Hurricane season

Hurricane Earl is bound to make landfall sometime early Saturday morning.  It is currently riding up the eastern side of the United States. Being originally from the great state of Louisiana, several stories pop up in my mind of what my family has gone through. I personally did not feel the wrath of Katrina but had several family members that did and are still trying to recover. But, I did witness Hurricane Andrew in the fall of 1992.  My father who worked with Exxon (now known as ExxonMobil) gave us a heads up on the storm before any of the forecasters could.  Since, he flew out to oil rigs often, he had to know the weather details. The ironic thing about the situation was the fact that we knew way in advance but didn't try to evacuate until I believe a day prior till it made landfall in Louisiana.  I can remember us being stuck in traffic for hours on the hurricane evacuation route which basically was along I-10. I can also remember that we wasted a lot of gas that day. First, we were heading north towards Baton Rouge but since the traffic was so thick we decided to head east towards Biloxi. My dad was trying to out play the hurricane. If I could recall I believe Andrew stayed stationary for a bit in the gulf which made my dad change his mind. My dad did not know what path the storm was going to take and meterologist gave an extensive path for Andrew that ranged from the Florida panhandle all the way to Texas. So, my dad just decided to drive the family back New Orleans and rent a hotel for the duration of the storm. We decided to get a room near the top floor since we knew about the levy problems since 80's but Louisiana never did anything about it until it was too late with Katrina. Anyhow, that night was a crazy one even though the storm did not hit New Orleans directly we still felt a little of Andrews impact.  Hurricane Andrew ended making landfall close to Morgan City, Louisiana and I can remember looking out over the Superdome and seeing lightning and the electricity shut off.

After the storm passed and left the state of Louisiana and towards Mississippi, we decided to go home to scope out the damage.  Hurricane Andrew managed to knock down 2 very old magnolia trees and a couple of other minor mishaps, but the one thing my dad did not want destroyed was.  His fishing boat, in which he and his buddies had just finished 3 months prior, was now gone.  His boat cost approxiamately $16,000 to build but thank goodness for insurance.  After Hurricane Andrew, my dad decided to take a job opening with Exxon in Santa Barbara, California. He did this for 2 reasons and they were: 1) to not worry about the danger of hurricanes and 2) so his children can have an opportunity to enjoy the state of California for the first time. Everything was going swell until 1994 when an earthquake shook up southern California. My mom went crazy and told my dad she would much rather live through a hurricane because you have time to prepare than go through another earthquake. So, we moved back to Louisiana a year later.