Storm in the Gulf

Just saw on the news that there is a Tropical Depression expected to be a named storm in the Gulf. Projected path is upper Texas Gulf Coast. Could we have another hurricane on the Bayou? California has its fires and mud slides. The Midwest endures tornados, the Mississsippi Valley has to worry about floods and the Northeast has blizzards. We have hurricanes!

My first recollection of a hurricane was Audrey. I can remember watching the small trees through the front window as they were almost horizontal. Audrey's storm surge killed over 500 people on the SW Louisiana coast. I remember Carla as most of the coastal area was evacuated and our high school was set up as an evacuee shelter and many of us students worked there. Alicia hit west of Houston and we saw a lot of rain and the Bolivar Peninsula received damage. Numerous other "named" storms effected the area; Beulah, Bonnie, Carmen, Camille, Francis, Allison, etc..

The action really heated up in 2005 and hasn't shown much mercy since. Everyone has been inundated with Katrina news. Believe it or not Katrina impacted Texas. People left New Orleans and won't go back. The local arena was set up as a shelter and we volunteered to wmakiork. It was interesting to see the attitudes change as the waves of people moved out and new ones moved in. The first ones were those that left before the storm hit and appreciated any help they could get and moved on to get on with their lives. The latter group was more interested in getting their $50 Walmart card than finding employment or transportation back. Many of them are still here.

One month later folks along the Bayou were evacuating prior to Hurricane Rita making landfall. We left two days before Rita center punched us. (That trip is subject for another blog)

Returned home to find 70 trees down. Not a single one on the house or barn, but the fences were destroyed and the clean up was overwhelming. About one third of the houses along the Bayou had one or more trees on the roof. Some actually in the living room, den, kitchen, etc.

Although Hurricane Rita was a more powerful storm than Katrina, it was not recognized as such. I believe that their two main differences in these storms that were a month apart.

One, the levy broke and gave all the liberal news media and politicians a reason to blame the storm on George W. Bush. Two, Texans pulled up their boot straps and got to work to get their lives, homes, etc. back in order. On the other hand, the folks in New Orleans tried to blame someone for their misfortune and expected some one else to help them out. The leadership from their mayor exemplified the overall attitude permeating all of those still left in NO.