Hurricane Katrina
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I have spent long hours at work, working my days off, due to the influx of guests which arrived ahead of the storm. The hotel’s services have really been taxed. Food, ice, drinks, the elevators, emergency generator power, and the plumbing have all been tested, as well as our patience. So far, with only a few glitches, we have done exceptionally well.
The number of people with pets, mostly dogs, but one snake that we know of, has caused management to re-think our pet policy, i.e., no more accepted. This is in large part due to the constant peeing of all the dogs in close proximity, and the inconsiderate guests who just let them go where ever they want, the G.M. with a low tolerance for stress and a short fuse, and one manager who seems hell bent on overdosing him with exaggerated and constant complaints.
I have seen a good share of good and decent folks in bad situations, and we are doing our best to accommodate them. The displaced and homeless, with nowhere to go, the guests who wait in the lobby for a chance of a room, the lady who hasn’t stopped crying for days, the girl who hasn’t heard from her father, or a brother who’s conversation ended with his cell phone battery was running low, the hillbilly lady, who looks like she’s straight from the backwoods, but has money to burn. Oh, and the rude guests as well.
We locally breathed a sigh of relief as Katrina turned eastward and narrowly avoided New Orleans, we were anticipating winds of 100 MPH as far as 200 miles inland, that would be us. The refugees are continuing to trickle in, some from the west side of New Orleans that was not devastated by floodwaters but are now feeling threatened in their own homes by the lack of civility and the necessity to arm and barricade themselves in their homes. They’ve decided it’s not worth it. We have experienced a run on our gasoline, there are shortages and long lines everywhere, with prices now at an all time high of $2.99 for regular, and rising. There is no such thing as ice. Eggs, and beverages of all kinds are spotty with lots of empty shelves.
We are beginning to feel the effects of 1 ½ million displaced people, the first wave being the people who heeded the call for evacuating, and those who had the transportation and money to run, our roads were jammed with travelers. We now are getting some of the less desirables, those who would take advantage of anyone with a greater venerability than their own. There are stories of weapons displayed at the gas pumps, peoples shopping carts snatched from them in the parking lots. The super Walmart closed for several hours due to one incident. The delivery trucks have armed guards while they unload their goods and I have seen the local police keeping order at the BP station and others on the main highway. There are thugs breaking in homes in Natchez, and police friends say gang members are up looking for new territory.
I have tried unsuccessfully to acquire a diesel tank and fuel for the hotel’s generator so we would not be caught without emergency power due to a lack of fuel during outages, we had about a four hour period when all of south-west Mississippi and east-central Louisiana was without power due to the loss of the last one of the 5 power grids went down. I suspect we will lose power again on several occasions as they attempt to bring up the downed power lines. I have learned from an acquaintance that the government has commandeered all of the tanks, tankers, and fuel in the area. The Natchez mayor must have spoke prematurely in the paper when he said no one would be allowed more than one tank of gas at a fill-up. The following day, he retracted his statement and said people would be allowed to buy up to $100 worth at a time. I suppose this is to avoid some of the chaos that people are capable of if we think there is a shortage of something.
I have had little time to watch more than a few glimpses of the news from the coast, mostly just catching a little news and commentary on NPR on my way to & from work; people are dying in the streets, looting/crime is rampant, the government is too slow too respond, they have rehearsed this scenario for years, the people who are abandoned in New Orleans are disproportionately black, and poor, and unemployed, etcetera.
I don’t know the answer to any of this, and I don’t care to think one-sided, but sometimes I wonder if this seemingly disastrous evacuation plan couldn’t be the plan, gone awry, of course. New Orleans has been crime ridden for years and getting worse. What could be better than a natural disaster flooding the overcrowded east side crammed with poor, uneducated, non-productive, socially problematic citizens? Damn those survivors hanging out on those overpasses hollering for food and water!
Only God knows why the storm turned to avoid a complete and swift flooding of tsunamic proportions. Only God knows why there aren’t just 100,000 bodies floating in the ocean, rest their souls. What more can make the American people wake up and see that we are unprotected and don’t have enough foot soldiers? What will it take to bring back the draft?
If this sounds like sci-fi, I have the script all wrote down in my head, waiting for the movie. Meantime, my family is taking extra precautions. I can’t let my wife go to the mall alone anymore, I can’t let her go out at night by herself to pick up the boys from a church function. The home that we have recently acquired and has taken us years to get only makes us look affluent (we’re not), and therefore a target for the unlawful. We hear reports of a policeman shot for a jug of water, a brother shoots his sister over a bag of ice, and for the first time the dog is out. We are not alone though, our neighbors are wary as well. There will be years of consequences.
