I know the title will probably scare a few and make them wonder just WHAT I'm going to post next! Ha! Judging from some of my blogs in the past, you just never know what I will come up with next!
No... this isn't a blog to talk bad about anyone or to pull someone down. This is a blog to remember when we were all a bit low.
She came into town like a train barreling down on the cities that she tore into. There were very few that she encountered that she didn't leave a mark on.
She may have been named after a lady, but she carried the strength of a full grown bull. She was strong. She was swift. And she let you know who your friends were really quick.
She was Katrina.
It's hard to believe that it was six years ago today. By this time of the evening, we were feeling the brunt of her in Laurel. Category 3 winds, even that far inland. I certainly didn't expect it. A lot of us didn't.
I remember huddling in the hall with the kids. Dalton, who was 6 at the time, asked me a question that I couldn't answer. He asked, "Are we going to die?" I didn't have an answer. I simply said that I didn't know. I was scared. I could feel the roof trying to lift up. I could hear the wind howling all around us. I think even the word 'scared' is an understatement!
I have never liked things to be out of whack. I like normal. I like routines. Let me tell you one thing you DON'T have after a hurricane - NORMAL! Things were nuts! I remember spending over $100 at a gas station just on junk food because I was scared we wouldn't have enough food! And gas - that was a joke! We were lining up for hours in the hot sun just to get $20 worth of gas! You definitely saw the people who were trying to make the big bucks come out in full force. But there was something else you saw, too....
....you saw friends becoming family. You saw strangers being friends. You saw people get back to the basics and actually sit outside and talk to each other. Instead of sitting for hours in front of the television, people would walk over to their neighbors to see how they were doing. People shared food with each other. People cared.
Amazing how something that was so horrific managed to show us that some of our best friends can come out of a low place or a low situation. It's a shame that it took that terror named Katrina to teach us a lesson like that.
How many of us have forgotten it? Are you still a friend in a low place?
