The story of a hurricane is in the aftermath
The storm blows by, the sun comes up, and in the harsh light of day it hits you. It's not over.
All the adrenaline that kept you going through the night drains away, leaving you exhausted - but the work is just beginning.
You go outside and the first blast of heat literally takes your breath away.
It's stifling hot with heat coming from above and from down below - the ground beneath your feet is wet and steamy.
No electricity. In some cases no safe water to drink. Sewage overflows. Roads are washed away or still under water.
Homes destroyed. Businesses gone. Maybe not yours but someone you know, even several someones - now homeless, now jobless. Maybe dead. Maybe injured.
The fear of the night before leaves you smelling as bad as the swamp.
Even if you have water a cold shower doesn't quite give you that wonderful feeling of being clean.
After awhile you begin to think you'll never feel clean again.
You start wishing for a hot shower and clean clothes if only to feel a bit human. A bit normal.
As the day wears on you'll hear about the people trapped in attics and the radio silence coming from the islands. You'll hear about the hospital that lost power because a generator failed. You'll hear about the flooding and those trapped by the rising water. You'll hear about the levee failure.
Shelter, food, water, and relief from the heat become the immediate goals. As well as medical attention, if needed.
If you're not waiting to be rescued. Rescue first - and then the rest.
You'll start hearing about those who died.
You're left wondering what they will find when they finally make it to the the barrier islands. When they finally get to go house to house - if they're still standing - to look for survivors.
Hoping everyone made it to the roof or the attic held against the water.
Otherwise, the water will have to recede to know the full extent.
I know it sounds a bit surreal but alligators are a consideration when rescuing people in Louisiana.
They want to make it to high ground too.
You get to thinking about the injured possibly being turned away from hospitals already full with Covid-19 patients.
You allow yourself to think about the hospital filled with Covid-19 patients that lost a generator that helped to run life-saving equipment.
What happens when multiple ventilators all stop at once?
Just how hard is it to keep damaged lungs going with an Ambu bag?
How tired the nurses and doctors already are and now this.
The patients were hand-bagged until they could get them to another floor with power, but try and imagine that feeling. Everything used to keep people alive stops working all at once. Can't use the elevators to move the patients either. They had to move them on the stairs.
But the sun isn't up...yet.
Many stories are being played out right now and we won't know until the morning and in the days to follow how those stories end.
A hurricane makes for dramatic news.
But it's the aftermath that tells the real story.
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