Harvey reminds me of Andrew

Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard move through flooded Houston streets as floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey continue to rise. (U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Zachary West, creative commons)

Watching all that's going on in Houston brings back memories of hurricanes that we had to deal with. I remember Wilma and Katrina in 2005, for some reason, I don't remember feeling as upset about New Orleans, one of my favorite places, as I am with watching Houston on tv, but that may be because our electricity was off for a bit and we weren't able to watch tv. I remember one of the storms had us blacked out for a week or so. Eventually some of the electricity came on, not all of it, and I  had extension cords from the rooms that had electricity going to the rooms that didn't. One cord went from one bathroom to the refrigerator, another from another bathroom to my office and so on.

Halloween in the Grove was canceled that year. 

Hurricane Andrew is the one most associated with Hurricane Harvey. It's nice seeing everyone helping each other in Houston, which is a lot like it was after Andrew. There was a lot of neighbors helping neighbors, that sort of takes the sting out, you feel that you're not alone, everybody is in the same situation.

A friend had an idea that we should direct traffic after Andrew since the traffic lights were not working, so we went to the DOT, somewhere off the Palmetto, and we got a vest, whistle and something else, I think baseball caps, and were set out on the streets - anywhere we wanted to go. No training, no direction, just have at it.

My friend liked the busy intersections, so we directed traffic at 27th and US1, Bird and the Palmetto, and where 874 comes out to US1. People were nice, people would give us water and Cokes and thank us. It was quite stressful though and after a few days, I came down with shingles and quit directing traffic, but my friend went on and on for a week or so. The doctor told me the stress from the hurricane and the traffic brought out the shingles!

Next, I volunteered with another friend at Cedars Hospital downtown. We mostly ran the front desk of the two top floors, sort of like it was a hotel. Volunteers who came to town were put up there in the rooms - nurses, emergency workers, power companies from out of town, etc. And our job was to accommodate them with anything they needed. I remember there was also donated canned food and non-perishable food there, I think we gave that to people who came in and asked for it from the neighborhood, I can't remember now.

Anyway, so seeing all this going on in Houston is bringing back so many memories, good and bad. The bad of course was the hurricane and the damage, the good was the coming together of the community and the way everyone treated each other like neighbors should.