Outlook Archive Renegade

Well, 2005 was the year for fierce hurricanes. We were shocked to find ourselves situated directly in Katrina's path, knowing that southern life as we knew it, was over. We remember waking up on that fateful morning at about 4am on Monday, August 29, 2005, wondering what our existence was going to look like 24 hours later. Were we going to survive? Was our house going to make it? What about our friends? Would all of us and our possessions be broken to pieces? We honestly did not know what to expect. Like many others who lived through this horrible disaster, we still shake and become afraid when we see intense Katrina video on TV or at the movies.

We boarded up our house, put everything away, had our generator wired up so that we could use it when power was out, bathed in our pool, ate MREs, and more when Katrina hit our area. We were lucky because we had previously cut down most of the trees that would hit our house if heavy wind knocked them down! But, we still lost (probably) 40 trees. One of them was a huge oak that snapped like a thin toothpick. Fortunately, no trees hit our house and our roof stayed put.

We cheered the electric company workers when they were able to finally turn on our power about two months later. Actually, we cried when we knew we had power. You can't understand this feeling unless you've been without (after having) for a long time.

Since - in our view - many people were unprepared for this disaster and we see this each time a major hurricane (or other disaster) strikes, we wrote a book entitled A Family Guide for Disaster Preparation and Survival. Our book is approximately 70 pages in length and provides detailed information on how to plan for major disasters. The back of the book contains a number of checklists that are priceless when you need them. We also talk about our personal experiences with Ivan, Katrina, Rita, our flooded house, and an earthquake. If you enjoy reading sarcastic humor coupled with solid advice, then this book is for you!

Our planning, accompanied by some luck on where Katrina hit, saved us a lot of grief and heartache. We hope you will get your copy so you can be prepared rather than react should you ever have to face a hurricane, earthquake, power outage, or other event. It's $12.99 for a printed book and $6.84 for a PDF download.