On August 28, 2005, in preparation for a hurricane that was in the Gulf, I left my home to go stay with a daughter and her family that lived about 1/2 mile from the beach in Pascagoula. I could have stayed at home but I chose to be with them rather than staying barricaded (plywood on windows ) in the house waiting to see what was going to happen. Well, most of you know what happened ..... we were to be participants in the fury of a storm named Katrina. The night before the storm none of us slept very well and were already exhausted the next morning when Katrina was going to pay us a very unexpected visit.
I am almost ashamed to say that we were heckling the hurricane and saying it probably was all a bunch of hype. My daughter and son in law were not born when Camille hit the Gulf Coast but I was. I resided in Gulfport at that time and had already experienced the unexpected and the unprecedented but somehow the old cliche "experience is the best teacher" didn't hold true for my not forcefully suggesting that we leave.
It was about 930AM when this fast moving water started rolling down the street, filling the yards very quickly and continued rising to frightening heights until it seems it was in the house in a matter of minutes. God was definitely with us as the plywood on the windows prevented glass breakage and the raging water from rushing inside and possibly collapsing the house. Had that happened, we have no doubt that we would have died that day. We huddled in an upstairs hallway at the top of the stairway with the four little children, a dog and five cats (four newborn kittens). We had seen the neighborhood houses, when looking out an upstairs window, with water reaching their roofs and their cars parked in driveways completely submerged as was the son in laws truck.
After no response from 911, we began praying without cessation. We learned later that what we each asked for was that the children's lives be spared. We remained in a state of terror until finally the water began to recede and we felt that we were going to survive. We didn't know then the extent of the widespread destruction all along our coastline and that the aftermath was going to take a lot more courage to survive than the actual storm.
4 comments:
Hi Ruth, my thoughts are with you all during this new storm, as I watch the developing story. They say it will strengthen to a Cat 4 then weaken, but I think Katrina was so devastating because it sat out there and churned into an almost unclassified storm, and built the surge that hurt you so badly. I pray Gustav does not do the same. I wish you, your family, and the coast well, and hope you get through this relatively unscathed this time. My heart is with you. Your friend, Jeanne, up in Michigan.
Hi Jeanne, Boy! This hurricane stuff is getting to be too much. The hard part of all this is deciding if you should leave. It's easy to tell us to leave but it entails so much effort and puts even more stress on us. In my writings, I have spoken of emotional stress and that is true for the vast majority of us. Prolonged stress is a devastation too. Thanks Jeanne for stopping by and we will take as much precaution as we can.
Your friend,
Ruth
Keeping you in our prayers, Ruth...be safe !!! Love, Melanie from Nebraska
Thank you Melanie, as I write this we are back home and everything is okay. I put a new post up about our trip. There was so much more I could have written about but it would take time and energy which I don't have at the moment. Love and Hugs to you and your family too.
Your Mississippi friend,
Ruth
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