Public Service Announcement (PSA)

[venice]

we are now in hurricane season..be sure to pack an extra 3 days of your medicine just in case your cruise is impacted by storms and you are at sea an extra day or two, or you run into problems with your flights getting to/from your port city

[VTJen]

Very wise words.

[rollerdonna]

Take it from someone who's been caught without - do it!

donna

[mteague]

Venice and I need to get a plan together to let our Cruisemates know we are okay should a storm pass this way. So think, Venice, think! What should we do??? You know we won't have phone or internet service for a while.

Melody

[AR]

Melody--

Oh, I'm sure FEMA will have ample internet service in place within hours of the storm, with plenty of terminals for everyone to use.

Food, shelter, clothing. . .well, that may be a different story. But, as we know, overall they'll do a heck of a job.

[mteague]

AR,

You would think that would be the case, however it took me 8 days to reach my mother after Katrina. Nothing worked. The State of LA is very optimistic that our NEW and IMPROVED satellite towers will remain standing. In any case, I'm gonna practice smoke signals.

Melody

[Mike M]

Venice:

Good advice for all cruises.

Take care,
Mike

[Mean Dean]

Mel,

You could always use carrier pidgeons.........!

Dean

[venice]

Mel..after Katrina I had to promise my mother and son that I would get the heck out of town before she could finish spelling h-u-r-r-i-c-a-n-e

I will drive to Atlanta and stay with friends (you are welcome to come)

but you are right, let's discuss

I don't trust FEMA or anyone else..happens the first time, shame on you..happens the second time, shame on me

[venice]

Mel...I came up with a solution..I will have my son fly his F-15 from Eglin AFB to pick us up and fly us to California and we can stay with CrazySis

F-15 has a pretty small flight deck, so you can only bring one small carry on bag ::

he'll put on his after burners so we should be there in about 3 hours

[CruisinK n J]

Sounds like a plan, Vence!

Judy

[T C]

Venice,
As State employees Mel & I are not allowed to evacuate with the rest of the masses. Instead we are mandated to go on a "flexible schedule" and work at shelters. This means that they can change us from a Mon - Fri / 8-5 schedule to a Thursday to Monday (or anything else) 11 p.m to 6 a.m. (or anything else) schedule to avoid O.T.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about helping EVERYONE, during Katrina I was at the shelter working 36 hours straight w/out knowing where my oldest son was. I just wish that "the powers that be" were not so .... for lack of a better term ... "bullish" in their enforcement of the mandate.

So back to topic at hand..... we learned during Katrina that there will be no electricity for weeks ....maybe months...., there will be no home phone service....., there will be no cell phone service....., there will PROBABLY be TEXT message. My children know where I will be, we have agreed that as soon as a tropical depression appears anywhere near the Gulf, I will know where they will be if an evacuation occurs. For our Cruisemate friends, please know that Mel & I will both "probably" be in a shelter somewhere assiting evacuees.

(I love my job! )
TC

[venice]

lots of lessons were learned around Katrina..what is interesting is that the local paper did a survey and most folks don't have an evacuation plan...which I am stunned to learn but not surprise


I understand that certain state employees are required to staff shelters but Melody is right, we have to figure out a way to let our CruiseMate friends know we are alright