I remember this morning in 2005 like it was 10 years ago, when I and my family were living in Jackson, Mississippi. I got up early, got on the computer message board, and JSIreland from Sixpack told me I better gas up the vehicles, because Katrina's gonna be a big one.
I went out, got all the cars gassed, found room in the garage for them, moved all my patio furniture out behind the shed, and waited.
We had heard that Katrina's winds had slowed to Cat 4. However, the storm surge it created was Cat-5 and caused major destruction on the coast, and it was still Cat 2 by the time it hit Jackson. Fortunately, only a few tree branches were blown off.
The next day, I cut the branches into manageable chunks and moved them to the front. I even helped a few other families around the neighborhood get their yards cleared.
One fortunate thing for us- 97% of Jackson was without power-guess who was in the other 3%? The week before we had had a bad electrical storm that took all the power out in our neighborhood for a few hours. They must've put a fix on it that inoculated us from Katrina's winds. We used that advantage to let folks use our laundry, maybe store up some food, and for some to simply sit in the Air conditioning for a couple of hours.
Christ United Methodist Church used its gym for a Central storage facility to better send off supplies to where exactly they were needed. I, son, nephew, and his friend helped bring some supplies to the church (got a real good bargain on diapers at the Kroger on County Line).
Because we had gassed up the cars, we were fortunate enough to not have to wait in one of those mile-long queues that were around every gas station south of Grenada. We didn't have work that week, so I bicycled everywhere. I only had to get gas when I decided to go watch Mississippi State play their opener. Then I was fortunate enough to find gas in Winona to fill up my car so we could get to Starkville and back.
I went out, got all the cars gassed, found room in the garage for them, moved all my patio furniture out behind the shed, and waited.
We had heard that Katrina's winds had slowed to Cat 4. However, the storm surge it created was Cat-5 and caused major destruction on the coast, and it was still Cat 2 by the time it hit Jackson. Fortunately, only a few tree branches were blown off.
The next day, I cut the branches into manageable chunks and moved them to the front. I even helped a few other families around the neighborhood get their yards cleared.
One fortunate thing for us- 97% of Jackson was without power-guess who was in the other 3%? The week before we had had a bad electrical storm that took all the power out in our neighborhood for a few hours. They must've put a fix on it that inoculated us from Katrina's winds. We used that advantage to let folks use our laundry, maybe store up some food, and for some to simply sit in the Air conditioning for a couple of hours.
Christ United Methodist Church used its gym for a Central storage facility to better send off supplies to where exactly they were needed. I, son, nephew, and his friend helped bring some supplies to the church (got a real good bargain on diapers at the Kroger on County Line).
Because we had gassed up the cars, we were fortunate enough to not have to wait in one of those mile-long queues that were around every gas station south of Grenada. We didn't have work that week, so I bicycled everywhere. I only had to get gas when I decided to go watch Mississippi State play their opener. Then I was fortunate enough to find gas in Winona to fill up my car so we could get to Starkville and back.
