A life of waiting

Growing up in North Carolina, i have always been around the threat of hurricanes in the summer months. Of course, living in the central part of the state, it is not as big of a deal as the coastal places, but it's a threat that I am somewhat familiar with. You know, the mad rush to the store to get milk, bread, water and ice, and making sure we have flashlights and batteries, all things I have done growing up. Living down here on the gulf, with a massive hurricane looming in the ocean has already given me a glimpse into the life of the people that live down here.

As of right now, Hurricane Dean is spinning over Jamaica, and not a threat to Louisiana or Mississippi. Predicting the weather is about as easy as predicting when I will get married, so because of this reason, Americorps is already talking of evacuation for us. Apparently if the storm misses the Yucatan Peninsula, it could take a northern route and then we will be in the line, instead of south Texas and Mexico. I was in New Orleans last night and today for a while, staying at the new Camp Hope (a few miles from the old one in St Bernard Parrish) and the Gulf Americorps Staff was prepping all of the team leaders on what they need to do if they are given the word to evacuate this next week, or any time in the next month that we are here. Two of our teams that are working for Habitat down at Camp Hope, had to work all day today putting the pallets of supplies in the warehouse up on top of 4 ft high cinder block pallets. They had a lot of fun doing that on their day off.

It has been kind of crazy though thinking in the mindset of the people that live down here, who have to worry about evacuating. We have been told that we evacuate early so we don't get stuck in the traffic and craziness, and so we can rest up where we go and be the first responders wherever the hurricane hits. We have been told we can only pack one suitcase (our lovely matching red issued bags) and we have to leave the rest of our stuff here. I think this is crazy, because we have an extra cargo van here, and its not like we have really unpacked any of our stuff. Personally, my stuff is mostly still in my bags on top of my bunk bed. When i was thinking about this last night I was realizing this is what people think about when they have to leave. What do i take, in my ONE bag? I dont really have that much stuff here to begin with, but it's definitly more than one bag (maybe 2 1/2?). All we can do right now though, is wait and see what happens, and pray for those who are currently in the path of the storm.

On a slightly lighter note, the reason i was in New Orleans yesterday, was because i got to meet Anderson Cooper!! I got a picture with him and everything, which i will put up sometime soon, hopefully. He was taping one of his 2nd Anniversary Post Katrina specials at the new Camp Hope, because he wanted to focus on the need for Volunteers still down in the gulf communities. All of us that were down there were standing behind him the whole time, and a few people got interviewed. 2 people, Jarred and Liz, from my campus were interviewed. You should look for it on August 29th and then in the days to follow since it will be reshown on CNN!! I am somewhere in the crowd, not too far behind Anderson. I have my lovely glasses on, so don't be fooled by my appearance! I have had to wear my glasses for the last week because my left eye somehow got scratched or something so it has been extremely irritated and red. Luckily i think it is finally getting better!

Anyways, that's about all the news from the Biloxi front. We'll be watching the news. . .online since we don't have TV's, to see what happens over the next few weeks with the hurricane season. There is always one somewhere around my birthday. I'm hoping this year will be different!