I've been living in Portland, OR, for almost a year now, and even through 2500 miles separate me from the Gulf Of Mexico, I still myself glued to weather reports tracking Hurricane Gustav. After ten years on the Texas Gulf Coast, how well I remember the fear and trepidation inherent in wondering how whatever might be happening out in the Gulf might impact me where I live. Thankfully, here in Portland I'm safe from the ravages of hurricane season, but there are still people in Houston area I care about, and I understand what they're fearing...because I've been there myself. Three years after Katrina and Rita, the memories of the horrific destruction, death, and displacement is very fresh. There are still thousands of displaced New Orleans residents living in the Houston area, some of whom will never return to New Orleans for anything more than the occasional visit. Gustav is no mere academic exercise for residents of the Gulf Coast, not after Katrina (which made landfall three years ago yesterday) and Rita. Yes, hurricanes are an accepted fact of life when you live along the Gulf Coast...but that doesn't make the reality any easier to stomach.
I was fortunate enough to not be in Houston when the area was evacuated ahead of Hurricane Rita. Being amongst four million people trying to flee in front of a hurricane is an experience I'm grateful to have missed. I do remember lying in bed in a hotel room in Williamsburg, VA, and watching CNN all night long as I tried to determine if I would have a home to return to. I remember standing on the first tee at a golf tournament in Williamsburg on a brilliant, muggy September Friday morning...feeling like nothing if not Nero fiddling as Rome burned. There I was, about to play in a golf tournament while my home- all of a quarter-mile from the Gulf Coast- was, for all I knew, in mortal peril. Understandably, golf didn't get anything close to my full concentration that day. I teed off not knowing if I would still have a home when I finished my round. Now there's a distraction....
We dodged a bullet that time, even though friends farther to the east near Beaumont didn't. I've heard the joke that a hurrican in the Gulf of Mexico means that someone's gonna lose a trailer, but it's no joke if you home lies in or near the area of projected landfall. My here here in Portland, OR, may not be in Gustav's path, but my heart is still with the people on the Gulf Coast whose homes are.
