John B. Vinturella, Ph.D. | | Follow the paths taken and challenges faced by a couple of late-career professionals displaced by Hurricane Katrina in their Blog NOBulletin.blogspot.com.
Their story begins while in transit to their fourth city in the eight days since evacuating New Orleans. New editions are published every Sunday and Thursday.
John B. Vinturella and Susan E. Howell are a two-Ph.D. couple with few practical skills. They expect that they lost their house and a car in the hurricane-spawned flood, and have no current address except possibly their auto license number.
New Orleans may not “re-open” for several months, and then finding a decent place to stay while rebuilding will be difficult. They remain remarkably chipper, however, and invite your questions and suggestions (to jbv@jbv.com) on topics for future columns. This of course presumes that they can find a coffee shop with free wireless Internet.
Here’s today’s sample issue:
Diary of the “Displaced”…
Washington, DC: “Displaced” is the word that most often comes to mind, followed immediately by “we are incredibly lucky.” There is also the occasional “it could have been worse.”
We begin today’s journal with an announcement from one of my online businesses:
“Hurricane Katrina Floods Offices of RYIE.com
We are (were?) headquartered in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina came through. We may have lost a house and a car, but we are incredibly LUCKY!
New Orleans is a wonderful place and will be back better than ever. We will try to do our part by donating half the net proceeds of all sales of "Release Your Inner Entrepreneur," through the end of 2005, to the Red Cross. Donations will be earmarked for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in New Orleans.
So here's your chance to expand your mind while donating to a great cause…”
Making a living
This odyssey began about a week after I acquired another graduate degree and began my semi-retirement. My primary activity in the new structure is finding a way to make a living on the Internet. It’s harder than I expected.
The process is complicated by not having good old “Study” with me. That’s my home computer’s designation on our network. Study knows me well, fills in every form that comes up, and gets to all my favorite web sites with a couple of clicks.
On the other hand, my laptop “Katrina,” is more than willing but is just getting to know me. Yes, I backed up my files before leaving home, but let’s say I didn’t do quite as thorough a job as I thought. Well, I was awakened at 5 a.m. and given one hour to get out of the place.
The “Sympathy” Phase
Since evacuating our home on August 27, we have rested our heads in Slidell (LA), Tuscaloosa, and now Washington (DC), where Susan is attending a professional meeting. As we circulate around Washington and among Susan’s colleagues at the convention, we are increasingly being treated “sympathetically.” It’s not a pitying version, but more constructive and supportive.
Yesterday at Macy’s we were picking up a few of the near-necessities of life, like makeup for Susan and long pants for me. When Susan’s saleslady, Raleigh, became aware of our plight, she was immediately involved and supportive. She rounded up a bag of makeup and fragrance samples to give us to tide us over.
My salesman, Abdul, was equally engaged and forthcoming. We e-mailed Macy’s to commend both for their service.
Susan’s colleagues seek her out to get the details, and several offered to help her find temporary employment if needed. Her current employer, University of New Orleans, is establishing contact with its far-flung faculty but still without any firm timeline for getting back to “the new normal.”
From here
We leave this morning to fly to Birmingham to pick up our car. We have decided to then drive to Huntsville, AL to stay with Susan’s cousins, the Clemens. We then have a few days to kill until my niece Loni’s wedding in Memphis, and then we have to figure out what our personal new normal will be.
Private Reply to John B. Vinturella, Ph.D. |
