Sunday, September 14, 2008

One trick ahead of disaster

I've driven across Louisiana and parts of Texas before too. Also in very different circumstances.

Three years ago, after the female counterparts of Gustav and Ike hit Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi; after the evacuation crew, the rescue crew, and the cleanup crew had all moved through, we came: the salvage crew.

That was my inaugural journey to the South. Well, I'd lived in southeastern Virginia, which yes, Mabel, is most definitely the South, just not the Deep South.

I'd driven the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville to Alexandria (LA), and eventually set off on a three-week, 2000-mile odyssey across four states to locate and return all manner of large equipment bought, borrowed, or rented for hurricane support.

The endless devastation and despair are burned in my mind. But there were other novelties. Like arriving in Sabine Pass on a stiflingly hot November morning to get dive-bombed by what looked like small birds, but turned out to be enormous mosquitoes leaving three-inch welts. Or pulling into Alexandria (an empty shell of a town) for the first time in a torrential tropical rainstorm, staying in a smelly hotel with cockroaches aplenty, billed as "Alexandria's best lodging". Or driving for miles and miles and miles along I-10 (Hwy 90 was closed for much of its length) and seeing not a single billboard or road sign; they were all blown down. Or the hour-long drive of devastation out to Venice, just days after the road was finally dry and open, three months after the storms; dead horses and 18-wheelers suspended eerily from trees.

In a former life, I pre-positioned all manner of hurricane support and response forces prior to the storms. Out of harm's way but close enough to respond quickly, adjusting their placement as the storm's track changed. Ready to swoop in once the storm passed and I gave the word.

This time I was also dodging a storm, but now I was the mouse on the run. I cancelled my side-trips to Beaumont and Houston and stayed well inland from Shreveport to Austin, one step ahead of Ike. I watched the winds shift and the clouds circle overhead on a preternaturally calm and sunny day, and listened all 400 miles to nonstop local coverage of the storm, simulcast on satellite radio. I watched as gas prices rose over 30 cents per gallon in a single day; in fact, many stations were adjusting their advertised prices as I drove by. I passed any number of evacuees, many towing travel trailers, as they fled town going the opposite direction, but they were mainly radiating like spokes of a wheel from Gulf towns, while I cut cross-country.

I also passed relief & recovery traffic - a stake-bed filled with fuel drums and the rectangular fuel containers I remembered so well from Katrina - a large semi-truck loaded with a large cooler, an enormous generator, a backhoe, orange plastic-lattice fencing, and any number of hand tools. And every so often, I'd pass a convoy of utility vehicles; destined, I am sure, to wait out the storm and then move in quickly.

I felt like a pawn (or, perhaps more accurately, a bishop) on a board I'd once controlled.

12 comments:

Carol said...

Glad you made it safely, V.

Our gas prices here in MA have jumped as well, at some stations anyway, while others are being a little more honest and waiting until the next truck comes in before they hike theirs.

I wonder how you feel about all the folks who stay put (as a choice) that end up needing to be rescued.

Veritas said...

Well, I think it's silly and stupid that they decide to stay. Usually one big storm changes their minds.

But also it's important to understand that storms come constantly on the Gulf Coast. You can't afford to evacuate for all of them. It's also usual for predicted storm tracks & storm impacts to change dramatically over time (before landfall). Everyone's got a story of the "big one" that they evacuated for, and then it turned out to be nothing.

Also - it's a free country. Forced evacuations in NOLA, which started a couple days after the storm, when the levees had failed and the city was flooded, with no city services or utilities - those evacuations were a nightmare. The city/state didn't have the ability or desire to provide services/utilities in that area for days, sometimes weeks (plus there were no grocery stores, gas stations, open roads, etc.) so they said to force everyone out. Some people just DID NOT want to leave - and some of those folks had nothing to their name but their little piece of property or even their few belongings on a rented piece of property.

The Coast Guard didn't have jurisdiction to force anyone out, but we had some of the boats that were needed, so we teamed with National Guard troops who forced these folks out at gunpoint.

I think when people have faith that the evacuation & return process "works" - that there are clear roads in & back, that they aren't evacuated unnecessarily or returned too soon, that there are decent places to stay with basic services (shelters), etc. - then people are much more likely to evacuate, even when storms are frequent. Just look at Florida.

It goes back to my mantra I guess - good planning, good logistics, and good execution mean that people trust the government, and thus they are not only compliant but helpful and happy. Even in very difficult circumstances.

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