Hurricane Katrina Memories Part Four
Today’s post will highlight several life lessons that I learned having lived through Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
Lesson: Cleanliness is NOT next to Godliness!
Wow. That’s a biggie for me, the organizing neat freak. I want everything around me neat, organized and CLEAN. My surroundings were anything but that after Katrina.
Sticky, stinking, toxic mud was everywhere until it dried out and then there was toxic dust settling on everything. Every time a vehicle drove past our property that dust rose up and covered everything set up on our slab including the trailer and the few possessions we had that we had salvaged (from the debris fields) and washed off!
As time went on big piles of tree debris were stacked along our road until they could be picked up and taken to a landfill. People then started throwing their household garbage next to those piles. Disgusting rotten food and dirty diapers added to the filth.
However, I was also surrounded by Godliness – God was right there next to me even as I experienced unbelievable pollution and the overwhelming stench of raw sewage, rotting food and dead animals.
I found this statement written in my notes, “My obsession with cleanliness is slowly losing it’s grip on me!” Unfortunately that obsession returned as soon as I moved into our brand new house.
Are there lessons in your own life that you must learn and relearn repeatedly?
Lesson: Life is a matter of perspective.
Okay, we all think we know this one. Your point of view is shaped by your life experiences. I knew this before Katrina but God revealed a deeper understanding of this life reality.
From my notes, “My situation is not as bad as it seems when I look beyond myself and discover the pain and misfortune of others.”
This lesson hit me hard the day we returned to the coast four days after Katrina when I witnessed a family camped out in a local shopping center parking lot. I had just witnessed the destruction of my own home and was returning 100 miles north to the home we had sheltered in during the storm. Like this family I may have lost my home but I wasn’t having to camp out in tents in a parking lot. I wasn’t having to support and care for children in the midst of a natural disaster and I was going back to a clean, dry bed. Also, I was going to that home in an air conditioned truck, sheltered from the oppressive heat and humidity that this family was living with.
Lesson: Love IS the most important thing.
In part two of my Hurricane Katrina Memories series I wrote about my experience being all about love. Family, friends, co-workers and volunteers showered us with love and hope for years.
Now I will share two specific stories that illustrate how and when my whole being was saturated in pure love.
First Story: None of us sheltering inland had any cell phone service for four days. All cell towers from the coast to our location 100 + miles inland were blown down or too damaged to provide any service.
As we traveled to the coast to survey our properties we noticed a small section of the interstate where our phones were picking up weak signals. On the way back inland we pulled off of the highway when we saw those signals. My first attempts at notifying two of my family members were not successful. One of my sisters and I had had not called, sent texts or emailed each other for weeks before Katrina because of a disagreement. Her phone number was the only family connection that would go through that day and her words and the tone of her voice filled me with reassurance that all would be okay. Love surrounded me through that phone call.
The second call I made was to get my messages. The only three messages I remember were all from a long time special friend who had been trying to reach me since the beginning of the storm. Her first message told me in a calm voice that she was praying for me and hoping that we were safe. The second message consisted of a shaky voice asking me to call her as soon as possible to let her know that we had survived the hurricane. It was apparent in the third message that she was crying, her voice shaking and almost shouting as she told me how worried and downright scared she was that we had not evacuated or survived the storm. I can’t even remember if I was able to call her back and talk with her directly or leave her a message that we were fine but had no cell service where we were staying and that I would contact her again when I could. What I can remember is that my heart was filled with gratitude as I realized how much she loved me and wanted so badly to hear that I was alright.
It was not a co-incident that the only family call I could make was to my “estranged” sister. Love bridged that disagreement and our petty ways of dealing with it when that call went through.
It was also not a co-incident that my friend made three attempts to reach me and that my heart was filled with joy and gratitude after those messages. That was exactly what I needed after living an unbelievable day of witnessing total destruction of our neighborhood and most of our city.
Tomorrow, August 29, 2025, will mark twenty years since Hurricane Katrina blew through our lives. There are a million stories from that infamous day and the years that followed. As natural and man-made disasters continue to occur, there will be a million or more stories to be told by people who live through those storms.
Telling our stories is a path through healing the hurts we feel from those painful experiences. There will also be many lessons to be learned and possibly relearned from those stories.
Happy Anniversary to all of us who survived our losses and sometimes even thrived in spite of those losses!
