Maggie's Farm

Storm Update from a Maggie's regular:
Our electric went out at 8am Sunday - the rest of town lost it around 1am. We were lucky, it kept our sump pump going all night, so by the time we lost electric, we could bail. Plus, the rain had stopped, so bailing only lasted 5-6 hours, and eventually the water table stopped rising.

We did have a leak in the roof, but we need a new roof. Now we REALLY need one! Still, not a horrible problem, the damage from that was minimal.
The electric is still out now - 34 hours on. Most of town has it back, but our substation is in a nearby town that is underwater.

When you talk about inconvenience, I have to say my problems are minimal. 1st world problems, and not horrible ones. The town where the substation is? I visited it today. A river down the main street, local ponds and streams merged into one big lake/running river. Collapsed homes. Flooded homes. Lots of canoes floating around, without anyone in them. Lots of cars underwater. No electricity at all in the homes that are untouched.

Unlikely to have any electricity for a few days....but a neighbor who got their electric back on gave us their generator. Loud, but at least our fridge and computers are working. I can't go to work since the trains are out.

Even by local standards, I'm well off. Neighbors have trees down in the yards. One into their house. Trees are down, blocking roads, not to be cut until the crews get to the trees on the downed power lines, of which there are too many to count even today (Monday).

I'm not going to complain. I know I got off easy. The next town over still has 3 feet of water running down its main street. My problems compared to theirs, are meaningless. Compared to New Orleans 5 years ago, they are insignificant.

But all said, I do have one question to ask: Where's FEMA? LOL. I say this tongue in cheek, of course. But the reality is - where are they? New Orleans was a post-disaster disaster. We can agree on this. Sure, it COULD have been avoided if Mayor Nagin had done something. Here, the nearby town had mandatory evacuations in the flood areas. The people left. They had no choice....they'd seen previous floods and knew they couldn't stay.

New Orleans was horrible in many ways. But in terms of disasters, the post hurricane disaster was avoidable. I am seeing this today - in the nearby town. Many people COULD have been killed, or in bad shape, today. But they weren't. I don't see film crews crying out "where is FEMA?" when they could.

I guess this is the issue with first world problems....it's all relative to your income level. While many of those who lost their homes were "wealthy" (not really - but in terms of those left in New Orleans, they are), they had the good sense to leave before the storm hit. And the good sense to prepare adequately. New Orleans had far more warning - Discovery AND the Weather Channel had run multiple documentaries on what could happen if a storm smaller than Katrina hit. Then they had at least 5 days to prepare on top of those previous warnings!

The next town over? No documentaries, but they have lived this kind of thing over and over again. And they, too, have an Army Corps disaster, because their dikes, levees, and dams were all designed by the ACofE. Yet in my 18 years in this area, the town has flooded 5 times, this being the worst, by far.

You can't stop some things. Like hurricanes. But you can stop some things - like blaming people and politicians for things that aren't their fault.