You were wise to take care of your parents like that. Sometimes the elderly are too confused to make such decisions, and they need a push and a helping hand.
I just got off the phone with my sister who lives right on the border of LA/MS.....I told her to come on up to SC NOW! She is waiting until she hears more....what am I to do with this idiot????
I put the elders on a plane for Ivan. They already had been evac from their home due to Frances. Fortunately, they were on an Alaskan cruise during Jeanne.
You're right.
They had never left during a storm before and they had lived here all their lives.
But they had never been facing a cat 4 or 5 or been in their late 70's before when a storm came through.
My Mom even said in her younger days she got a rush out of hurricanes. She would take us to the beach after the hurricanes had passed, when we were younger, and we did have fun finding all sorts of stuff and watching the waves.
We actually didn't give them a choice, you're right, when you get older sometimes it's hard to make those kinds of decisions. We (my other sister and I who live here) called my sis in Atlanta, told her we were putting them on a plane, called them and told them to pack a bag, and drove them to the airport on Thursday night (the hurricane was supposed to hit on Saturday, but Jeb Bush and EOC had called for evacs starting at noon on Thursday.)
And I must say, it was not only for them. My sister who lives here and I knew that if a bad hurricane hit, we'd have enough problems dealing with issues of our own families and would not need the extra responsibility of getting things for my parents. So it wasn't altogether an altruistic decision.