FOUR hours later we made it to Baton Rouge. Normally that drive takes about 45 min - 1 hour from where I live. We took back highways and little know routes, steering clear of Airline Hwy and I-10. My mom and grandma took about 6 hours and my uncle and grandfather (who waited until the last freaking second to leave) took even longer. If I remember correctly, they waited too long to initiate "contra flow", the highway systems were overwhelmed. But they had to get people off the roads before the storm hit. Honestly it was tad insane. Cell phones were already messing up because everyone and their momma (literally) was on the phone trying to see where everyone was. 7 people, 6 dogs, 2 snakes, some feeder mice, 1 cat and 1 bird in a 1 bedroom house was a little crowded BUT it was safe...right?
It didn't seem like very much time had passed before the tell tale signs of a super storm started to make themselves known. The animals were a wreck! The dogs could not sit still. My cat chewed a hole in the underside of my cousin's box spring to hide in it. And to be truthful we were all on edge as well. The TV was on a 24/7 loop of local news recapping what we all already knew, Katrina could easily wipe NOLA and the Mississippi Gulf Coast off the map. Eventually the power went out and we were left to sit there listening to WWL News Radio by candle/lantern light as the wind howled outside. It was hot as Hades in the house...it was August people...so we chanced opening the front door (it had a latched screen door) and some windows. We attempted to sleep at some point...an unspoken agreement to leave the radio on to hear any updates they might have. I remember laying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, trying to comfort my trembling dogs. Between the screaming wind and driving rain, it sounded like someone was snapping twigs outside, mixed with something that sounded like a giant taking a step (all I needed was to hear Fe Fi Fo Fum). We knew what was happening...the winds were so strong tree limbs were breaking and the ancient oaks all around us were falling on their sides. No one said it, but we were all thinking it. We were 60+ miles inland from NOLA. . .if it's this bad here. . .there might be nothing left to go home to. As Katrina moved further inland we all sat around the radio quiet and listening. That is when they said something I will NEVER forget. The newscaster said in a broken voice "The levees have failed, the City of New Orleans is under water". The grandparents were very very quiet. They lived in the City not a suburb like the rest of us. The reports were still patchy but it was clear that it was unbelievably bad. And while no one had said it on the radio we all knew they were dancing around the subject of loss of life. . . how many people stayed. . .how many people didn't make it.
Up until now we hadn't heard much about any place else other than Louisiana. The first report we heard about Mississippi just about broke me. Yes my city was flooded but they basically said NOTHING was left of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Where houses and businesses once stood, now there were only the foundations and scattered debris giving you a glimpse of the lives that were lived there. The casinos were pretty much gone. "It looked like a bomb went off." They couldn't tell us how much was left anywhere. . .what we might go home to. . .or if there was a home still there. They were calling us all refugees. Life along the gulf coast was forever changed. . .again.
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