The daily hardships were incredible. From spending 15.5 hours on line to get gas (5:05 a.m.-8:45 p.m.) after five unsuccessful days without breakfast, lunch, or dinner, because we knew there would be no bathrooms available, to minute by minute of stressful driving each day, there was no rest in sight. We were both losing weight. In a week’s time, we hadn’t had enough water for two days. We had to ration what we had. My wife was nearing 21 days without her blood pressure medicine when technically, she had read that she could only survive a day or two.
As the days went by and we grew accustomed to fetching water from a tanker-truck and getting food handouts, there were a few positive things that came forth from the hardships of the storm. The neighbor who lost his shed would connect an extension cord to his generator every night and allowed us to run the fridge for 6-8 hours. One day, we even ran the washer! That was a relief compared to washing everything by hand!
One day on one corner, there was a police officer with neighbors distributing hot meals to anyone who wanted. For another, a small local church by my mom’s house, began to offer hot breakfast to everyone! They then also added hot lunch. Positive things were being done by neighbors to help each other out. We could see God’s hand and feet in these acts of kindness. Psalms 40:1 reads, “I waited patiently for the LORD Yahweh and He inclined to me and heard my Cry.”