Hello from Houston. (Kemah to be exact) Here we are in day 5 of the history making #Harvey. My husband and I have chosen to ride out the storm in our home. No worries, we didn’t take a direct hit, and our house is raised 15 feet off the ground. Our neighborhood is relatively high, and we have been fortunate with minimal water. I have friends however, who have not been as fortunate. This has been a storm of biblical proportions to say the least. This, however, is not our first rodeo. We have both grown up on the Gulf Coast and weathered our share of hurricanes over the years. I am actually a Katrina transplant. Having said that, my husband and I know a thing or two about hurricane preparedness. In fact, we are both of the school that says, “if you’re going to live on the Gulf Coast, you live prepared 365!” Now I think our kids understand why we live in Sam’s and Costco!
This brings me to the moral of today’s blog. If you want a firsthand look at the breakdown of society in any catastrophic situation, ride out a hurricane…It all starts with food.
Just about all grocery stores, fast food restaurants, gas stations, (even Walmart) have been closed for the past 2 day’s. That’s right, 2 WHOLE DAYS. Today is the first day Grocers have reopened, most everything else is still closed. Let me describe the mayhem of people not being prepared.
I ventured out because I needed some bananas and yogurt, and I’m freaking stir crazy! My local Randall’s parking lot was packed. I walk in to people rolling out with baskets full of bottled water and other items (really you’re buying water now? It’s day 5) Then I see the line, wrapped through to the back of the store through produce all the way to the seafood counter to checkout! OH HELL NO! But now my curiosity has the best of me, so I continue through the store, surprisingly the produce section doesn’t look touched (shocker) The meat section, completely wiped out, junk food aisle, wiped…milk, gone, water and soda, gone, toilet paper, gone, beer, yep you guessed it! This was the theme at 3 stores, one of them had a line just to get in! Total infrastructure breakdown. I hope all of these people now realize, the food they scrambled to get, and the ones grabbing crumbs off the shelves of what’s left, know how to ration, cause guess what? There aren’t any trucks getting through anytime soon to restock! Yes the breakdown of society starts with food!
So the moral of the story is prepare, over prepare, and grow your own if you can! Or just get the Hell out of Dodge.
The end.
The real life adventures of a Creole Gypsy 