EMERGENCY MESSAGE: EVACUATE!


Imagine this:  You’re napping for a few minutes, okay, maybe for an hour (hey, I’m old). Suddenly, the sound of a text message awakens you. You calmly look at the text, expecting someone to ask if you’re going to the town hall this afternoon (you are, or instead, it was your plan).

The text reads, “EMERGENCY MESSAGE YOU ARE REQUESTED TO LEAVE YOUR HOME FOR A FIRE IN HORSESHOE BAY FROM POLICE.” (Grammar is unimportant when the message is scary)

You start thinking about your exit and wonder how much time you have to get out of Dodge, so you run upstairs to the upper deck. You see a LOT of smoke over the tops of the trees but no fire. You figure you might have a little time to gather your thoughts and decide what’s essential to take with you. Your most critical possessions are by your side. Your dog and your daughter’s dog matter in those few moments of deciding what to take and leave behind. You race back upstairs, throw on some makeup (hey, I’m a woman, and a woman has her priorities), gather a change of clothes, and a nightshirt, then sling a book and the laptop into the bag. You’ve got everything you need. It might not be everything you want, but it’s everything you need.

You decide the dogs must have their special cans of dog food because you have no idea how long you’ll be gone or if you’re coming back to a house still standing, so you throw in a couple of cans, then decide to add two more.

You take one last look at your house and head out the door with your dogs by your side. You realize you can’t just drive away, knowing the Spanish-speaking older man nearby and the chronically ill older woman around the corner need to be notified and taken with you, if necessary. You race door to door with the dogs in tow and warn people that we’re under an emergency evacuation order from the police. Two of your neighbors get in the car with you and start screaming at each other in Spanish. She keeps asking where we’re going. I reply, “Anywhere but here. We stand a chance of dying if we stay.”  One gets out of the car and storms back into the house. You decide it’s his choice and drive away.

The remaining passenger requests that you drop her off at the hotel nearby, as she has a friend working there. It takes a few miles, a few U-turns, and more than a few minutes to understand the few words she can haltingly speak in English. 

You drive around, hoping the smoke will lessen and you can return home. You decide to go back for a phone charger and get there right before they close the streets. It doesn’t take long to realize that heading for your daughter’s house an hour away is the best course of action.

As you drive to Austin, you say a silent prayer for those trying to extinguish the fire and for the police keeping everyone safe. You even pray for those who decide to stay behind, but you don’t pray for your house.

Many friends and family contact you by phone, text, and email to ensure you’re okay. It lifts your spirits and reminds you that you have everything you need.

Later that evening, you learn that the fire is 90% contained, and the police will start letting people back into their houses at 10:00 PM. You stay put, surrounded by your fur babies, while anxiously awaiting your daughter and the grandbabies to return home tomorrow from a weekend trip to Washington.

We have everything we need.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DR MCELROY AND TEXAS A&M

Image
  I’ve lived my life with integrity, compassion, and honesty.  I don’t back down from a controversial subject and will always speak out against injustice and prejudice.  I received many benefits from being White, although I was still short-shafted regarding equal pay as a woman.   Case in point: I was replaced by two men when I retired from overseeing a 36-bed rehabilitation hospital and 6 outpatient clinics serving children through adults. The man who replaced me had great difficulty managing the inpatient rehabilitation services. Hence, the Healthcare System overseeing the services promoted a male physical therapist to manage the outpatient facilities.  Each of the men was paid more than I.  It’s probably not a stretch to guess that had I been a person of color with the same credentials, I would not have been hired, and doubly so if I had been a woman of color with the same credentials.   A tenured UT journalism professor was recently recruited to Texas A&M to kick-start their jo
Read more

MY LIFE WITH TERI FLANAGAN

Image
  (Teri authored a story about me entitled "My Life with Dana Rushing" in the local newspaper after I moved from Horseshoe Bay to Austin. It was a total surprise and touched me beyond words. She is now in hospice at a facility in Marble Falls. Teri's husband has given me permission to publish this story. It will be in The Beacon this week.) I’m incredibly fortunate to have a friend I could call to assist me with the various projects I began or coordinated while living in Horseshoe Bay for five years. Other friends also answered my call to action, but Teri was always the first one I contacted because I was confident she would agree to help. Teri once said when she saw my name on her caller ID, she knew I wasn’t calling to chat and that she was being recruited for another project. Still, Teri answered my call. Teri is a talented artist and an avid reader. Her beautiful painting of a colorful donkey hangs in my home. A burnt orange wooden walking stick David made helps k
Read more

ROSA PARKS AND THE DREAM

Image
I dreamed of Rosa Parks last night.  She was sitting in a seat in the middle of a bus with Black men sitting on both sides of her.  I figured they were bodyguards and had joined her after news got out that this 'uppity Black woman' had dared to take her place amongst the Whites. The days of sitting in the back of the bus were over for her.  She worked long, hard days at low wages for a white family and had to take a bus every...damn...day.  Her great-grandparents had been slaves.  Enough was enough.   She felt she earned something more than a seat at the back of the bus.   She didn't know that this small act would set up a firestorm of millions of people being emboldened by her.  More and more people began speaking out, demonstrating, and even rioting to bring civil rights to the forefront.  The battle continued until, at last, civil rights passed.  Racism became somewhat more subtle over 50 years. But the Rosa Parks I saw in my dreams is still in that seat.
Read more