Work today saw a couple come in to purchase a computer. They were on vacation with their son and felt the need to buy a new laptop, since their other three machines are underwater about a mile from Lake Pontchartrain.
They were lucky. Scheduled to vacation in the Metro East in July, various events and family functions kept pushing their trip back week after week until they finally made their way to the Prairie State in late August. With them came a full complement of clothing, since they planned to stay for awhile. They watched on TV as their neighborhood was displayed time and time again, each picture showing more water surrounding the homes in the east part of the city that they called home.
They were lucky. Others that left the city only took clothes for a day or two. Others didn’t have relatives waiting with welcome homes. Others had jobs they might have lost, rather than two pensions that are being rerouted to their new temporary address.
They were lucky. But they don’t know if they’re going back.
We took good care of them.
My boss is from Houston, where his parents still live. For the last few months they’ve been trying to rent out a small housing property, and this week they called their broker to find a different type of tenant. Someone displaced gets to live there for free for awhile.