Evac

I was grateful I didn’t have a lot of stuff I cared much about when we abandoned our home to the elements yesterday — the house stands, we hope it will continue to stand, there is not imminent imminent threat, but a lot depends on the wind, which is unpredictable. Besides, how imminent does a threat need to get before we get ourselves out of the path? Not super-imminent. For us, we don’t need to wait to be told to go when it’s clear fatal danger may very likely be coming.

Friends of mine were renting vans and taking measures to save various stuff, some really nice stuff, before they got out. Others were donning air filter masks and watching Netflix through the smoke.

I said to Mike, “I feel weird talking to friends who are staying, like I don’t know whether to tell them to leave or what?” He said, “I make it clear that we don’t wait to be told to go so we can avoid traffic.”

When he and I got the last plane out of New Orleans before Katrina hit it was so weird. We were gunning for the airport and there was no traffic. We just hopped our scheduled flight and left. Shortly after takeoff the pilot announced what was happening. I felt that weird gratitude we were safe and intense sadness for others who were not.

Today, I am glad that we have gotten safe. I’m gonna keep going.