Cong. Gene Taylor Sends Sharply Critical Letter to FEMA Over Agency's "No Ice" Policy

All this talk about FEMA taking ice away from disaster victims prompted my memory of a happening in my life. It was in mid June of 1983. We had moved from our home in Gulfport to the Lumberton area and put the vacated home up for sale. We hired a landscaper to maintain the yard until it sold. The house was devoid of all furniture and the utilities had been turned off. We drove down one weekend to check on the house and the yard was in bad shape. My husband was livid but I said that when he drove back down that Monday for work that I and the young daughter would come with him and I would get the yard in shape again. So we packed all the necessary equipment in the bed of his truck and he dropped us off at the house. I put the ice chest inside the house to keep it out of the sun and within 3 hrs. I had the yard looking pretty good. My young daughter had worked all this time with me so I sent her inside to rest. I never seem to know when enough is enough. The yard was full 0f pine trees and the shingled roof looked like a thatched one as it was thickly covered with straw. I couldn't take the blower with me as it would be a hindrance as I tried to get off the ladder, so I threw a broom up on the roof. Now I must tell you that I have always been able to climb "up" but I have never been able to climb "down". Rather quickly I had all the straw off the roof and it was time for my descent. I called over and over for my daughter to come hold the ladder steady and she didn't hear me. She had fallen asleep. So for over 2 hrs. I was on the roof with a blazing sun sapping the life out of me. I became dizzy, nauseous, weak and finally disoriented. I laid down on the roof and that's how my husband found me. I have no memory of how he got me down but I remember he propped me up against a shed that was in the yard and got the ice chest and started cooling me down. He put ice all over me .. head, chest, arms, legs, back of my neck. He had the daughter hold cold drink cans to my head. It took awhile but I rallied, his quick response saved my life that day. Heat stroke or heat exhaustion happens very quickly.