The morning blurred with heavy clouds and it seemed there would be no sunrise at all. I poured coffee and stepped out to the patio, empty of all its chaises and umbrella tables, looking bleak without its party clothes strewn about. The green cast to the pool, usually blue and sparkling, was more witness to the heat and days without filtration than the storm, though the leaves and twigs lying on the bottom didn't help. I glanced up to the eaves and was not surprised to see the mud houses of the wasps intact and thriving. Before the furniture returns, the power washer will come out and they too will succumb to the force of water. Odd that nature teaches us the best ways to destroy.
And as I sip the hot coffee, the steamy day begins with a lifting of the dark clouds, and I see far to the east and south, for it is autumn now, pale pink light. One songbird lifts his chortles to the wind, and I remember that a symphony begins with one note.
Observations.
I'm going to go ahead and post these, because this is a journal and I've given a full week now to preparation, evacuation and aftermath. Some of my notes were time markers, from email and test messages I sent en route, some rambling from notes I kept of images I didn't want to forget. It really is okay if you skim by, or turn the page. There are two entries, one, chronological, the other, images. There is some repetition, and I could edit it all to one nicely flowing story, but I am eager to get back to the business of living and want to put this behind me for now.
My list of things to remember:
Contra Flow: doesn't "contra" mean "against?" If so, this works. There couldn't have been more against "flow" of this traffic unless it moved in reverse.
Parking lots: not just the freeways themselves, but the nightmare of cleanup that owners of those lots easily accessible to the masses. I used to think it was the storm that caused the mess. But it was there… long before the storm made landfall.
Caravans: We traveled next to many caravans. It occurred to us that if every family had taken only one car, filled with people and essentials, the traffic would have been cut in half and there would have been no fuel shortage. Instead, there were caravans of cars, many occupied with only one person. Car insurance is required by law in Texas…. So these people thought their cars were their most precious possession? Add to that the group behavior… these were the folks pulling out on the shoulders and driving past the traffic for several miles, then slowing the flow even more when exits, construction or stalled cars forced them back into the main lanes. Amazingly, no one laid on horns.
Semi towing: A cab of an eighteen wheeler, driven by one person, chained to a pickup truck, at least two occupants of that one, tied to an old ford with a nylon rope. No signal lights, no electrical hooked up between them at all. In the third car? Children. Occasionally passed with baby formula back and forth to the pick up. No seat belts.
In the back of other pick ups: Children tucked in to sleep under blankets in the hot sun, and into the night. Dogs in crates, some of them shaded with blankets or tarps, but all of them miserable. Much barking. At one point, when traffic was stopped, a man got out of a car following one of them and offered a water bottle to the dog in the cage of the truck. The dog knew what to do, and drank the water. The driver of the pickup flashed a thumbs-up to the Samaritan. I don't think they knew each other. My own dog drank from my palms. Her tongue on my skin was completely dry, and she had a/c most of the way, and no sun.
Camry, beige: We followed this car for hours. There were five people inside and they were in the "fast lane"…we were still hopeful when we got into that lane that an entrance to the contra lanes would sometime open up. The people drove, as did many, with the doors to the car opened. Occasionally, one of them would lean out of the car and pick up baling wire that had been used to create the road. It was odd, like a bird pecking worms from the spring ground. Just as often, someone would lean out of the car and vomit.
Flushing. We stopped at four different gas stations hoping to find facilities along the way. The first one, on the west side of Houston, where there was no threat, told us there was no water to flush. The next one was closed entirely. The third one was in the town that was supposed to have gas, per the police, but didn't. They did let us use the restroom. The men and women were using both sides, one line, for a change. I got the women's room. When I got there, it was filthy. Paper towels strewn on the floor, the baskets overflowing, the sink splattered and soiled. I took two paper towels and smushed the trash down into the basket and picked up the litter on the floor. I wiped down the sink. I washed my hands thoroughly with soap. I remember my eighth grade science teacher telling us there is no excuse for filth so long as there is running water. I would have done more, but people were banging on the door.
The next one (these were in those last few hours) had long lines, but had reverted to male/female lines. Not sure why, but one woman went to the men's room and opened the door when there were no men waiting and the women's line snaked out to the gas pumps. She simply went "eww" and backed off. The rest of us took her word for it. I didn't try to clean that one. But I did promise myself I would not be a helpless refugee. I'd seen enough of that with Katrina victims, especially in the last weeks. (Incidentally, do you know that the remaining 1700 katrina evacuees in the shelters were flown to Arkansas to avoid the storm? I know that part of it was to take care of the people. Part of it was to get them off the city roles. And part of it was no doubt a publicity stunt. But I'm very cynical now so don't mind me.)
Cats and dog: Animals have so much more intuition than we do. The cats hate to ride, and usually hide from us. They came right out to the car and got in without fuss. They were calm the whole way. Their litter box was available in the back, but they didn't use it. We were in this together. Scout slept with her head on my son's lap most of the way. Sometimes he slept with his head on hers. None of them let me out of their sight the whole time we were in Austin. We are a team.
Things heard on talk radio in the middle of the night: The coast guard had been called to help with the freeway crisis. Huh?
This one made my twelve-year-old cackle. He heard the president's speech…when was that? I don't have a sense of the time anymore… it was sometime after dark. C quotes it as follows. "It's a BIG storm. But don't go getting your guns and start rioting just because you can't get off the highway. " That was about it. When the interview/speech (what was it?) turned to Iraq, even news radio cut him off. A big storm? When we finally arrived in Austin and saw our Leader on TV, the thing that struck me was that apparently he didn't have speech 101. He sat in an open collared blue shirt … how many of those does he have? At North Com and addressed the nation. He smirked. He swiveled in his chair. He smirked when asked if his trip to the storm zone would be getting in the way and said no. But then his plans changed. I don't care what his politics are. There was no call for smirking. There was a need for reassurance and leadership. I didn't get it from his casual attitude. Did you? I'm not a snob, but it was time for him to look like a leader, dress like a leader and speak like a leader. I do note that on Sunday (Monday?) he wore a suit… green with a red tie. I do note as well that he stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought several times. I heard the interview first on the radio and wondered if he were having a stroke. When I saw it broadcast later, and heard him tell us that he was suspending EPA regs, that he was opening up the oil reserves and that we needed to cut through the red tape to let the refineries expand, I had the sensation of thirty years of hard fought battles for the environment whooshing by. I wondered what Jimmy Carter must have been thinking. At least he added a windfall profits tax. Why don't we just hand over the reins publicly to the oil companies? I worry about how well my son and I will be able to breathe now. We are both sensitive to the pollution here.
Honesty: Rather than alarming everyone with 24-hour coverage and flashbacks to Katrina, why not say we don't know?
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