so i've been making mad phone calls everyday and trying to get us all situated. I think we just moved to oklahoma, although i'm not going to change my location yet becuase i am not totally sure. anyone want to hear about our journey?
August 29 Justin and I were woken up by phone call from his mom. she had watched Lyric the night prior so we could go see a show. It was really early in the morning and strage to hear from ther that early considering she planned on doing somethings with lyric that day. After Justin got off the phone he told me that we had to go get lyric immediately becuase his parents were going to pick up their parents to evacuate. Seeing as how I rarely even watch television, i was completely confused about it. So we get to pick up lyric and his mom is telling us we really need to evacuate and asked us if we need money. I really had no idea how serious the whole situation was and told hrer we would be fine and figure out what we were going to do.
justin and I spent the next couple of hours at home arguing over whther or not we were going to evacuated becuase, like many residents, we didnt want to evacuate for no reason and have to have spent all the time, money, and effort to evacuate and possibly miss work if we couldnt get back in time. we argued over packing too much and what we should bring. fortunately i had the presence of mind to take pictures of everything we had in our apartment. i really didnt pack much for myself and justin, i thought we would only be away for a couple of days. Even on the way out I stopped at Walgreens to pick up some fingernail polish remover and a new shade of polish in case i got bored where ever we were.
Since the beginning of the day i ahd been trying to contact everyone and find out what everyone's plans were but the phones wouldnt work. I finally got through to
Shaneka's mom and she told me to go with her to Lucedale Mississipi. She has a store and a house with a generator up there and justin and i figured it was the best bet. we just had no idea what we were in store for, so much so that we leisurely stopped and got something to eat a this little "mom & pop" that we had been meaning to go to. (wonder if its still there?)
so we go to lucedale. the house at lucedale had 3 bedroms, a laundry rom, 1 bath, kitchen, dining and living room. all hard wood floors but the people who had lived there before (shaneka's grandparents were just moving in that weekend) had let the place go and it needed lots of work and cleaning. Still it was a big house. Until i realized that we would be sharing it with 12 people and 4 dogs. lyric, justin and myself had our own room, the only room without a window unit. no big though right? it would be just like camping out...
the hurricane hit us on monday morning. from what i am hearing now it was a category five when it strcuk N.O. then backed down to a 3 then picked up strenght again and hit as as a five. It was fierce. I've always been afraid of bad weather but something put me outside in it for the duration of the storm. It was almost like when lieutenant dan road out the storm on top of his boat. i know, its seems crayz but, honestly, there was a lesson I was supposed to be learning here.
you could hear tornadoes breaking things all over but you couldnt see them. gushes of woind would almost send you off of the porch. the awning on Mama's store had flown off, over the house, and into the back yard.
by monday mid day we had lost power but still had phone service. I talked to a few people and made sick jokes about the people around me as though the electricity would be back on in no time and we would be heading back home.
At one point, Jim, shaneka's step grandfather was getting ready to jump into his jeep and head out to cut up the trees that had fallen on the road. keep in mind we were in the country and this is how country folks did things. We jumped in the jeep and it was the second bit of destruction i had seen. giant trees were twisted in torn apart. ripped up from the rooms and thrown about the streets. i couldnt imagine the kind of force it took to rip houses and trees apart and the only explanation i had was they had to have been rottne or weak trees...that was untill i was face to face with a stump that had fresh sap seeping out of its rings. We made it only so far down Highway 26 until Jim's chain saw ran out of gas and we had to head back. on the way back we were trapped as other trees had fallen since we had gone down the road. we had to sit and wait until another crew had come along with chain saws to cut us out.
Once we pumped up the generator we could watch the news and listen to the radio only it only gave news about mississippi, we had no idea about what had happened at home. the last persojn i talked to Monday night was shaneka and I remember making jokes about my company and telling her i would call her in the morning.
god, there's just so much to tell, i dont even think i can conjure it all.
the next morning there was no phone. my cell phone stopped working and we couldnt call anyone. it was starting to get hot as the rains had gone and all that was left was summer heat and a mess of trees. lyric was miserable and started to break out in an aweful heat rash. we took a cold shower right before the water had stopped running. by the second day we had no phones, no electric, no water, limited news and we were running out of food.
many times i sobbed uncontrollably because i couldnt control what was going on. it became apparent after sitting in two gas lines that turned up dry that we were absolutely trapped. lyric started telling me things like she wanted to sleep in her own bed and play with her own toys, and all i could tell her was that i couldnt provide those things at that point in time. we were so desperate and busied ourselves cleaning up tha yard and making trash piles to burn. there was nothing cold and everyone began to fight over frivilous things like ice and bread. at night shaneka's grandmother had found a radio station playing n.o. news and we barely slept to the news rolling in about the death and destruction that had come over our homes in Louisiana.
oh and by the way, thank you to all of you who cared...the emails that i finally go to and the outpouring of love and support from total strangers was overwhelming. so many of you email me offering money, time and prayers. i know many of you were sleepless right along with me...and, well, i appreciate it. i am so thankful for knowing that so many other people in this world care about me and my family and just that has restored my faith in other human beings as a whole...that was one of my lessons...
i'm tired...
