Page 180 - Louisiana Loop (manuscript Edition)

The normal response to immediate disasters and near death experience or when a house is destroyed by a tornado or flood is to state
factually. I’m alive and that’s more important than “things” because “things” can be replaced.
THIS IS TRUE AND SHOULD NEVER BE PLAYED DOWN
The most important part of any rescue is the saving of a life and that life is more precious than gold, silver or possessions of a
lifetime. That being said and done there is the other side of the coin that happens days, weeks, hours, months or even years later.
That is :

The High Price of Disasters
Now there is also unmentioned in rescue and recovery the price individuals, business, people, emergency services, society as a whole
and families and friends play in any disaster and subsequent life scenario’s and in other books I do mention that but here were are
talking a more direct cause and effect and that is to the person, in this case, me.
The closest any of us really prepare for disasters unless in an industry that requires it, is in purchasing insurance like flood, fire, life
or car insurance. Those certainly are prepatory ways to deal with life’s experiences that can become adverse.
But for the average Kayaker like me; a Disaster like the one I experienced is a disaster that just keeps on getting relived over and
over again till ‘in recovery’ I can overcome the obstacles: Emotionally, Physically, Financially and Practically.
An example of dealing practically with the price of disaster was in getting rescued from a certain watery grave to a warm bed in a
hospital, how do you get from Point A the hospital to Point B home. Certainly that is just an example and what Family, Friends,
Church’s, Social workers and savings are for if you have those resources and if not then Social Media and the good will of strnagers
are for.
And America is famous for helping hands., caring hands and big hearts.

In kayaking though getting wiped out like this hurts, and it costs.
Sitting naked with a blanket all around and over me alternately hugging a open stove and at times a heater, I could only hang my
head in fighting despair because the volume of gear lost would hit me at times as hard as chills and shakes between gratitude for
being alive.

Your minds deals with all these issues if you’re a solo paddler because you are trained and handle all that gear daily and use it
frequently and your daily life comes to depend on it. In one split second of crashing realities my mind coming out of the water
holding on to kayaks tube lines wasn’t self preservation , God, or fear. It was a practical flash of all is lost and the immediate
necessity of getting out of the water and to a floating seat I saw starting to float away.

THE REALITY OF LOSS WAS HUGE.
Of course necessity kicked in and forgotten and filed was the next instant reaction and compartmentalized went the kayak, gear, river
life, and cargo that was gone now.

Later a big reprieve was given my emotions as in the hospital I was told of Big Bay retrieving my kayak and while to this day I am
grateful and moved by that, a part of me is surreal about it because I don’t have it yet in hand to see and while I know I will get it, it
is still a human reaction.
The actual cost of lost gear is considerable to my wife and I and will take more than a year to recover and another year to recoup. I
Phone, camp gear, Solar Panels, Emergency Bus Ticket, kayak gear, certainly many “things” we all talk about as possessions that
are trivial in light of life and death are indeed trivial, but hit home when you go to get something or reach for it and it is gone……

I write this not as victim or some “woe is me” event but to address for others the reality they will face when or if a disaster hits them.
We figure it cost us a little over a 1000.00 dollars “donated” as it were to the “river gods” as we tease, but by the grace of God yes I
am alive.
BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT DISASTERS IN KAYAKING UNLESS YOUR SPONSORED, IT COSTS.