If any of you have the Animal Planet channel on your cable or satellite channels, I highly recommend that you (and even your older children) watch the show "The Little Zoo That Could". It's about our local zoo...The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo...and what they had to do, and how they did it, to evacuate almost 300 exotic animals from it before Hurricane Ivan hit in 2004.
Remember the story of Chucky the MISSING!?! 11-foot alligator that was all over the national and international news the days after the hurricane?? That's the zoo this is about...Chucky had been there forever and he went missing after the hurricane because the zoo was actually under water. He was the only animal that had to be left behind because they didn't have the manpower to move him into a cage and onto a truck. Plus, he's an alligator, after all...water's his thing...lol.
It took Rusty, the owner, 16 years to build it up to what it was. I've spent many a Saturday morning or afternoon at that zoo spanning the last 10 years...and he had brought it so, so far from where it'd begun. Every animal there was like a child to him, Patty (head zookeeper) and the employees. It was wiped out in about 12 hrs.
My mother's house WAS about 3 blocks SOUTH of the zoo, 4 blocks north of the Gulf of Mexico...it was completely under water and deemed uninhabitable after the storm...and filled with snakes, sea bass, eels, and 2 nurse sharks btw.
Anyway - it's just very interesting, even for a local who experienced that storm and it's devastation personally, to see this...and very educational for people who are unfamiliar with hurricanes in general. There's another show, too, about the rebuilding of the zoo and also about when Hurricane Katrina hit. Here's a link to the shows webpage on the Animalplanet.com site listing it's time slots. Enjoy!
http://animal.discovery.com/tvlistings/series.jsp?series=116250&gid=0&channel=APL
I'll be sure to watch these. I can't imagine what everyone lost down south. It's so mind boggling the devastation that this hurricane caused. And then to be followed by more hurricanes. I live up north (next door to Canada) and I can't imagine the what everyone went through. I went through the ice storm of 98 but it's nothing compared to this. I've watched everyone rebuilding their lives and it's amazing the determination and resilantsey(spelling) that they show. I applaud their courage and determination. You are all in my prayers and I am in awe of all of you. Much love. And the dedication to the animals as well to the humans is out of this world.
Edited to say I know I'm rambling so I'm gonna just stop. By the way I hope the alligator was found and is okay. Okay I'm done
kos - yeah...we have tons of pictures from both Ivan and Katrina...almost finished with a full book of Ivan...not just of my mother's home, but other family members (some of which had homes directly on the beach) and the whole Baldwin County area. Haven't even started on a book for the Katrina pics yet. We had 4 feet of water in my in-laws house downstairs...and we were staying upstairs. Had to go around in the yard in a canoe for a few days...we'd row out to where we had our truck parked and then go ride around just to be able to get out of the stuffy house since we had no power...lol. Our house was on higher ground, but in-laws were in Utah at the time, so we had to take care of both homes to get them prepared for the storm. Their house is on a river, but for some reason we felt safer there 
If you're interested, here's a little blog I did a few days after Katrina...scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning...I didn't realize how to do a blog then...lol...it's backwards! http://hurricanekatrinasouthalabama.blogspot.com/ Take what you see in the pictures of the house there and quadruple it and you have what happened to Gulf Shores, the zoo and the surrounding area. The zoo is only about 20 miles or so south of me. I think it's really amazing what those people did for all of those animals! Especially when their own homes and lives were at stake as well...truly commendable! 
jo_ann - just wanted to say thanks for your kind words. While we are more than fine, ourselves, there are still so many people in even our area (who lived down closer to the beach area) who are struggling. I'm pretty sure that from Texas clear over to Key West and everywhere in between, people are dreading the upcoming hurricane season! lol But hopefully we've had our 20-25 year dose and the next few years will be uneventful in the area of hurricanes...lol. I especially hope the zoo gets relocated before another big one comes through. They just couldn't take it, I don't think.
3 hurricanes in less than a full year would be enough to make most people get the heck outta dodge...and many have. But when you've lived your entire life in this, or other hurricane prone areas, it's just status quo, really. You know what you need to do to prepare the best you can...and you know when to hit the road and pray for the best on your return. We actually have a big routine and quite a few different check lists that we rely on during hurricane season. We also have some old metal army trunks that seal completely and we keep all kinds of non-perishable foods in them. Not to mention the endless amounts of bottled water, batteries, flashlights, MRE's, paper goods, first aid kits, etc, etc, etc that we have!! We've joked many times that we could outfit a small army for a month with all of our supplies... But put me in ice or snow and I'm clueless!!! Guess I'd better hope I'm at your house if that ever happens! lol 
I'm pretty sure that from Texas clear over to Key West and everywhere in between, people are dreading the upcoming hurricane season!
JennT, my fiance and i live an hour north of houston and when rita hit we thought we were in the clear, the news forcast predicted it was going to hit right below houston, not where we were! for about 3 days before the storm, there was no since in going anywhere because of the INSANE traffic.. anyway, we stayed home for the storm, and it was supposed to hit at about 2or3 in the morning..at about 1:30 we heard this insane noise outside..it was a token car smash noise from the movies.. we both looked at eachother and ran to the front door.. and our brand new 2006 RENTAL car (ours was in the shop from an accident) was sliced in half by an oak tree.. it was completely ruined! the rest of the night we were terrified, sitting in darkness (we live in a metal building that we framed a house inside of, and all i could picture was another tree falling and slicing our house!) i know this is NOTHING compared to other peoples misfortune, but we are most def. dreading the next hurricane season/s because i think the storms may only worsen.. 
katleg - any hurricane or serious storm, no matter what, can be nerve-wracking!! Glad you guys were ok and that the only thing hurt was that car...at least it wasn't actually yours, right?!? lol No insurance hassels afterwards, etc.
On the show about the zoo, they were showing how all the animals were 'spooked' and trying to escape...because they knew the storm was coming. The zoo director said that she knew if they were in the wild that they would've been fleeing the area. The dogs around here were even behaving really, really strangely...the cats too...it's wild to see that happen. It helps you learn, though, how to really pay attention to animals because they can sometimes give you a clue to what's coming.
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