Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Weather delay

If you've been watching the news, you've probably heard about our little rain event. About a foot and a half of water fell Sunday night/Monday morning. The bayous filled, then overflowed and the streets flooded.



This is hardly the worst I've been through, not even close. That would be Tropical Storm Alison (2001) where 36 inches of rain fell overnight. The entire city shut down for the better part of a week.

Yesterday's little deluge wasn't even a named storm. Rita (2005, the same year as the infamous hurricane Katrina) knocked out my power for a week, knocked massive limestone tiles off the concert hall and resulted in massive gridlock as people tried to evacuate. I mostly remember being grateful that I'm not a coffee drinker. Everyone in my apartment complex was growling about coffee (which they couldn't make because the power was out.)


If you want to see if someone is truly a Southerner, ask them about hurricanes - they will be able to tell you the storms by name, and that the current storm is nothing compared to that storm. My parents still talk about Hurricane Alicia (1983).

They will also tell you about hurricane activities - I remember playing cards with my parents by the light of a Coleman lantern. After Hurricane Ike (2008) the power was out for 10 days.  I was out of town, but my mother said there was a barbecue every night, because everyone's freezer was thawing out.

This time around I was lucky, my major inconvenience was not being able to get to work because all the roads were flooded. My neighborhood didn't experience high water, so I spent Monday playing with the cats and reading.

Stay dry out there.

No comments:

Post a Comment