Eyes are on Tropical Storm Chris now but it doesn’t look like it’s going to amount to much. Thought I'd ask this here, too: A hurricane is bearing down on you and the call goes out to evacuate. You've decided to heed the call. What do you take with you? Bear this in mind: What you take with you may be all you have left after the hurricane passes. Hurricane Katrina made that painfully obvious. Many people thought they were packing for a short vacation like they had done so many times before. Do you own anything that can’t be replaced even with insurance money?
Update: This question doesn’t just apply to Gulf Coast residents. If any event causes you to evacuate or seek shelter, that applies. Even if you just go down to your basement or storm cellar (Does anyone actually have one of these?) when the tornado sirens sound, you are doing so because your residence may be damaged or destroyed. That may include the contents that you didn’t bring with you.
Pete Fountain, famous New Orleans jazz clarinetist and classmate of dad’s (I went to high school with his sons), lost a photograph of himself playing his clarinet with Louis Armstrong. It was destroyed along with his Gulf Coast home. No amount of money can replace that. Many, many people lost wedding and photo albums in the flood waters. Hopefully, they were done by a professional that’s still around and still has the negatives.
She feels worse about losing her mother's recipes. "She's got Alzheimer's now. I know a lot of her recipes, but I'd give anything to have her handwriting."
I bring lots of photo albums, including my wedding album. I have many framed pictures as well that I love (of the boys) that I want to bring with me too but the thought of taking them off the wall, only to replace them two days later is daunting. Not to mention I'd have to sneak them past Phil, Mr. Pack Lightly So We Don't Have to Bring the Turtle. He is less sentimental about things and believes pretty much everything can be replaced.
I just noticed that there was a RR3. Didn't imagine a 4th. I have the first two thanks to you and Patsy. I didn't even think of packing cookbooks. That is a good question - what to pack? I didn't even consider cookbooks. Clothes, jewelry, photo albums, insurance papers - we will be taking two vehicles this time. Michael will have the dogs and maybe one child in the truck, and I will have the cats and one child in my car. We have two cat carriers now. When we did leave home for several days, we communed with a family that lost everything but two days worth of clothes. They did not foresee Katrina taking their home down the road and smashing it to bits.
Sue's friend, Zard, has lamented her lost recipes. Sue has been compiling all of the ones she originally contributed to Zard's collection and then some.
I know that pictures would be important to me. Right now I keep negatives in our safe deposit box and discs in our (big) safe at home. I know when the girls were little and there was a storm, they would bring their bears (aka "Hugga") and their blankies to the basement. Those were/are irreplaceable. I hope and pray that you don't have a repeat or anything close to that of last year! Carol
What a good question. I know when we head for the basement, we go thinking it will be for just a little while and then come back up and everything will be fine. I guess I should move the pictures and slides (over 1000 from our first trip to India) to the basement. I would also grab two very large Quran's that belonged to Hyder's grandparents and are over 100 yrs old. Recipes are such a good idea. I can't cook without them! I think Omar would bring a hand draw map that his tutor set out by her garage and told him to take it if he wanted - otherwise the garbage man would take it. It turns out it is probably worth around $2000.00 - it's really more intersting to study than to think about it's worth.