The need to to crawl-Katrina

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GEAUX- PRIUS Cowboy

Geauxfrugal
Joined
Jun 24, 2017
Messages
93
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Location
70380 LOUISIANA
I was in Dallas Tx trying to enjoy another truck show it seems every time I wanted to go to one of these things something happens? The first one 9/10/99 a tornado flips my truck breaks my back. I was suppose to be in Houston Tx 9/9/99 why was I in a truck on that date nearly a days drive North? Well they know what happens to their drivers when they go to a truck show? They get shatched up into another company or buy their own trucks and they lose their staff so if you want time off for a truck show don't let your dispatcher know where you are going tell them you are going to a wedding. 

This show was suppose to be some quality entertainment Darrel Whorley I got to sit through 3 excellent songs when our daughter started to act up. Time to go like it or not. Next day was on the floor of the convention and could not help but notice the tropics. Katrina was on her way and she looked pretty tough. Said to be a cat 4 potentially to become a cat 5 we said lets go home get our pictures computer and weapons and if we have a home when we return great if not at least we have some of the stuff we would have lost. 

The drive back to Louisiana was interesting the lines of power company employees ,weather was THE news traffic leaving the state in droves It was clear people were taking the advice of the professionals and leaving town. We get to Lafayette and it is clear we will be able to get home but not be able to get back out. Baton Rouge they did not want to let us back in. We got to our home got our things and was in contact with family that ran a truck stop at the foot of the Sunshine bridge just 60 miles due West of the city of NOLA. Governor had ordered it an emergency people were advised to leave and all the employees of the truck stop were leaving . Family were all we had we were not counter help but we did what we could it was clear anything we could do was required the business was busiest I have ever seen it. 

Every gas pump was filled it was said it took some 10 hours just to travel the 60 miles you could travel that faster on a bicycle. It was a crawl people were getting out their hot cars and using the bathroom right beside the road people got back in their cars some covered in feces. It was nasty but the people were not covering their feces. We had tour busses all filled with people and they bought out all the food at that truck stop this is no tiny place. It was a full service truckstop showers casino laundry the largest truck stop in the area. All but one other business closed . That business was much smaller and eventually they closed. The lines in the store were from the counter all the way to the coolers. The registers could not keep up with the change got to where you either wanted your purchase and you rounded up or you just didn;t get your stuff. 

Why do I share these things why do I stress range in your vehicle why do I keep rolls of coins in my car why do I keep my money busted into what I call bales during this season? Because of what I saw in that disaster how people were leaving their cash behind because they were not prepared. The truck stop was not prepared either but who trains for this crap? 

Cars were giving up the ghost along the way a lot of them just ran out of fuel with all the long lines it was just difficult and it was stressful to say the least. 

The past doesn't represent the future what you do today might not be possible for you to do later. You might enter a situation where there is WROL (without rule of law) it is the closest I have come to seeing society completely break down.  WE did not lock the doors until something like 3 am we were beat all the food in that subway was gone some even bought just lettuce and bread nothing at all it was totally insane to witness this. 

Then we had the added stress of maybe going through a cat 5 storm we had no guarantee it was not going to go where we were and wipe us off the map? The next day I watched the storm pass and it was interesting the storm was probably a cat 1 where we were it was pretty strong but nothing too scary power did go out and we did get it back later and it was all seen on TV the city starting to fill with water. The destruction was unreal all the bridges across the ponchatrain in the water the water going up the MrGo water way? I had no idea how involved I would be with this but I soon found out. I got work in the storm area finally all my endorsements paid off I had every one Class A CDL TPXS I had them all for just such an ocasion. The man they want to hire is the one that is going to be able to lawfully operate all equipment I was that man. 

Yscloscly was where I was sent I got to travel into the city after I got all my shots. It was submerged for about a month they finally pumped it out and it smelt like a city that had thousands dead with submerged freezers and fridgerators it smelt like supermarkets that had all their food rot inside it smelt like death stench it was enough to gag a maggot. The DOE wanted the gas plant that had been submerged back up and running they wanted it yesterday. 

This was in the notorious St Bernard Parish when we got down there the things we saw were very difficult to understand houses that you knew had nice lawns houses gone lawn scraped off like a mechanical scraper had come along and stripped it bare.  Some of the houses were still there in piles with deceased inside I did not know of this until we were done. There were reports of dump trucks filled with bodies at trailer parks They just threw them into the dump trucks to take the off to the morgues it is said the government way under reported the amount of deaths that occurred in this disaster. 

The job did not last too long I could have stayed for a full 6 mos it took them that long to get things going, it paid very well but I just graduated college I just wanted to get back trucking I wish I were prepared to see what I saw you could hear a pin drop in that bus each morning as I brought the men to work we all were rendered speechless day after day hard not to openly weep . 

I should have stood my ground and told the boss to pull the little jerk out the way but I just left I told them it was not going to cut it I had to leave. I was there less than a month and paid off the new car I bought in college. That was a good lick to say the least I should have stayed there and paid off my house but you can't enjoy your home if you are in prison ? I have more but I don't have the time to go anymore.
 
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