[StBernard] Hurricane season is about to kick back up again for the Gulf Coast....

[Westley Annis]

Hurricane season is about to kick back up again for the Gulf Coast....
Posted by Troy Schwant
Sunday, August 16, 2009 10:05 PM EST


As someone who grew up on the coast, I used to enjoy hurricane season. Most
of my friends enjoyed hurricane season, what wasn't to like? School would
shut down, families and friends would get together for hurricane parties,
and all in all, even if there was a cleanup required after wards, the
payoffs were more than worth it. 

All of that changed when Katrina made landfall. Since most of Injury Board
biographic details discuss what law school I went to, and where I am
currently employed, what it doesn't tell you is that most of my family was
from a small Louisiana town, called Chalmette. Anyone from Louisiana knows
about Chalmette, they have sentences like "How's your mom and them". Though
I wasn't born in Chalmette, most of family was. I was raised in an even
smaller town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Diamondhead, Mississippi. I
moved to Diamondhead in 1985, and when I started school at the illustrious
Diamondhead Academy, we had 11 children that made up the 4th, 5th, and 6th
grade, all in one class room. 

I would visit Chalmette at least twice a month and I loved everything about
it, from the wonderful seafood, to the great Snowballs that I couldn't wait
to have. After Katrina made landfall, all of it was gone. I know some people
have seen pictures, and even some have visited New Orleans and can see the
changes that have taken place in New Orleans, but it is towns like Chalmette
that have truly never recovered. 

No longer do I look forward to hurricane season, no longer do I turn on the
weather channel and think it would be fun if a hurricane would hit near us.
Maybe it was the ignorance of youth, maybe it was just plain ignorance, but
Katrina has changed my attitude on hurricanes forever. Now I look at the
weather channel, and think "What happens if that hurricane hits even close
to us?" and where are we going to go if it wipes out our town the way it
wiped out Chalmette. These are questions that I now ask myself, that I never
asked myself before.

Hopefully I am not alone in taking hurricanes more seriously, and I hope
residents that still live on the Mississippi/Alabama Gulf Coast, as well
residents in Louisiana and Florida have already taken precautions for this
hurricane season. Please make sure you have your important documents, i.e.
birth certificates, SSN cards, Insurance documentation, and Home and Car
ownership papers, in a safe place that you will take with you in case of
evacuation.


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http://mobile.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/hurricane-season-is-about-to-kic
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