It certainly has been a wake up call for people who think government is the end all and be all.
It's a good lesson.
Everyone needs to be more of this and more self sufficent.
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GULFPORT - Prepared family riding out aftereffects
Their stockpiled food and water are lasting, so far
By THOMAS KOROSEC copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
GULFPORT, MISS. - Nobody needs to worry about H.L. Doolittle for a while.
"There are some of us old boys on this coast that got prepared," said the 74-year-old auto-upholstery-shop owner. With his 27-year-old grandson, Jimmy, he was as ready as anyone in his modest income bracket to survive the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, which he and his family narrowly escaped. They took care in getting prepared for its aftermath of shortages and primitive conditions.
On Friday, Doolittle was on the porch of his one-story frame house, where he was checking the oil of his generator.
The four members of the family, which includes H.L.'s wife, Katie Ruth, and their daughter, Tammy, live just five blocks from the Gulf of Mexico and just one block from an area of total destruction.
They had four vehicles gassed up as the storm came in.
"It would have been impossible to evacuate out of town," said Jimmy Doolittle. "My grandparents both have health problems, and, financially, they had nowhere to go."
The plan was to hold out in the house and make a frantic dash to the safety of a nearby hospital if needed.
Massive pines split like matchsticks, and the storm surge rushed around the house. The family jumped into the one vehicle that wasn't blocked or crushed by trees and, propelled by a storm tail wind, sped across the railroad tracks to the hospital.
The winds had barely subsided when they returned to check on neighbors. An addition was flooded, but the main rooms were inches above the storm-surge line.
Since Monday, the family has been living on provisions they began storing up last year.
"We've kept on top of it," H.L. Doolittle said. "We knew with storm after storm coming in the Gulf that a bad one was coming. We just didn't know how bad."
His grandson said his family has provisions of hot meals for 15 days.
Their larder includes canned goods, franks and beans and Spam. They have water for bathing and flushing that was stored in a barrel, and they have 60 gallons of gasoline stashed around their property, 200 cans of protein drink in case food gets even more scarce and hunting rifles, shotguns and pistols.
The Doolittles have yet to become mouths for authorities to feed. But they can only hold out so long.
"Unless business comes back in six moths or a year and we're working, we'll have problems, too," he said.
thomas.korosec@croon.com
Doolittle did a lot
THAT'S what I'm talking about!
Self-reliance, at least in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, should be expected of everyone.
Damn the nanny-stater for breeding the independence ot of a large segment of the population.
Wow CW, what a story of preparedness and survival.
A big pat on the back to the Dolittles! Imagine if everyone had the same common sense.