“There but for the grace of God go I.”
We escaped the ravages of Ian by fleeing to Georgia on Tuesday morning. We planned to hunker down and stay home until three things happened. First, it occurred to me that staying proved nothing, and eating canned meat while melting from the heat when the power went out sounded wholly unattractive. Second, because of the creek behind our house, we are level B evacuation in case of flooding. Level B evacuation became mandatory on Tuesday morning. The final reason is our dear friends Sue and Paul urged us to leave. I usually heed Sue’s advice.
My other thought was about all the times I yelled at people on the TV who didn’t evacuate when they should have. We didn’t want to be the people who put first responders in further danger.
The drive had a few delays but it wasn’t too bad. On the way north we saw an army of utility trucks heading south. They continued coming and even today there were more on the road headed to help. Last night after dinner a fleet of trucks pulled into the hotel parking lot.
“Are you going to get our power back on,” I asked one of the men.
“I’m gonna try my best,” he responded.
I thanked him and hoped to get a picture of the row trucks this morning. By 7:00 they were gone. Thank you to all the utility workers coming to our aid.
St. Mary, Georgia was our place of refuge on the first night. When we told the person at the Riverview Hotel–a lovely old hotel, oozing with charm and character– we were fleeing Ian her eyes grew wide.
“And you came here?” she responded.
I laughed and told her just for the night then we’d head west. Saint Mary lay in waiting for Ian to attack so we needed to move inland for days two and three.
I started looking for a place as soon as I woke up Wednesday morning and found a room in Lake Park, Georgia. A lot of hotels were full. Everyone has been very kind. A neighbor checked on the outside of our house and sent pictures. Everything looks fine except for a few plants in need of attention. Our power has been out since 11:30 Tuesday morning which is nothing compared to what our neighbors to the south have endured.
My heart goes out to all those south of us who sustained such devastation. It looked horrible and as my mother used to say, “there but for the grace of God go I.”