What is the most memorable geologic experience I have witnessed????? I have a couple in mind and am thinking about which one to choose. I know if you live long enough you will experience quite a few of them like I have. I think the first that effected me the most was when Mount St Helen's blew her top. My dear friend Lockwood had just moved out there to Oregon and I was worried sick that he was affected by it. I was never so relieved as I was when he sent me a long letter telling me how wonderful the geology of Oregon was and this was before he decided to make geology his major. It's no wonder he decided to switch over after experiencing what he did. But to me that is his story to tell and not mine. So now I have to decide on something else.
I've felt two earthquakes, where I knew they were earthquakes but they were pretty minor events in the long run of things..
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| Mississippi River over its banks near I-20 |
Here's a different crossing of the Mississippi, taken a couple of months later where you can still see the effects of flooding in the area. I was heading west.
I did see a tornado form and didn't even realize it at the time. I was shooting a video of a rainbow and the sunset and did a panoramic view and didn't even realize I had captured this. My husband was watching TV and called me to it. He said remember that storm we drove through on our way to Galveston? Well it spun off a tornado and here's the video of it on the weather channel. It touched down in Arcadia Louisiana. I decided to look at my video too and was shocked at what was on it.
But the most haunting by far was seeing the devastation of Katrina. I didn't actually get to see the area affected until it was a couple of years later. As we were traveling to New Orleans and were on the road to it I was so mesmerized by the total destruction of the area I was totally speechless. I thought I knew what to expect based on the news reports and such. I had read "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee and thought he had explained it so well. I had seen the aftermath of a tornado and the band of total destruction where nothing was left but toothpicks. I had even seen the aftermath of other hurricanes but nothing I had previously experience had prepared me for what I saw. I had never seen anything like that. It was mile after mile of nothingness - everything was gone. All I could think of at the time was this is how it must look after an atomic bomb has exploded. There was nothing green growing and there was a covering of dust/dirt over all of it. It was all totally destroyed. It also helped that I had driven the area numerous times and was familiar with a lot of the land marks that were now gone. It was so mind numbing I failed to take any pictures of it. Now I wished I had but at the time all I could do was stare out the window trying to process it all. At the time I thought there's nothing to even try to take of a picture of because it was all gone. Why take a picture of nothing? It all became a blur because I started to cry since it was so devastating to me. I was just so glad when we got to the French quarter and at least there was some things that still looked familiar. I realized then that the French quarter was built where it was for a reason. It was the highest ground around in that area. No wonder it has lasted all these centuries.
After that year we went back to the area each year. For a couple of years afterward it was still the same and it would still blow my mind to see it. One time I tried to take pictures but they did not turn out because of the speeds we were traveling. The stuff I wanted to get was all a blur. Each time I went after that I failed to take pictures because I was usually in the area for business reasons and didn't think to bring my camera. Then about the fifth year after Katrina the area started to look like it was coming back. Finally this past year it started to look like it used to but there were still areas where you could still see the destruction from it. Now I'm amazed at how rapidly it is recovering. Mother nature always amazes me.
Here's Wikipedia link on Huricaine_Katrina .
Now here's my impressions of that time when it actually did occur ( August 20 & September 2005). I live in the Northwest corner of Louisiana. The area is the third largest in the state as far as population goes. Naturally we were the place where a lot of the victims were evacuated to since the hurricane never made it that far. (In fact when Katrina did finally come through to us in the NW corner it was a nice gusty breeze - no rain which we did need at the time). Through out the city there were evacuation spots set up. In the past there had been other hurricanes where people had to evacuate and we thought we were ready for this one. We had practiced our drills and thought we knew how to set up and be prepared such an event. Boy were we naive. Within hours all the available spots were filled. They were scrambling to find other locations. Overnight our city had doubled in size.
They started to call for donations. They wanted anything you could spare- food, water, clothing, cleaning supplies, bedding. I remember having just cleaned out my kids closets so we could have room for their new school cloths. (at that time I had a 18, 14 and 6 year old; non of which ever wore the same cloths, one was slim, one regular and the other was 8 years behind and I didn't like storing cloths for that long.) I had a huge pile all set to go to goodwill but as soon as I heard the call I decided to take it to the designated drop off center instead. I also decided I would do volunteer work there since I am a stay at home mom and that's what I do best - Volunteer my time with various organizations when I'm not helping with my husbands/ family business.
