Hurricane Rita

Excerpts from my livejournal. I'm not proud of all my reactions, but I had them. It helps to share.

All of these journal entries were written after Rita even though some of them still refer to Katrina... 

September 20, 2005, 4:52 PM
Hurricane Rita and jobs...
Feeling: anxious, tired, happy
A mixed post!!! :o)

My parents, grandma, kitty, and I may have to evacuate for Hurricane Rita, which is projected to hit from Lake Charles to Brownsville. I'm too tired to even comment on this...only that *shrugs*. I think I'm experiencing learned helplessness. My body feels tense. I'm hoping it'll hit somewhere not here or disappear all together!

Brought my car into the shop...the car guy said he hopes the hurricane hits NO! I said...hey! I'm from NO...he said...oh. :p Hee. I think he just means he hopes it doesn't hit the southeast Texas area.

GOOD NEWS! They liked me at the job interview! YAY!!!!!! They have to check on the money situation though first...just to make certain the funds are available! The flip side...they may not have the funds. Back to good: they really liked me, so that means I presented well in interview, which gives me hope for the next interview if it comes to that! Thank goodness...you don't know how relieved I am to have some sort of something in place...even if it's not quite certain yet. *tries not to count my chickens but really wants to*

September 21, 2005, 2:57 PM
We're off!
Feeling: calm
My family and I are headed out of here! Rita's coming. Wish us luck! Hopefully, I'll be back soon! *HUGS to you all* LOVE YOU! :o) Everyone else who's evacuating...stay safe. I'll be praying for you.

OH OH! I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o) Now...if Houston doesn't wash away, I'll be starting soon! *dances*

September 26, 2005, 9:13 PM
Hi, all! *waves*
Feeling: exhausted
I'm so sorry I haven't posted until today...I had no computer access! Brian, my ex-boyfriend and now one of my best friends, was sweet enough to post for me even when he was on vacation in Austin...

Just start this out by saying that I'm so bloody tired. I guess all of you guys must be sick of the hurricane stuff, too, because no one is posting on Rita. Sorry to bug you all again with these tales.

But damn! First, Katrina hits my home in NO. I retreat to Port Neches with all the belongings I want to save where Rita hits! I left almost everything this time. Of course, just like in NO, the news shows nothing about the area where I live, so it's all rumors and speculation again. I did get to see the mall...I grew up in Port Neches as did burble07 (*waves* to Albert...I'm SO glad you're safe!) and got to see the mall being built. I remember my mom bringing us through the empty building to peer through the glass doors to watch Sears being put in...that was so cool! lol Now...the roof's caved in several places. Nederland Ave....is supposedly decimated. I heard the high school in Port Neches was spared as was the place where I went to undergrad in Beaumont. I heard the whole Golden Triangle area looks like a war zone about like NO. I feel so badly for the people in western Louisiana...they got hit worse than the area where I grew up.

And oh! The car that got hit in a parking lot and had minor damage? I had to leave it behind in the shop there, so I have no car now.

At least, my brother's house in Seabrook (just across the bay from Galveston) was spared! :o) That's where we're all staying now.

My grandma, mom, dad, John, Meagan (kitty), and I went to Tyler where we stayed in a small hotel room for four nights. All we did was stare the TV like zombies and the last night, I didn't sleep at all because my poor grandma took a sleeping pill and snored...lol. I feel so bad for her because her new husband refused to leave town with his daughter because he didn't like how she offered to move the dog. He had to be rescued by fireman (we just found out this today) and sent to Ford Park in Beaumont. Poor guy. My grandma's in Houston with my aunt and uncle, so my grandma can continue to get her cancer treatments. My aunt's a nurse and knows where to take her. My grandma's husband is in San Antonio now and may move in near my grandma, so they can have a place to stay during the chaos. And oh! He had to leave his dog behind. :o(

I wanna go home! *whines* lol

As soon as I got here...I started the apartment hunt online. Tomorrow my dad and I are going to go look at places for me to live! It should be fun...if I weren't so exhausted! :p


Hope you guys are all well...thank you for the beautiful awards from the Fool for Love Awards! I love them!

