http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/2008/07/09/august-29/ Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:33:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/2008/07/09/august-29/#comment-35 Cori R., Gulfport Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:14:23 +0000 http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/?p=29#comment-35 We live about a block off of the beach in Gulfport. We evacuated during the storm, but ultimately returned. We were fortunate in that we had a (very damaged) home to return to. We also had food and water stored in the house that we used and shared with our neighbors after the storm. People outside of our area heard more about New Orleans for same reasons that plane crashes get coverage. New Orleans' levees failed in a culimation of what history will likely label a classic example of no thought for the future. They did not receive a direct hit from the storm. We didn't make the news so much because we came home, rolled up our sleeves, and started rebuilding. We will be rebuilding for years to come. A disaster on this scale is hard to explain to people who haven't experienced it. Being from the west, I have developed an admiration for the locals that I didn't have before the storm. 5 people died on our street, and half of our neighborhood, houses and all, disappeared in one day. Our dogs died because we could not bring pets to the hotel and left them in the garage. None of us imagined it would be as bad as it turned out to be. It's still heartbreaking. It's hard to find our street because there are no landmarks. It's still hard to talk about even though we see reminders of the devastation every day. My husband grew up in Louisiana and had a hard time dealing with the devastation. We have become determined to be independent of the government and insurance, and we are following a plan to achieve financial independence, so that we will not be subject to all of the gov't control that accompanies that gov't assistance. We live about a block off of the beach in Gulfport. We evacuated during the storm, but ultimately returned. We were fortunate in that we had a (very damaged) home to return to. We also had food and water stored in the house that we used and shared with our neighbors after the storm. People outside of our area heard more about New Orleans for same reasons that plane crashes get coverage. New Orleans’ levees failed in a culimation of what history will likely label a classic example of no thought for the future. They did not receive a direct hit from the storm. We didn’t make the news so much because we came home, rolled up our sleeves, and started rebuilding. We will be rebuilding for years to come. A disaster on this scale is hard to explain to people who haven’t experienced it. Being from the west, I have developed an admiration for the locals that I didn’t have before the storm. 5 people died on our street, and half of our neighborhood, houses and all, disappeared in one day. Our dogs died because we could not bring pets to the hotel and left them in the garage. None of us imagined it would be as bad as it turned out to be. It’s still heartbreaking. It’s hard to find our street because there are no landmarks. It’s still hard to talk about even though we see reminders of the devastation every day. My husband grew up in Louisiana and had a hard time dealing with the devastation. We have become determined to be independent of the government and insurance, and we are following a plan to achieve financial independence, so that we will not be subject to all of the gov’t control that accompanies that gov’t assistance.

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