Who's Afraid of Hurricane Katrina?

What's most important in your life?

In case you haven't heard, Hurricane Katrina is now a category 5 hurricane (a.k.a. 'catastrophic') and is headed straight for New Orleans, where I live. Sustained winds of 175 mph and a storm of massive proportion is headed straight for my house. Reporters are calling this as bad (if not worse) than Hurricane Camille, which was the worst storm ever to hit the U.S. To make matters worse, the storm has not yet hit the warm water close to shore, which tends to fuel a hurricane.

(Of course, if you've been paying attention, you know I'm in Phoenix right now. Obviously, we're not heading home tomorrow. A friend in Nashville invited us up to stay, so we're going to head there tomorrow. It's good to have good friends.)

But the whole thing has me thinking.

I mean, it is entirely possible that my house, my neighborhood, my entire city could be destroyed by this incredible force of nature. That thought is pretty sobering.

When we first heard teh news yesterday, we expected some flooding. The elevation of our home is pretty good (by New Orleans standards--the whole city is below sea level, whihc is why flooding is common). Although our home has never flooded, this is a storm like no one has never seen.

So with the threat of flooding, I started thinking about what is in my home. What would I be devastated to lose? Since my daughter is traveling with me, the only "irreplaceable" things in my home are my 3 cats and my photos (specifically, our wedding photos).

So we called a friend, asked him to put our wedding album on a high shelf, and put out some food and water on the countertops for the kitties. OK, right??

Howeve,r when we woke up this morning at 8am Arizona time (10AM New Orleans time), we realized that hte storm was now a category 5 and flooding was not the worst that could happen. Hmmm. Kind of put a different spin on things.

We started calling family and friends. Things no longer seemed important, and it was suddenly all about people.

At this point, a mandatory evacuation of the city has been instilled. Unfortuantely, my parents are undecided as to whether or not they will leave town. This concerns me.

My mind drifts to other things, too....like what it could feel like to return to a devastated city. Our home ruined, all our things destroyed, maybe some people killed. It's not a pretty scenario.

OF course we know all this, living in New Orleans. But it's still scary.

I am also experiencing an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

I'm grateful that I'm not stuck at home, trying to get out of the city. Trying to figure out what to save and what to...risk.

I'm thankful that my daughter always travels with me, so I'm not worried right now about who she's with or how long it might be until I see her again. I have plenty of insurance, so I know I can replace anything material that may be lost.

We cannot control the weather. But we can control how we react to what happens to us.

As of right now...am I worried? Yeah, a little. I'll feel better when I hear that my parents are haeding out of town and away from the storm. But I know it will turn out all right in the end - life has a way of working that way. Part of being a success includes learning to handle stress and how to adapt when the spit hits the fan.

So my question for you today is:

If you knew your home could be destroyed, and you could only take 1 thing with you (apart from family adn pets), what would you take?