Ducks Mahal

It’s 6:30, the morning after H u r r i c a n e  I d a  passed on through.

In 1965, I lived in New Orleans.  I was nine when  H u r r i c a n e  B e t s y hit and was the most destructive at that point causing a billion dollars in damage.  B e t s y tore the roof off our house.  When a roof is torn from your house, you never forget the destructive power of those kinds of winds.  Some tornadic winds were so strong people were found hanging in trees – dead.  Back then, there wasn’t much in the way of early warning or measuring magnitude or predicting the course through tracking models.  The “tough people” always rode out the storm for bragging rights and storytelling and I think mostly apathetic towards saving their life and hell bent on preserving their property instead.

I experienced another disaster while living in California in1989, namely, The Loma Prieta earthquake.  The 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit San Francisco and dropped the Cypress freeway structure onto cars and crushed people.  I know this very well as I worked for an insurance company then and was tasked with sending a force of agents into the field in rented RVs to handle claims.  We hired tow trucks and rented chain saws.  I was featured in Southwest Bell Magazine for responding in less than 24 hours and for using newly marketed laptops and cell phones with first responders.  I’ve experienced many an earth quake and once was thrown out of bed onto the floor while sleeping.  To this day if I see a light fixture move one inch, I look for a door jamb.

After I left California I moved to Mississippi and the next year in August of 2005 K a t r i n a passed over the top of my house less than 16 miles from where it hit landfall.  The barn was tossed onto the tractor, the roof was partly torn off and the back porch was completely destroyed.  The electrical box was hit by a large pine tree.  100 year old pines were snapped in half.  The ones who ride out storms were not so brave anymore.  My aunt who lives five miles from me stayed.  She said, “We’re going to ride it out.  We always do.”  I, on the other hand, packed animals in crates and left it all for high ground.  Right as it hit landfall I called my Aunt and she said, “Ronnie, I’m so scared, I’ve never seen anything like this.  Our house can’t take this; we have to go next door because they have a brick house.  It’s stronger.  I lost all my big pine trees.  I heard the sound of the trunks snapping and falling to the ground.  I don’t know what…”  The cell phone went dead and I didn’t hear from her for two weeks.   There was no way of reaching her and we were forbidden to return until the roads were cleared and gas stations were refilled.  Try being landlocked and not having electricity, running water, gas or food on shelves in stores for two weeks.  It isn’t smart.

I know disasters better than I would like.  And now in November, clearly beyond hurricane season, I d a is pounding on my house wanting in as I write this post and as the power keeps going out. Though a tropical storm now, I am as afraid and as cautious as I always am.  During the earth quake of 1989, I saw water tossed out of my pool onto the decking.  I have seen the ground roll like a wave on the ocean.  It is the most disorienting feeling watching the earth roll past you.

If I had a choice it would be an earth quake.  At least it is over in the matter of minutes.  A hurricane goes on for hours, sometimes eight hours of pounding, watching things fly around and watching for tornadoes.  An earthquake gets tired.  A hurricane never sleeps.