I'll never for get driving up to the Hirsh Coliseum and being stopped by security. They asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to volunteer helping with the evacuees. They asked me to show them my Red Cross training card. I did not have one, they were only having properly train people help volunteer with the evacuees at that time. I was very surprised by this since I had helped at other shelters before and that Red Cross training was never required. They were going to turn me away, when I told them that I had a trunkful of kids cloths - that they wanted. They told me to take it over to a certain drop off location but warned me not to interreact with the evacuees. I thought that such an odd request, but agreed to it.
I went to the place to drop off the clothes. As we were unloading the boxes I had put them in, a bus pulled up filled with brand new evacuees. What I saw still stays with me to this day. They unloaded the people. The first thing I noticed was that none of them had shoes on. Their shoes had been taken from them because they all had been in the water and the water was filled with all sorts of contaminants. Most of them were also not properly dressed. I tried not to look or stare out of respect for them. But some of them you couldn't help but to notice the look of total hopelessness on their faces, faces I'll never forget. I had never seen faces like that before, the anguish and despair just tore my heart open. I wanted to help them but felt totally helpless. Now I knew why they only wanted trained volunteers. The big thing was knowing what to say to them and in most cases it was just keeping your mouth shut and let them do the talking. At that time there was no way they would let anyone take a picture- pictures would have derogated them, this way they still had their dignity.. Even though no pictures were taken the memory has never left me and will always haunt me.
Later in the week they started to let non train people help serve food and do routine things for them. Different places would have areas set up where there was free food to be had. I helped serve food at the church I was attending at the time. They were all so grateful for everything that was being done for them. They would just thank you over and over and I felt embarrassed because I was just doing what was the right thing to do and know they would have done the same for me if the roles were reversed. I felt like I wasn't doing enough but I didn't know what else I could do?
Most of them left to stay with other family members as soon as they found a place where they could go. The ones that didn't went looking for housing, withing weeks most of the shelters were closed down.
I remembered at the time we were trying to sell a house. It had been rent property and the tenants had just moved out. We were tired of renting it and put it on the market. As fate would have it, we had no offers for it so it sat there vacant. Our best friends ended up having his family come live with them. Having 9 extra people in their small house was driving them crazy. (Imagine all of your in-laws moving in on you unexpectedly with no date when they could move out.) To help them out we let his family live in that rent house for over 6 months, rent free, until they were finally able to move back to their homes in the New Orleans area. For some reason the house never sold with them in it - no one wanted to evict the hurricane evacuees. It was a hardship on us but it was one we could afford and bear and was nothing compared to what they had gone through. At least I finally felt like I was helping out in a small way.
I remembered having the family over for dinner a couple of times and then they inviting us to eat with them. We would listen to their story of their ordeal. They would tell it over and over but it was always fascinating to hear because there was always some other perspective that they remembered but at first thought was unimportant compared to the magnitude of the other stuff.. Maybe some day I'll write it down but right now its too long to tell.
I do remember the frustration they had with getting federal help. When they got up to their family in our town all they had with them was the cloths that they had on that day. They lost everything. My friends momma only had a pair of slippers to wear for days. How do you prove you have what you have and insurance and all that other stuff if all of your papers and pictures are destroyed? They were just so grateful that they got out alive because at one point they almost got trapped by the water. And that's what struck me the most was how grateful they were, and how thankful they made us feel for having what we had and being able to share it with them. I just wished I could have done more for others, but at least I knew we did what we could at that time.
Right now I saw in the paper the other day that the federal government was suing some people that got paid too much money from the disaster relief fund due to their incompetency. I can't tell you how angry that makes me. Those people needed every single cent they got. They had to start over with everything. I can't believe the government is trying to get it back. It was their mistake and they can afford to loose it more than those poor victims. 3-4,000 is nothing to government but it is everything to those victims. If it was up to me I would have it docked from the idiots pay that made those mistakes. They never had to suffer like those people did that lost everything.
Now I muse upon when and where the next disaster will fall. Will I be prepared? I'm just grateful that Louisiana made it through another hurricane season without a major one hitting its shores. I'm grateful I live where I do and don't have to worry as much about the hurricanes as much as the southern part of my state does. I just wonder where the next one will hit.
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