My family stayed at our home in Metairie, LA, for hurricane Katrina. After the panicked phone calls, the terrifying shot of Katrina over the entire Gulf of Mexico, and all of our single-matresses lined up in the hall, fallen trees and rising water, we finally took a breath when we realized we were okay. We heard that a levee had broken - but we were unaffected.
The next day, when all of the power was out and cell phone lines were clogged and unusable, we heard a phone ringing. Once, twice, and it stopped. We searched and searched for the working phone amongst the silence due to the lack of traffic on the usual busy street out front. Hours later, we heard it again, but we were still perturbed. Finally, as we were scoping out our neighbors house, we found it - the landline.
We got in touch with our friends and neighbors shortly after, and they were quick to tell us to clean our fridges and their two fully-stocked fridges. After my parents finished the job, they came home fully loaded with meats and cheeses and everything that would have spoiled. My neighbors, being quite wealthy, didn't cut corners when it came to their steaks. So that evening, my dad fired up the barbecue pit, and we barbecued. We barbecued everything there was. Huge steaks, chicken, and sausage. It was the best meal I had enjoyed in a long time. I remember sitting on the back porch, with the yards still semi-flooded, eating huge portions of steak. Only because we had to, of course.