Hurricane Katrina - My Personal Experience

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Friday, August 26, 2005

_{Hurricane Katrina bobbled from a Category 1 down to a tropical storm and back up to Category 1 and increased steadily throughout the day. She was a Category 2 by 4:00pm CST. The track shifted from the Florida Panhandle to the Mississippi/Alabama Coast. Louisiana officials declare a state of emergency.}

We had no clue what we were facing when opened our eyes the morning of my husband's birthday. Hurricane Katrina was on track to hit the Florida pan handle and while we knew that we would get some wind and rain, we felt that we may escape the worst of what the storm would unleash.

The day was a normal one, and that evening we went to a local bar to watch a few of our friends play music. My eyes were glued to what was on the TV. It seemed Katrina decided to shift to the west, she wanted to come and pay New Orleans a visit. I was twenty-eight at the time and had never evacuated for a hurricane. Seeing that the storm's track changed, I still didn't feel compelled to evacuate. I decided that we were going to ride this one out.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

_{Hurricane Katrina intensifies over night to Category 3. Officials order a mandatory evacuation for lower lying parishes and areas outside of the levee protection system. Voluntary evacuation is ordered for all other parishes.}

My husband gets a call from work. They're asking anyone who wants to work to come in and work overtime for the duration of the storm. While he was packing, I was still under the impression that I was staying home, he works in the city and could get here at a moment's notice. I was wrong. The fire department decided that they would take the trucks out of the city for the duration of the storm. The police and EMS did the same.

You will always have people that will decide to ride the storm out. First responders can't help the people who stay back if the vehicles are under water. My husband told me, "We are taking the trucks out of the city, we will come back as soon as it's safe to. They're expecting this to be pretty bad. You need to leave." My heart dropped from his words, my eyes watered, and I started packing a few things for my son and I.

Seeing the perfect, vicious, huge Hurricane on the screen, your mind goes through a million possibilities of the things that could happen and you start preparing for the worst. I called my mother in law and told her that we had to evacuate and she decided that she would take us. Ruston, Louisiana was our destination.

We say our emotional goodbyes to my husband and the four of us (can't forget the puppy) get in the car and settle in for an eighteen hour drive in gridlocked traffic. My son was eight and he was a champ. It was dreadful, between the thoughts, the traffic, the heat and the worrying ... it was an experience that I will never forget.

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Sunday, August 29, 2005

_{Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 4 just after midnight and continues to strengthen to become a Category 5 Storm by 7am. Mandatory evacuations are ordered for all parishes. The Superdome was opened as a "refuge of last resort" for those that couldn't evacuate. 20,000 people entered the Superdome. The Louisiana National Guard delivered enough food and water for 15,000 people for three days.}

After making it to our destination, there was no sleeping. My eyes were glued to whatever news I could find on the storm. My mother in law was the only one of us that had a cell phone and back in those days it was just that - a phone ... news was hard to find. I would drive myself, and everyone else crazy flipping through channel after channel trying to find a glimpse of anything other than weather updates.

That's all the day consisted of. The storm was expected to make landfall over night and I couldn't peel myself away from the television. Coverage of the storm increased as the weather started to deteriorate. I was thankful for that. They were predicting devastating damage.

Monday, August 29, 2005

_{Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana as a strong Category 3 with sustained winds of more than 125mph(205km/h). By 9am there was six to eight feet of water in the Lower Ninth Ward due to a breach in the levee at the Industrial Canal. By 11am there was approximately ten feet of water in St. Bernard Parish and more in surrounding areas. At 2pm Officals confirmed three breaches in three levees at three different canals.}

New Orleans, the city that I love was under water. The news was showing reports of lootings, shootings and rape. The city that I love had become a flooded war zone and it was all unfolding before my eyes and I couldn't turn away.

I live in a small one square mile town right on the other side of the river from New Orleans, just a ten minute drive. Not only was I watching the horror unfold in New Orleans, I was anxious and nervous and worried because they showed nothing about my town. Was my house underwater? Was my husband okay?

We couldn't get through on the cell phone. I had no idea what was going on and knowing that my husband would be on his way home I couldn't help but think of the situation he was driving in to ... how widespread was the evil I was watching on the television?

People dying. People on their rooftops signalling for help. People stuck without food and water. People running amok, looting, killing and raping. I heard reports of people shooting at the helicopters that were there to rescue people. This went on for days. They declared Marshall Law.

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The Aftermath

_{85% of the city is under water. Hundreds of lives have been lost. President Bush declares the gulf coast a Public Health Emergency. The New Orleans Mayor orders almost the entire police force to abandon search and rescue missions to attend to the widespread looting. Conditions at the Superdome and the Convention Center continue to deteriorate.}

After a couple of days I was finally able to speak to my husband. They had to cut downed trees out of their way coming home. The entire landscape had changed.

Imagine sitting outside at night where there is no power, no lights ... pitch black. You see the red and blue lights flashing from the police cars patrolling up and down the streets. You hear, in the distance, helicopters and gunshots. It was like this for my husband for a couple of nights when he returned home.

Coming Home
This timeline gets fuzzier the older I get. A couple of weeks after Katrina made landfall, I was anxious to get home. Things had calmed down, they evacuated the people out of the city, and they were slowly allowing certain parts of the area to return to their homes. My husband and I orchestrated a plan to get our son and I home.

They were only allowing first responders who could help with the search and rescue and recovery efforts. My husband was going to meet us at a gas station to give us a flashing light to put in the vehicle and his badge to hang from the mirror so that he could lead us into the city.

After a few detours and going around trying to find a route that was open, we finally met up with my husband. I can't even describe the feeling I had seeing him and seeing that he was okay. He led us into the city. It looked different, he was right... the landscape changed. As we got closer to the town we lived in, at each intersection were sandbag bunkers, and I'm not sure why seeing that was scary but it was.

Our town stood strong though and so did my house. No flooding, minor wind damage to the roof and fence. We were so, so lucky when just a ten minute drive can take you to a place where the story is completely different.

I went every day to the Alario Center to get MREs and water. After a couple of weeks, I could drive about an hour to Houma and stand in line to get groceries. Things were slow getting back to normal. The devastation was massive.

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To date, approximately 1.5 million people were evacuated from the damaged areas in Louisiana, roughly 1 million have applied for hurricane-related federal aid, 30,000 are in out-of-state shelters, 46,400 are in state shelters and 972 people have perished in the storm.

The official death toll was upgraded to 1,836 with more than 2,500 still missing. State-by-State death tolls: Louisiana 1,577, Mississippi 238, Florida 14, Alabama 2, Georgia 2, Tennessee 1, Kentucky 1.

My story is only one of the thousands out there and I consider mine to be nothing compared to the ones I've heard and seen. Katrina taught us a lot of what not to do and with Hurricane Florence making her way to the East Coast, I felt it was time to share.

I wish all of y'all on the East Coast all the luck in the world. Please heed the warnings and instructions of your local and state officials ... please don't try to ride the storm out. Get your valuable papers and things and get out of harm's way. Please don't take that risk. We found cars in trees and houses moved off of their foundations. This is a bad storm that's going to do bad things.

@enginewitty I wish you and your parents all the best and hope that if there is damage it will be minimal. I hope that the worst thing that happens is maybe y'all get a little aggravated at each other for not agreeing on what's for dinner. Love ya Engine, please keep us posted and don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything.