Remembering the Hurricanes

Well, it’s hurricane season once again, and we’re quickly approaching the anniversary dates of both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. I experienced both of those in some form last year.  For Hurricane Katrina, thousands of evacuees were housed in Beaumont at Ford Park Entertainment Center and in local hotels for several weeks/months, and Interstate 10 was bumper-to-bumper with evacuee traffic for several days prior to landfall of the hurricane. I was trying to move into my duplex just after the hurricane devastated New Orleans, and ended up hiring 3 displaced evacuees to help me move.

In late September, Hurricane Rita forced me to evacuate from my home and kept me in the Houston area for 3 weeks until streets were cleared and power was restored. You can read about my evacuation journey, Running from Rita, in my blog. It all just seems like a bad dream now, and I’m sure of one thing– it’s not something I want to live through again..:)  The evacuation for this hurricane was the largest in US history–around 3.5 million people — on an evacuation route that was equipped to handle only about 300,000.

One of my clients, Carol McClelland, has published a free e-booklet to help survivors/helpers/watchers of natural disasters deal with the anniversary of that disaster, in what’s commonly referred to as an "Anniversary Reaction."  I never knew that this experience had a name until I met Carol, but I see signs of it in myself, most notably that I’m afraid to go on vacation in September or October because I don’t want to be away from home if another hurricane were to strike this area.

You’ll gain insights and support from this booklet, whether you:

• Experienced Hurricane Katrina personally;
• Assisted Hurricane Katrina victims;
• Helped a friend or family member during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina;
• Watched the damage of Hurricane Katrina on television; or
• Experienced a previous hurricane.

You can download your copy from Carol’s site, Katrina Anniversary.