Ridin' the storm out!

I've seen plenty of tornadic weather in my life, and blizzards galore. But I finally experienced my first hurricane. Hurricane Ivan came through last fall and they called of school at RTS, but it didn't rain one drop in Jackson from that one. Hurricane Katrina, however, began doing its own thing early last week and building up more steam than originally predicted in the Gulf of Mexico. And, while most previously hurricanes since I got here have gone east of Jackson, Katrina decided otherwise. She came up through New Orleans and passed maybe 60 miles east of Jackson. Which, for those of you who don't know, is plenty close to the eye to give us a good taste.

It was raining already Monday morning when I woke up. And blowing. Our part of town lost power at 11:15 or so. And, did I mention that is was blowing? I've not heard how much rain we got, but my friends tell me it was officially "a lot." And the wind was pretty consistent around 30 to 40mph, I think, with good gusts into the 60s. I'm used to blizzards on the wide open prairies, but this was nice.

I like bad weather. My family knows that. My friends back home know that. And my friends in Jackson are beginning to know that. They convinced me to not drive around anymore than the one trip I did to WalMart. So I had fun. It rained. It blew. We had 10 to 12 people in our apartment most of the day. We played games and read by candlelight. We grilled. We got annoyed at having that many people in a small space that long. You know, the normal. A three of us stayed up all night talking...I thought a fitting way to ride out a hurricane.

That was all the fun stuff. The next morning, my roommate woke me up by saying, "We going to be without power for a week. My parents have power and we're going there. Grab some stuff." And now I'm finally understanding that I've gone through a natural disaster. I got displaced. We could have stayed in our apartment - we were safe - but we didn't have electricity or water. The biggest loss being no AC! But I got displaced. I grabbed some stuff, and I don't know how long I'll be gone from my apartment. We won't have school again until we have power, obviously. And, officially, "there is no way to know how long we will be without power."

But I feel pretty blessed. Sure, I don't know when I'll get back to my apartment, but I CAN go anytime. I've now watched video of people getting rescued from their roofs via helicopter. Judging by the floodwaters up to the shingles, the chance of those people EVER getting back into their houses are pretty slim. I'm in a house with AC, food, INTERNET (amen!), friends, and a good family to house us.

And about that severe weather stuff? I still like it. I feel bad for the people who have bore the brunt of this storm, but I still have no choice but to stand in awe of the hand of God. I walked around some during the storm yesterday...to get pelted in the face with rain and see winds that are strong enough to toss large branches out of large trees or uproot aged tress that crush the walls of a house and crumble storage sheds...I have no response but to stand in awe.