Real Kato Blog: More on Katrina

When the levee breaks, I'll have no place to stay...

Well, that didn't take long. Gasoline prices here are shooting upward. I heard one person in Raleigh watched as a gas station hiked its prices from $2.55 to $2.99, just as she was pulling into the station. In many places, prices are well over $3.00 a gallon.

If I had a Hummer, it would cost me about $10 a day to drive to work, at 8 MPG. That's $2500 a year. If I drove a hybrid at 40 MPG, it would cost me about $2 a day, or $500 a year. Maybe the days of the giant gas-sucking SUVs are numbered. People are going to start questioning whether they want to spend $125 on gasoline fill-ups just to haul groceries around town.

Since the Superdome in New Orleans has become leaky, flooded, hot, and stinky, they're gonna move 25,000 Katrina refugees into the Houston Astrodome, with a massive caravan of buses. I give it about three days before the "stinky" aspect moves along with them, but at least they should get relief from the leaky, flooded, and hot.

Those poor people. Most of them have probably lost everything... including, perhaps, their insurance policy papers that they'll need in the next few months. With somewhere around a million people that will be filing claims, I hate to think of where they'll be in line, if they don't even have any identification with them (much less proof of any items that they might have owned).

I started to think about what I would try to grab if I had only a few minutes before floodwaters rushed through my home. My first thought was my desktop computer, which has most of my personal correspondence and photos from the past few years. I have a couple of boxes of memorabilia and souvenirs that I'd want to keep as well. Most of my important papers are in a fireproof box, so I'd probably grab that. Of course, at this point I'd be up to about a hundred pounds of baggage... tough to lug around in a flood.

This is making me realize I need to back up my files more often... and maybe, organize my critical papers a little bit better.

Click here to donate to the American Red Cross for disaster relief.

Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: commentary

Comments

Comment #1 from MonoCerdo (Guest)
2005 Sep 2 - 12:16 pm : #

You mentioned the gas prices - I saw $3.51 for regular driving home yesterday.

Fortunately, I drive a diesel.

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