941bellsouth (DOT) net writes:

that I should, but can't. I have always wondered how people got through disasters. I still do

,

Being a newbie, I have not of course heard Gerard's story. When everything happened on the Gulf coast, I was just very VERY glad I was no longer down there. The ex inlaws and the friends I still have are in Mobile, and there was not a lot of damage there, and for that part I am glad.

As far as how people get through disasters, I think the answer is always pretty much the same - one day at a time. It gets it us through illness, tragedy, divorce, death of loved ones -- all the things that we don't ever really get over but we do get through. I can remember times in my life that I could not think in terms of one day at a time, I could only think about what it would take to get me through this hour, and I took it hour by hour. Life is like an onion - we peel it away layer by layer, and many times we cry.

Janet

Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

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[Guest guest]

Well said, Janet!!

,

I won't take credit for the onion quote. It's from Carl Sandburg lol

JanetStart the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

[Guest guest]

when i was a kid I lived out on a ranch in gresham, we were the

victims of frequent power outages. the wells run on electricity and

when the power is out, there is no water. we always had jugs of

water, a port-o-potty or a bunch of 5 gallon buckets, canned food,

candles, a camping stove, lanterns, extra blankets etc...

now days when i try to be prepared, everyone snickers and laughs and

thinks it's just a waste of time. why are so many that way? after

Katrina and so many other events, why do people still make fun of you

when you want to be prepared? I really dont understand it.

when I finally move, i'm going to have all the 'cut off from

civilization' necessities and i'm going to be nice and comfy when

there's no power and Mother nature isnt being friendly.

i just hope i'm never stuck downtown during a big earthquake. i'd be

stuck there until i could find a away across the river.

I guess i should tell you all my earthquake story.

so I'm downtown at work for the first Daytime earthquake i've ever

experienced. all the others were always at night (home in bed) or so

slight I never felt them. so we're all sitting around wondering whats

going on because our floor bounces every time a bus goes by on the

street below. finally we realize it must indeed be an earthquake so

we go to the windows to see if any of the tall buildings are swaying,

because we still cant quite tell if it was a 'real' earthquake. It

was pretty darn funny, and thankfully not a serious earthquake because

we'd have been in trouble for rushing to the windows to look out.

thank goodness they don't happen too often here.

laurie

>

> Janet, your writing about hating the gulf coast weather, and asking

if Gerard had had any damage in Katrina, set me to thinking. As I

already knew that Gerard stayed in New Orleans, lost his home and

spent time in the Super Dome after the storm and before being

evacuated to Texas, I have many times wondered how he, and so many

others endured it.

> I sat in my house on my tree shaded property in sight of the gulf in

the 36 hours after Katrina had blown through and wondered how I was

going to draw my next breath. The prospect of going through many days

without air conditioning seemed unlivable. Add no running water, no

flushing toilets, no lights and five dogs (my three, my brother's and

one I had been fostering) panting 24 hours a day and needing water for

them as well as for ourselves, and the choice to leave was really no

choice. I remember it as a horrible time, yet it was nothing to what

Gerard and so many thousands experienced. Gerard has told us that a

large part of that time is now a blank, and that he arrived in Texas

not remembering a large part of the preceeding days. One does not

wonder!! If it was hot and muggy here, I cannot bear to think of how

it was in that flooded city. I thought of Gerard as a nice person

before the storm. Now he is one of my heroes, having endured that

nightmare, and picking up and rebuilding his life.

> Another set of heroes are my daughter-in-law's eighty-something

grandparents, who had lived their entire lives in New Orleans, and

over fifty years in the same house. They lost their home and

everything in it. They have picked up and resumed life in Dallas near

a son, bought a condo there and fly around the country visiting

children, grands and great grands. Grandpa resuming his photography

hobby, chronicling a large family as he has for so many years, and not

thinking about all the thousands of pictures lost to the storm. Like

Gerard, made of stuff I don't think I have.

> There are books out there full of photographs and stories of the

storm and the aftermath. I am a book addict, but have never bought a

single one. Keep thinking that I should, but can't. I have always

wondered how people got through disasters. I still do.

> W

>