Getting Ready For The Houseguest You Never Want

--September 3, 2010 

The sweetest words from my mother this week were “They said we dodged a bullet.”  She said that when we talked Friday afternoon, as eyes were trained on the Eastern seaboard and Hurricane Earl.  We had been through the preparations earlier in the week for the storm, leading up to the twelve hour window this afternoon until shortly after midnight.  On Monday she was sewing for one of her friends, but on Tuesday she got busy.  Pull out emergency kit with battery powered radio (and batteries) - check, purchase extra bottled water, canned and dry food - check, prescriptions ordered and picked up - check, emergency plan reading online - check, and lastly on Thursday, returning patio furniture to the basement – check. 

We had reviewed what to do if the hurricane or tropical storm winds hit the house at night (get in the closet and close the door), and the designated evacuation centers in our town.  I am sure that I got on my mother’s nerves with the calls and e-mails and quasi-lectures (that I tried to make sound like I wasn’t worried), and she responded with patience and calm for the most part.  If you have aging parents whom you don’t see every day or live near, you have an idea of the switching of roles that takes place as events and situations occur, and you are trying to manage for them without running over them.   Yes, she would listen to the updates on the news, and she would evacuate without hesitation if one was ordered.  No, she did not need assistance from the first responders to evacuate – let them go help someone else.  She kept any anxiety that she was feeling from me, only saying that whatever was meant to happen would happen (but she hoped the roof wouldn’t get damaged).  She checked on all of her friends and they compared readiness notes.  All but one was proactive in getting ready, but the stage manager (yours truly) made provision for evacuation if needed. 

Once her choir rehearsal was over on Thursday night, the waiting began.  As the winds lessened and the National Hurricane Service  announced a downgrade, my breathing got easier while my mom tried to rest.  Daylight came; my ‘trainer’ had to be walked after I checked the weather reports.  On our first call of the morning, she announced that she was watching the rain through the window over the kitchen sink as she washed dishes.  Life does have to go on while one waits!  My social media network checked in with updates on their loved ones (all well) who lived in the first affected areas, and continued prayers and good wishes for all in the projected path of the hurricane.  The news reports throughout the morning looked promising, and then in the afternoon my mom repeated that beautiful phrase that she had heard on the newscast about dodging a bullet.  Thank God, and exhale.  


She called again at 6 p.m. to say that she was going to bed.  A week of anticipation and probably quiet anxiety over the first hurricane in nineteen years had robbed a girl of some peaceful sleep, and she was determined not to lose any more!  We gave thanks and then said goodnight.  She slept, and I thought about how on this five year remembrance of Hurricane Katrina my mother could have become a part of a story like the one that she avidly followed in 2005, expressing outrage and shock at the lack of preparation and response in the Gulf.  This outcome is markedly different because of good preparation and planning on the parts of citizens and government and also the incredible and divine timing of the mass of cold air that helped to take the steam out of Earl’s engine.   While we have been caught in the grip of this weather emergency, we witnessed the rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and the 7.0 earthquake in New Zealand, and we pray for all. 

We are still in hurricane season until the end of October, and there will be more seasons and more preparations will have to be made (please not this season).  There are a number of things that can be done in advance to make it easier to get ready to leave, especially for elderly residents.  

Documents: scan and create PDF files on flash drive; photocopy papers, place in waterproof bags (you can buy boxes of ziplock bags in dollar stores)

Register with local senior services department for notification and evacuation (if available) or with local law enforcement/responders

Prepare list with Emergency contact information  

Prepare List of medication names and dosages

Help write an Emergency plan

Create an emergency kit, or help to purchase/order a kit

Photographs of valuables; print or burn to CD-ROM for safekeeping away from residence (part of the emergency plan)

Text messaging lessons; when landlines go down and wireless lines are overloaded, text messages can be the most effective and fastest way to communicate, and it keeps the phone lines free for emergency use. 

I am so thankful that we have had the reverse mother-daughter ‘discussions’ about emergency preparation. My mother might or might not secretly delight in my take-charge attitude in preparing her to function on her own if she has to with new technology (that’s another blog about bribing her to read text messages and then teaching her to send them).  She has gone from fearing the computer and despising the cellphone to using her Bluetooth every once in a while, surfing the internet and creating some of her own documents.  She has taken several computer classes and signs her e-mails and faxes “Your computer nerd mother”.   While it’s a new and sometimes trying adventure for her, it is a measure of peace of mind for me.  I love and salute her courage and willingness to embrace new challenges, as well as those of her generation around the world who are keeping up with their loved ones and making new friends.  Next up on our technology agenda is Skype so she’ll be ready to give first-hand reports and interviews to the press, and then we’ll work on growing her friend list on Facebook!

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