So overall, I’m in pretty good spirits. Of the many, many things that have happened in the last seven days, I’ve managed to put most of them out of my mind. Call it willful ignorance. Still, there’s one that continues to give me pause, cause me anxiety, nearly make me cry. It’s this:
Jonno and I had at least five distinct ways we could have dealt with the hurricane, the first four of which were very, very wrong.
Option #1: Stay at the house. To be fair, this wasn’t on the table for too long, since we’ve gotten in the habit of moving to hotels during hurricanes. Still, it’s an option we considered.
Option #2: Stay with our friend, Martin. Now to be fair, Martin does live in the Warehouse District (well, did live there), and his place is on the second floor. I know his neighborhood didn’t flood, and I’m sure it was among the last to lose power. We’d have been uncomfortable, but I guess we would’ve had wheels handy, so we could’ve eventually gotten out.
Option #3: Move to a hotel. This, in fact, was our real gameplan. We had reservations and everything. Then I got a call Saturday night saying that the hotel was going to cancel our reservation if Mayor Nagin called for a mandatory evacuation. Ultimately, though, I think Hizonner’s evacuation order provided an exception for hotels and hospitals, so, theoretically, we could’ve gone this route–and been thoroughly stranded, since the area around the hotel flooded and would’ve rendered our car useless.
Option #4: Evacuate to Mississippi. My family is from Mississippi, and there were any number of places we could’ve stayed. All of them, however, were situated along the path that Katrina ultimately took. This morning, my dad, mom, and brothers are still without power. Yes, we would’ve been fine–better than if we’d have stayed in New Orleans–but very uncomfortable, and in a place where Jonno knew no one. Fine for me, not so good for him.
Option #5: Evacaute to Lafayette. Saturday night at 10:00pm, something happened. I was on the sofa watching TV, Jonno was working at his desk, and something just happened. Thunderbolt of clarity, blue streak of recognition–whatever you want to call it. I walked back to the study, Jonno and I looked at each other, and we both understood: We had to leave, and we had to leave IMMEDIATELY. And we had to go to Lafayette. That was it.
A week later, it’s just beginning to sink in how completely lucky we are: lucky to have friends here; lucky that these friends have a place for us to stay; lucky that they love dogs; lucky to know other people in Lafayette; lucky to have an array of diversions to occupy our time; lucky to have been invited to stay as long as necessary to get our lives back in order.
I guess what I’m saying is that, statistically speaking, as far as evacuation options were concerned, there was only a 20% chance that we’d make the right choice. Jonno and I are very, very fortunate–probably moreso than most of the people we know.
Then, to make things really unbearable, add to it the zillion-to-one odds under which Jonno and I began our relationship: we met briefly in 1993, didn’t hit it off; we met again four years later when I just happened to be in New York, happened to be at a party, happened to see this handsome man I’d been smitten with years earlier, and happened to be re-introduced by a mutual friend. The odds of this life–or any, I guess–are pretty staggering.
sturtle [dot] com 