Posted: 12/12/2007 11:18:37 PM EDT
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I know this is pretty late for this but better late than never. This is lessons from Katrina. We left Sat. night right before everybody evacuated but turned around at the last minute. We didn't want our house to get looted. We got everything valvuable with us but couldn't stand to see our house looted-a sure thing in our neighborhood. Tat was 8:00pm. At 10:30pm Sat. night the mayorcame on the news and said he will order the first ever evacuation of New Orleans. That got my attention quick! We said this could be bad, but didn't down think everthing would be ok and hope so but prepared for the worse. We left at 11:30pm and arrived in Baton Rouge at my uncle's house in one hour and 15 minute with no traffic at all. It was a nice reunion with my uncle and aunt. We talked and watched tv til 3:00 and the traffic started to be BAD. It was bumper to bumper for miles in and out of the city. We learned a lesson that day...leave early!! Well Monday morning was when the storm hit and we felt way up here in Baton Rouge. No electricity, no water...we didn't know how bad new orleans had it yet. The timeline is foggy now but when the electric came back on, we were glued to the tv. We were shocked. You problably saw the national news. There was wide scale looting. It wad a lawless city and now those criminals had nothing to hold them back. We were horrified because soon I had to face that. Then the levees broke. I wasn't into survival full time but I knew I better be prepared. It was one or two weeks later and with everything I saw on the news, I knew I was gonna face a bad situation in new orleans. We were gonna have no 1.no 911 2.no cell phone. 3.no water 4.no gasoline 5.no food 6.no hospital 7.no electricity 8.no nothing We first got gas. The line was a mess everyday in baton rouge. First week there basically was no gas anywhere, period. Second week it was hours just in line for gas. Eventually it would be one just one hour only. Then we got food and water. Well first week in baton rouge there was no food. Second week you had to wait for a long time just to be admitted into walmart, only store open. Then there basically was nothing on the shelf. Man it was something. Then ammo. Everybody at Academy was talking about going back home and how it was going to be. We were on edge. There were rumors of roving band with stolen walmart rifle killing people. Women and children being raped in the superdome and everything the media can dream of. So yea people was arming themselves like the Marines. We prayed and arrived to a ghost town. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen in real life. There was no one around. Not even a dog. It was erriely quiet, not one sound. The destruction was eye opening. The road was littered with downed trees EVERWHERE, from 20 mintes before new orleans and into it. There were only National guard hummers, state troopper, army guys running around sporadically. No civilians. It was actually the most quietest and peaceful I have seen new orleans since 1980, when I moved there. I can for the first time say, "it was quiet, too quiet." We cleaned up and get our lives back together. But there was no one, not a single person around us. It was so quiet and so dangerous. No witnesses, no 911. No cell, no phone. No neighbors. We were on our own. First night was so bad were had to go to a relative to stay in another more upscale neighborhood. We lived between two nationally famous ghetto and I wasn't man enough to stay the night with a slow reloading SKS, two shotguns and a few pistols. My aunts neighborhood had cops patrolling on atv's with ARs and 1911s and they meant business. We ate canned food, finally had water, and planned our future under candle light. Couple day later and we slept at our house. Next day we found the locals had hid a sawed-off 12 shotgun in a trash can to rob us, possibly kill us that night. Things got better and we learned a valuable lesson through the whole ordeal. 1.There could and WILL be times when you got to be self sufficient or you can die. 2.Your skill with a long arm might be the only thing between you and your adversary. There was no 911. 3.Know first aid, because there was no hospitals and you can be on your own medically. 4.Get gas, there won't be any. What you have is all there is. 5.There is a fine line, very fine, between order and anarchy. Until the army showed up, I mean Airborne, there was no safety. Even the cops was basically powerless and overwhelmed. Sorry to be so long winded, but I wanted to convey a point but I can go on and on. People who escaped Vietnam by boat told my aunt this was worse. Much more could be learned from this. It was just unbelievable when you were there. |
Absolutely... happens all the time (or whenever there's a hurricane). Some people drive quite a distance to loot damaged areas... they're not all locals. |
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You might want to add to the survival list- a diesel powered vehicle. I had a cousin stay with me. He had proublems getting out of houstin because he could note find gas. He had to stay longer then he wanted to because he had to help shut down a refinary. When he finally left he found plenty of diesel but no gas. He returned to his house and got his diesel truck and made a 2 hour trip in 5 hours. |
| I live in Baton Rouge and I still get a pit in my stomach when grocery shopping. Going to the store with the shelves being empty is a real eye opener. You realize how quickly the supply can be cut off and you are left with what is in the house. I have given new priority to food storage. You cant eat ammunition. |
JosieWales, my uncle, a combat vet in Vietnam and I made our mind up at his house (the upscale one full of cops, where we stayed for awhile)- if we saw any young african american male w/ dreadlocks and a white t-shirt that was around my neighborhood with a gun in their hand, we were gonna shoot them. That sounds bad and racist but that's the truth. It was truly a dangerous time. They would be only one reason why they would be around and armed, to loot and kill you. You just have to be there to know and understand, I don't any other way to say it. |
It would of been fun, if I wasn't so freakin scared  . My neighborhood and the neighborhood close to it had killings almost monthly-bimonthly sometimes, so without 911 and neighbors, and a sawed-off shotgun hidden across the street by by the children of Katrina to rob us, I was pretty paranoid . But overall it was definitely a wild ride . A once in a lifetime event everyone should experience.Yea the most anti guy at work went out and bought a shotgun and a snub nose. |
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i didnt consider my family to be prepared at all but while the rest of our town was going crazy for gas and beggng for food and ice and water from the guard we were chilling at home. We didnt leave the house for those 2-3 weeks really as far as I can recall. We would visit my aunt and uncle who live down the street and we shared food and stuff so we were good to go. Also--funny story related to Katrina, some family friends drove down to the water to see how bad it was, as they pulled up a huge branch fell out of an oak tree and crushed an SUV in the parking lot. The owner and his family were going down to the water just for fun as well. This is why you shouldnt!! Nevertheless I remember hurrican danny around 96 or so it sucked all the water out of the bay. You could walk as far as you could see on sand. |
Maybe the lesson they should have taken from the tree branch falling was to stay away from big trees after a big storm. A friend of mine went camping once. She set up her tent in the middle of an open area, under the only tree in the meadow. During the night the wind blew a bit, and a branch fell off the tree and speared through her tent. She was somewhat lucky, and most of it missed her. She ended up with some scratches and a black eye.
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I think that's going to be a part of the legacy of Katrina. I got into preparedness on a small scale after reading 'Lucifer's Hammer' in High School, and started getting more serious about it after the LA riots. (The simple fact that one of the very first things .gov did in the LA riots was banning the sale of ammo made a big impression on me.) My wife was on board with the idea, but a lot of other folk in my life thought it was silly. Katrina made preparedness pretty mainstream. Now, even my sweet little old lady mother keeps non-perishable foods, water and a handgun on hand "just in case". My brother bought my Mini-14 from me and started asking about MREs and water storage. I'm a paramedic, and my service put together a 'family first' plan and started keeping sustainment supplies on hand. Most of the medics I work with now have a 'oh shit' bag for duty use in such a situation. My medical director didn't blink an eye when i asked for prescriptions for several meds 'just in case'. None of this stuff was even considered before 9/11, and Katrina made it commonplace. |
Indeed. The more people who can lock the barn door before the horses escape, the better. Makes things a lot easier on those of us in the disaster-mitigation business. |