Please post here and let me know what I've missed from you guys! There is probably no way I can catch up on LJ...I have to share the computer still. :o)

September 29, 2005, 10:09 PM
Was so busy today...but...
Feeling: crushed
Got an email from Dee, the secretary from my work today. She was like our "mom" during internship at LSU in New Orleans. If we got lost, she told us where to go; if we didn't know what time we had to be somewhere or who was supposed to do what, she pointed us in the right direction. So many times, we'd come into work to find little treats on our desks. Everytime I saw her, I gave her a hug. I'm going to miss her so much! She sent me this...

http://gmagic.com/katrina/

Tomorrow, my parents and brother and I are going into Port Neches to check out my parents' house and retrieve a few of my things. It's going to be weird to see the place where I grew up all torn up.

September 30, 2005, 9:45 PM
Just have a minute...
Feeling: happy and relieved
...tomorrow, I'm moving into my new apartment with a smattering of photos, my computer, my kitty, and an air mattress...and a few clothes! lol It's gonna be empty for a while.

Thank you for all the sweet comments of support...this is just crazy time for me, and I want you to know again how much I appreciate each and every comment. I don't have time right now to answer the comments between cleaning up after the hurricane to packing to finding a place to live to starting a new job...but I truly do thank you. *HUGS you all* Soon, things will be settled, and I'll be back online more often with more writing and icons and support for you guys...
***
Does anyone know how to get out the smell left behind in the aftermath of a hurricane? My clothes reek of it, and one washing isn't working. I'm worried that the rest of my stuff in New Orleans will smell just as bad.

My parents' area was very much cleaned up. They lost the fence. The porch swing we had by the pool ended up in the pool, and the oldest tree we grew up with was split in half. It had weathered a pretty severe ice storm a few years ago. The other two trees in the backyard were missing limbs. My dad's out building was torn to pieces. My brother was shocked because he helped my dad put it up when he was a kid. One of the three turbines from the roof blew off. My dad and brother covered the hole with a pumpkin decoration my dad had made several years ago. There's a pumpkin covering the hole...hee...that amuses me.

There were shingles from the roof everywhere...but not as many as in NO. We cleaned all those up. And because my parents live in a cul-de-sac, the leaves and pine needles from all over the street ended up in our yard with the rising waters and were left behind when the water receded. We cleaned all that up, too. I held the bag and got lots of dust and dirt in my face...hee. I asked my dad what happened to our pine tree? (We don't have any pine trees.) We just had enough needles in our yard to constitute a whole tree.

Overall, the whole area was MUCH better than what I'd seen in NO. I felt better; it was my childhood home after all. And the damages were overall exaggerated. The Dairy Queen in Port Neches was NOT destroyed as popularly reported, and they were already making repairs on businesses. This is not to say that some people probably didn't lose everything, and I probably expected damages on par with New Orleans because the eye passed over our area. We weren't allowed in Port Arthur where the damage was worse. The worst thing I saw...damage to tin buildings and trees pulled up by the roots and pulling up whole chunks of lawn with them.

Again, there were cops and military everywhere. Not as many helicopters but a few low flying planes. The smell was the same but less strong. I helped clean out my brother's girlfriend's fridge...OMG...everything in the freezer was squishy and wet and horrible. My brother just kind of stood there with mouth agape while I emptied it. lol I made all these sound effects and "ewww's" to help me keep from gagging and throwing up.

I told my brother that it's sad when the evacuating and returning to assess the damage starts becomes something that seems normal. I honestly can't fathom how the people in Florida do it. *admires their strength*

September 30, 2005, 10:39 PM
OMG
Feeling: surprised
I forgot!!!! The beta fish, Feather, I bought my parents for housing me after Katrina...he survived the week without food! :o) I was so surprised. We brought him back to my brother's house with us! :o)

October 6, 2005, 8:35 PM
Hi, y'all
Feeling: contemplative
I got a phone line! YAYAYAYAY! :o) I just have to move out of my apartment in NO now. That's going to be so hard, I think.

My dad's plan: get up at 2:30 AM on Saturday, drive to NO, pack in six hours, and drive back. I don't know if I can do all that and go to work on Monday. It's gonna kill me and the rest of the family. :p lol

I feel like someone ripped me out of my life and put me in this other world. It's a weird feeling. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone. It's weird to think that I didn't know that the last time I went to work in New Orleans would be the last time I saw so many people ever again. And someone else said that it's more than just a handful of people...it's the places, too. The everyday people in our lives make such a big difference. Even if we don't know them very well, they are part of our world.