more later
August 29 Justin and I were woken up by phone call from his mom. she had watched Lyric the night prior so we could go see a show. It was really early in the morning and strage to hear from ther that early considering she planned on doing somethings with lyric that day. After Justin got off the phone he told me that we had to go get lyric immediately becuase his parents were going to pick up their parents to evacuate. Seeing as how I rarely even watch television, i was completely confused about it. So we get to pick up lyric and his mom is telling us we really need to evacuate and asked us if we need money. I really had no idea how serious the whole situation was and told hrer we would be fine and figure out what we were going to do.
justin and I spent the next couple of hours at home arguing over whther or not we were going to evacuated becuase, like many residents, we didnt want to evacuate for no reason and have to have spent all the time, money, and effort to evacuate and possibly miss work if we couldnt get back in time. we argued over packing too much and what we should bring. fortunately i had the presence of mind to take pictures of everything we had in our apartment. i really didnt pack much for myself and justin, i thought we would only be away for a couple of days. Even on the way out I stopped at Walgreens to pick up some fingernail polish remover and a new shade of polish in case i got bored where ever we were.
Since the beginning of the day i ahd been trying to contact everyone and find out what everyone's plans were but the phones wouldnt work. I finally got through to
Shaneka's mom and she told me to go with her to Lucedale Mississipi. She has a store and a house with a generator up there and justin and i figured it was the best bet. we just had no idea what we were in store for, so much so that we leisurely stopped and got something to eat a this little "mom & pop" that we had been meaning to go to. (wonder if its still there?)
so we go to lucedale. the house at lucedale had 3 bedroms, a laundry rom, 1 bath, kitchen, dining and living room. all hard wood floors but the people who had lived there before (shaneka's grandparents were just moving in that weekend) had let the place go and it needed lots of work and cleaning. Still it was a big house. Until i realized that we would be sharing it with 12 people and 4 dogs. lyric, justin and myself had our own room, the only room without a window unit. no big though right? it would be just like camping out...
the hurricane hit us on monday morning. from what i am hearing now it was a category five when it strcuk N.O. then backed down to a 3 then picked up strenght again and hit as as a five. It was fierce. I've always been afraid of bad weather but something put me outside in it for the duration of the storm. It was almost like when lieutenant dan road out the storm on top of his boat. i know, its seems crayz but, honestly, there was a lesson I was supposed to be learning here.
you could hear tornadoes breaking things all over but you couldnt see them. gushes of woind would almost send you off of the porch. the awning on Mama's store had flown off, over the house, and into the back yard.
by monday mid day we had lost power but still had phone service. I talked to a few people and made sick jokes about the people around me as though the electricity would be back on in no time and we would be heading back home.
At one point, Jim, shaneka's step grandfather was getting ready to jump into his jeep and head out to cut up the trees that had fallen on the road. keep in mind we were in the country and this is how country folks did things. We jumped in the jeep and it was the second bit of destruction i had seen. giant trees were twisted in torn apart. ripped up from the rooms and thrown about the streets. i couldnt imagine the kind of force it took to rip houses and trees apart and the only explanation i had was they had to have been rottne or weak trees...that was untill i was face to face with a stump that had fresh sap seeping out of its rings. We made it only so far down Highway 26 until Jim's chain saw ran out of gas and we had to head back. on the way back we were trapped as other trees had fallen since we had gone down the road. we had to sit and wait until another crew had come along with chain saws to cut us out.
Once we pumped up the generator we could watch the news and listen to the radio only it only gave news about mississippi, we had no idea about what had happened at home. the last persojn i talked to Monday night was shaneka and I remember making jokes about my company and telling her i would call her in the morning.
god, there's just so much to tell, i dont even think i can conjure it all.
the next morning there was no phone. my cell phone stopped working and we couldnt call anyone. it was starting to get hot as the rains had gone and all that was left was summer heat and a mess of trees. lyric was miserable and started to break out in an aweful heat rash. we took a cold shower right before the water had stopped running. by the second day we had no phones, no electric, no water, limited news and we were running out of food.
many times i sobbed uncontrollably because i couldnt control what was going on. it became apparent after sitting in two gas lines that turned up dry that we were absolutely trapped. lyric started telling me things like she wanted to sleep in her own bed and play with her own toys, and all i could tell her was that i couldnt provide those things at that point in time. we were so desperate and busied ourselves cleaning up tha yard and making trash piles to burn. there was nothing cold and everyone began to fight over frivilous things like ice and bread. at night shaneka's grandmother had found a radio station playing n.o. news and we barely slept to the news rolling in about the death and destruction that had come over our homes in Louisiana.
oh and by the way, thank you to all of you who cared...the emails that i finally go to and the outpouring of love and support from total strangers was overwhelming. so many of you email me offering money, time and prayers. i know many of you were sleepless right along with me...and, well, i appreciate it. i am so thankful for knowing that so many other people in this world care about me and my family and just that has restored my faith in other human beings as a whole...that was one of my lessons...
i'm tired...
more later
VIEW 11 of 11 COMMENTS
1stxer:
You had spoken in the past about moving up north. I am sure not under these circumstances. Well your out .... safe and your family with you. 
1stxer:
BTW .. did you take your MAC with you?