Thursday, September 16, 2004

Everyone has an Ivan story...Here's Mine

The whole Gulf Coast is a flurry of activity because, Ivan the hurricane is coming ashore. Tuesday evening I got one of those phone calls from my Boss saying "We have a window of opportunity". Our company had just bought a helicopter in the Gulf Coast area and it needed to be recovered, and Oh! by the way a hurricane in going to hit, so make it snappy. I went home Tuesday evening, packed a bag, and tried to explain as best I could to my wife why I was going to the place that everyone was leaving because they feared for their life. It was a tough sell considering I wasn't completely sold on the project myself. As we flew over south Louisiana I could see cars on the interstates, bumper to bumper for at least sixty miles. Fortunately, Ivan took a turn in the middle of the night and we had no problem at all. I felt very sorry for the people in that area. They were evacuating there homes and leaving with what stuff they could get in there cars. Some of them had no place to go and were camping out in their cars in gas station parking lots. I must say, I felt very fortunate to be able to climb in my airplane and leave.

No comments: