Hurricane Gustav

As I sit here watching the reports on Hurricane Gustav is gives me much anxiety and worry for those we left behind in Louisiana when we moved. We lived through Katrina back in 2005 and of course, my soldier was in Iraq during that time too! I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was at work and my soldier was trying everything to get through to me because the Engineers in Iraq were tracking the storm. When he finally got through- he told me to send everyone home and pack my bags and get out ...NOW. I was scared to death. I'm alone, I have the two boys, a dog and two cats. I have no way to board up my house or even have time to gather everything I want to try and save. I did the best that I could and just focused on getting my children and myself to safety. Back then, my neighbors thought I was nuts for leaving so early (2 days early) because all of the hurricanes in the past had turned just in time and they were convinced we would be fine. A lot of lessons were learned after Katrina devastated southern Louisiana.

After having about an hour of nervousness because we couldn't find ANY gas, we finally found this tiny little gas station in the middle of nowhere and filled up. The boys and I have never prayed so hard in our lives. We made it all the way to Indiana safely and then we just had to wait until a neighbor could call us and tell us if the house survived or not. That was the longest week of our lives I think. Dan was being prepped to come back home as his commander knew that they would need him more in New Orleans and we would definitely need him at home. When we finally got the call that the house was ok I think I cried for 20 minutes. No water damage, no broken windows...nothing. We were the lucky ones. Two houses down, a tree fell on half of the house and destroyed it. Amazing.

Dan flew in successfully to Shreveport and then drove the rest of the way in. I drove from his Mom's house to meet him without the kids- not knowing what we would encounter. So our second reunion from a deploment was met with downed trees, no power, a very stinky fridge and just pure devastation all around us. We actually had three trees fall on our house but absolutely no damage. Well, except for one little branch through the roof. I'll take that. It was so surreal and everything had changed. It was so emotional.

We spent the next few days reaquainting while cleaning up debris and bleaching out a fridge and helping neighbors clean up as well.

We ended up being so blessed through the whole experience. A lot of my friends and co-workers weren't so lucky. Here are some pictures of our experience with Katrina in 2003. I ask that all of your prayers today are for the people of New Orleans and surrounding areas that are bracing for what could be another storm of devastation.

This is the back of our house. When we walked in the front door, this is what we saw. Our backyard was unbelievable. It was surreal to see all those trees pushed up against our house yet the only real damage was our fence was destroyed. Blessings I tell ya.

Our neighbors were so sweet that despite all of the mess and craziness, they still managed to put a Welcome Home balloon on our mailbox for Dan. It still makes me cry to see this!
This was the scene of our backyard. It still amazes me that our house was virtually untouched. I always say that it was as if God had picked up all of those trees and laid them gently on the house. It was a miracle.
This was one of the local schools that was completely destroyed. All the schools had to start new schedules because they had to 'borrow' another school's building for the kids that were displaced. Some went in the morning and some went in the afternoon.
This was the scene driving into the neighborhood. Every neighborhood in the area had a 'boil water' sign as you entered.
This is what was left of my job. I managed a weight-loss clinic. The owner lost all of her clinics- 4 total between New Orleans and Alabama.
We had service people from all over come to help clean up and provide red-cross services. We also had police from all over the country to help with safety and utility trucks from all over that came to help get power restored as quickly as possible. America is great, huh?

I have so many more and maybe I'll share some tomorrow. Don't forget to pray....