I\u2019ll never forget Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2005. I was still in my twenties. Young. Dumb. Full of ideas…grand and bad alike. I worked in a call center. Manager. Making some decent money finally. I had a decent car (thanks to Mom and Dad for cosigning for the credit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was writing dystopian survival stories for fun back then. Zombies. Plagues. Nuclear fallout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Hurricane Katrina hit, the company I worked for offered an extra 10 days of PTO for volunteer work to help out. Most of management volunteered their time in warehouses doing God\u2019s work filling care packages to be transported down south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A buddy of mine who was part of a 4×4 offroad club told me he was part of a caravan heading down south to help out on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wanted in. Only problem was, I had a Saturn, not a 4×4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I bought my first Jeep in the parking lot of the last Foodland I can remember for $750 cash. A 1979 red CJ Renegade, 5\u201d lift on 33\u201d of tire, a tan soft top patched up in a dozen places with silver duct tape and clear packing tape on the soft top windows. The only manual transmission I\u2019ve ever owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly I was in business. Didn\u2019t take long to figure out how to drive a stick. When the offroad club hooked a trailer full of bottled water and supplies to the hitch on the rear, shit got real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learning how to drive with a trailer on your ass over 1100 miles isn\u2019t the crash course in fun it sounds like… unless pants-shittingly-humbling is in your vocabulary. It\u2019s in mine now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then we got there. Disaster movies can\u2019t prepare you for the real thing. Unlike Hollywood\u2019s presentation that shows a broken and barren landscape, the real thing has people walking around, stunned, moving like zombies… only with tears in their eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good God, the faces…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Got to see the Cajun Navy in action. Airboats saving lives… because what else are you going to do with a southern heart and an airboat in your yard? I even got to winch some folks from trouble myself. Fumbled it the first two times. Even with the right rhythm and skills, it wasn’t nearly as cool as a guy with an airboat painted up in LSU colors blasting Free Bird. Or the one with the ‘Who Dat’ flag in Saints colors ripping along the water where streets once were. But for a first-timer, I had my moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Handing humid-hot bottles of water to someone so grateful they bless you, while you’re both standing in their front yard where their house used to be, is a surreal experience. And yes, I mean \u201cused to be\u201d as in GONE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disasters are tough on everyone. We moved into hurricane country a couple of years back, willingly, because anytime otherwise, this is paradise. And Jenn and I have a little bit of savings. We pay through the nose for insurance and have supplies to last us for months. We\u2019re a one-car household with 20 cases of water and 25 gallons of gas on hand for every hurricane season. We have the privilege to live like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But imagine you\u2019re like most of the people I met in New Orleans 21 years ago. Or I guess everywhere in a hurricane basin. Most are renters ten miles from the beach. Who do you think is cooking your food or stocking the grocery shelves near your vacation spot? Most of those people are living paycheck to paycheck\u2014rarely with sufficient insurance because that\u2019d break the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do you do when your landlord is waiting on an insurance check that\u2019ll probably take two years to come while they tell you \u201ctough shit\u201d even though you still don\u2019t have windows and you\u2019re living in seawater mold? That shit smells like a dead and bloated mermaid. Imagine it and ask me how I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So many people died due to Katrina. My Jeep died there too. Had to hitch a ride back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll never fully come home from that week in New Orleans. I\u2019ll never forget the single mom with her two boys and their cat, sitting on a swing set (the only thing on their entire property that Katrina didn\u2019t take from them). They had a little kitten. As a cat guy now, I\u2019m embarrassed to admit that I don\u2019t remember the kitten\u2019s name. What I won\u2019t forget is how weak I felt handing this mom and her sons a handful of Lunchables and shrugging my shoulders when the mom asked me if I thought the cat would like the pizza one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spoiler: he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can\u2019t express the relief I felt seeing their little tabby lap crappy pizza sauce and flick slivers of imitation mozzarella cheese into his mouth. When the cat ate, that mom and her kids had their spirits lifted. I think I became a cat person in that moment even though it took a decade or so for me to have my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also fell in love with New Orleans then. The city is rich with amazing history, which is right up my alley. But people are always better than the history that surrounds them. At least that\u2019s how I\u2019ll always tell it. And I feel it every time I visit that city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Godspeed to anyone caught in Isaias\u2019 path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be kind. Donate. There are 5,000 or more linesmen at the starting blocks ready to sprint off and get the power back on. The Army and National Guard are ready. As are multiple 4×4 clubs. I\u2019m sure the Cajun Navy are gassing up their boats as I type this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will suck. But know that help is on the way. Maybe that\u2019s you in some way. Yes, people chose to live in these places. But we can all also choose compassion when granted the opportunity. Choose compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ll never forget Hurricane Katrina. 