Say you like to go to the coffee shop a lot.

Say there's a shop or restaurant or mall or you like to frequent or a neighbor you don't know very well but always say hi to.

Or a co-worker who you vent with about work.

Imagine that today was the last day you could ever go there again or see the people again...that the people and places simply vanished from your life...they are no longer an option.

There are so many places like that for me.

I didn't realize the ties that I had, and now it makes me sad.

Is it lame that I feel sad? lol

It's not quite the same as Buffy being ripped out of heaven...don't think anything could compare to that. It's like I'm in Oz, and I can't find my way home.

I bet there's something to be learned here...and a new life to be lived.

I'm nervous, but I'm looking forward to it...and to healing.

October 15, 2005, 7:55 PM
Babbling about home, work, and New Orleans...
Feeling: determined
Hey, all! Sorry that it took so long to update...my life has been completely upside down. I'm feeling less detached now...less disconnected, although the abruptness still sometimes hits me. I've also avoided the internet...

My family and I went to New Orleans last weekend...loaded up all my things and took them back here. We got up at 2 AM on Saturday, drove six hours to NO, loaded everything up in five hours, and took eight hours getting back to my brother's house. On Sunday, we drove to my apartment and unloaded everything.

Everything in my apartment smelled old and musty and dirty. I discovered why. There was mold EVERYWHERE in my closets. It was so disgusting. I'm worried that mold will grow back on everything I own. I think what happened is that when the shingles were torn off the roof, rain from Katrina and Rita leaked into the upper apartments and got into my closets. I can't imagine what the apartments above mine looked like. The people cleaning up the apartments put several refrigerators on the side of the road...they're simply ruined by spoilt food.

I'm worried that mold is hidden on my furniture...any idea what gets mold out of wood? I lost my desk...it was particle board and mold grew up under it where it got wet.

On a happy note, I got out of my lease in NO for $158, and I'm getting my deposit back...supposedly. There was a note on my door when we arrived for me to pay half of my September rent and my October rent, but because I lost my job and had to move, the properties were allowing tenants to leave after paying only for the days in October that they were there. It was so sad...I almost cried while talking to the apartment manager. She gave me this huge hug. I think I did cry once...we were going so fast, and I just couldn't keep going that fast. My dad fussed at me because I wasn't working hard enough, and I cried and said I was...and he apologized...we were just all so stressed out.

The funny thing was...I was *just* starting to get my mail in New Orleans. I had a few pieces of mail in my box, and my Amazon orders...the one's I made just before I evacuated for Katrina! They'd just been delivered on September 26th. I was shocked. I figured they were lost forever in the ether that mail sometimes goes to in times of disaster. lol BUT! I got "Finding Serenity" and a book on feminism in the Buffyverse from sweet_ali for my birthday! :o) (Thanks, sweetie! That's what I spent my certificate on!)

I'm starting to feel at home at work. My feelings of disconnect probably haven't helped my adjustment at work, but I'm feeling less so. 

I bought my own (really cheap) washer and dryer with my FEMA money! The people from Lowe's came and brought them today! And I'm now doing tons of loads of laundry because all my clothes seem to be infected by that musty smell. It's gonna take FOREVER to clean it all.

Interestingly, the delivery guys said a LOT of people from New Orleans are settling in in Houston and don't plan on returning. Huh.

October 22, 2005, 3:19 PM
Wow...
Feeling: hopeful
Some wonderful things have happened to me lately...

First, the lovely and generous angstchic was so incredibly sweet and sent me a gift certificate to drugstore.com to help me out in settling in after the evacuations and move! THANK YOU, hun! *hugs you tight* Everytime I think about what you did, it still just blows me away. Love you!

There's a new layout at Sand in My Shoes! :o)

*off to do chores and LOTS of laundry* Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend! *hugs flist*

October 23, 2005, 10:42 PM
YAYAY! *does Snoopy dance*
Feeling: ecstatic
I finished my 12,000 loads of laundry in two weekends and random weekdays! :o)

And Sand in My Shoes is now hosting the lovely stultiloquentia's website! :o) Check it out!

G'night, all! *HUGS*

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