Reasons Why I Say "No" To Evacuations

With Gustav on the horizon, I have been getting a lot of phone calls from my family asking if we were going to evacuate. (BTW, my nephew & his mother have evacuated New Orleans.) My answer to them has been a resounding No. The least of my reasons is because it looks like it's not headed towards us.

The main reason is because of what we went through with the Hurricane Rita evacuation. I won't go into all the horrid details. Mainly, because I don't like reliving them in my mind. I will say that I don't like what it did to my kids. Big D made a tough decision and I supported him. Cleo was to stay home. We figured that she'd have a better shot of survival than on the road with us. We promised Lamb that she could destroy anything and we would not be mad at her. We put her food & water on our dining table in case of flooding. Lamb was devastated. She cried uncontrollably for the first hour. Big D prayed that he made the right decision and was sick with grief over what he was doing to his daughter. Of course, he absolutely made the right decision. Pets died on that journey. Cleo had it made. She was in an air conditioned house with food, drink, and potty. None of those things did we have.
We left before the sun was up. By the time the sun was down, we were only at The Woodlands. That is usually a trip that only takes 40 minutes or so on a regular day. We slept in the Target parking lot. Lamb & I slept outside on the trunk of our car. Never in a million years did I think I would sleep "comfortably" outside in a shopping parking lot with my daughter beside me. I was too tired & traumatized to worry about someone snatching her.

When we woke, I wanted to cry in frustration. My babies were eaten alive with mosquito bites. Bear from head to toe, literally. Lamb with a few on her face but the majority around her thighs. That picture of Bear is FIVE days after being bit. They were miserable and Bear was embarrassed to go back to school.










I just can't do that again for no reason. And my story is just one of millions. Some fared better and some fared much, much worse. I won't say I'll never evacuate again because I don't know that for sure. I will say that I will do whatever is necessary to avoid reliving that experience.