2005. I was still in my twenties. Young. Dumb. Full of ideas…grand and bad alike. I worked in a call center. Manager. Making some decent money finally. I had a decent car (thanks to Mom and Dad for cosigning for the credit). I was writing dystopian survival stories for fun back then. Zombies. Plagues. Nuclear fallout. When Hurricane Katrina hit, the company I worked for offered an extra 10 days of PTO for volunteer work to help out. Most of management volunteered their time in warehouses doing God\u2019s work filling care packages to be transported down south. A buddy of mine who was part of a 4×4 offroad club told me he was part of a caravan heading down south to help out on the ground. I wanted in. Only problem was, I had a Saturn, not a 4×4. I bought my first Jeep in the parking lot of the last Foodland I can remember for $750 cash. A 1979 red CJ Renegade, 5\u201d lift on 33\u201d of tire, a tan soft top patched up in a dozen places with silver duct tape and clear packing tape on the soft top windows. The only manual transmission I\u2019ve ever owned. Suddenly I was in business. Didn\u2019t take long to figure out how to drive a stick. When the offroad club hooked a trailer full of bottled water and supplies to the hitch on the rear, shit got real. Learning how to drive with a trailer on your ass over 1100 miles isn\u2019t the crash course in fun it sounds like… unless pants-shittingly-humbling is in your vocabulary. It\u2019s in mine now. And then we got there. Disaster movies can\u2019t prepare you for the real thing. Unlike Hollywood\u2019s presentation that shows a broken and barren landscape, the real thing has people walking around, stunned, moving like zombies… only with tears in their eyes. Good God, the faces… Got to see the Cajun Navy in action. Airboats saving lives… because what else are you going to do with a southern heart and an airboat in your yard? I even got to winch some folks from trouble myself. Fumbled it the first two times. Even with the right rhythm and skills, it wasn’t nearly as cool as a guy with an airboat painted up in LSU colors blasting Free Bird. Or the one with the ‘Who Dat’ flag in Saints colors ripping along the water where streets once were. But for a first-timer, I had my moment. Handing humid-hot bottles of water to someone so grateful they bless you, while you’re both standing in their front yard where their house used to be, is a surreal experience. And yes, I mean \u201cused to be\u201d as in GONE. Disasters are tough on everyone. We moved into hurricane country a couple of years back, willingly, because anytime otherwise, this is paradise. And Jenn and I have a little bit of savings. We pay through the nose for insurance and have supplies to last us for months. We\u2019re a one-car household with 20 cases of water and 25 gallons of gas on hand for every hurricane season. We have the privilege to live like that. But imagine you\u2019re like most of the people I met in New Orleans 21 years ago. Or I guess everywhere in a hurricane basin. Most are renters ten miles from the beach. Who do you think is cooking your food or stocking the grocery shelves near your vacation spot? Most of those people are living paycheck to paycheck\u2014rarely with sufficient insurance because that\u2019d break the bank. What do you do when your landlord is waiting on an insurance check that\u2019ll probably take two years to come while they tell you \u201ctough shit\u201d even though you still don\u2019t have windows and you\u2019re living in seawater mold? That shit smells like a dead and bloated mermaid. Imagine it and ask me how I know. So many people died due to Katrina. My Jeep died there too. Had to hitch a ride back. I\u2019ll never fully come home from that week in New Orleans. I\u2019ll never forget the single mom with her two boys and their cat, sitting on a swing set (the only thing on their entire property that Katrina didn\u2019t take from them). They had a little kitten. As a cat guy now, I\u2019m embarrassed to admit that I don\u2019t remember the kitten\u2019s name. What I won\u2019t forget is how weak I felt handing this mom and her sons a handful of Lunchables and shrugging my shoulders when the mom asked me if I thought the cat would like the pizza one. Spoiler: he did. I can\u2019t express the relief I felt seeing their little tabby lap crappy pizza sauce and flick slivers of imitation mozzarella cheese into his mouth. When the cat ate, that mom and her kids had their spirits lifted. I think I became a cat person in that moment even though it took a decade or so for me to have my own. I also fell in love with New Orleans then. The city is rich with amazing history, which is right up my alley. But people are always better than the history that surrounds them. At least that\u2019s how I\u2019ll always tell it. And I feel it every time I visit that city. Godspeed to anyone caught in Isaias\u2019 path. Be kind. Donate. There are 5,000 or more linesmen at the starting blocks ready to sprint off and get the power back on. The Army and National Guard are ready. As are multiple 4×4 clubs. I\u2019m sure the Cajun Navy are gassing up their boats as I type this. It will suck. But know that help is on the way. Maybe that\u2019s you in some way. Yes, people chose to live in these places. But we can all also choose compassion when granted the opportunity. Choose compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajhalyard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}