10 years ago, still seems like yesterday - PART 2

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.

10 years ago, still seems like yesterday - PART 1

This is long but interesting...at least I think it is.

So many things have changed in 10 years.  So many things haven't.  But the things that have changed are mostly for the good, I think.  We learned so much that day.  We learned that mother nature is a force to be reckoned with. That she is 100% capable of wiping us out without a second thought.  I am sure there will be a zillion posts about this anniversary and although I hate being a "follower" I will jump on the bandwagon, just this once. I never want to relive that day but I think it is important to remember everything that happened that lead us to this point.  I am not good with exact time frames but I can give you a round about time of the happenings in my world. 

I was 24, living with my long term boyfriend, in a house we bought earlier that year in a suburb of a suburb of a suburb of New Orleans (a bit rural but still a city, we have a Walmart, HELLO!).  I had just been laid off from my job and was in the midst of finding somewhere else to work while finishing my Master's Degree.  To say my life was upside down is a bit of an understatement.  The week of Katrina I had 3 interviews. One was VERY promising, he basically told me I had the job when I was leaving.  The entire week and a bit prior I'd been paying little attention to the news and happenings in the world but I made sure to know about the weather.  When you are from this area, you watch the weather during hurricane season.  I kept hearing about this storm and its potential development, etc etc etc.  The City of New Orleans had cried wolf (evacuate) before (Georges & Ivan come to mind) and the storm went somewhere else, so while I took the caution seriously, I wasn't very concerned.  When they said LEAVE the last two times, we left, but my gut said it was silly to do so and I was more annoyed than anything (especially sitting in traffic for ELEVEN hours just to get to Lafayette).  This storm was different and I told my boyfriend that.  I had a VERY bad feeling...I was actually scared.  I know people say in hindsight you say this but I swear, before anything happened...I just had the worst feeling in my gut.  As the days ticked down, I did what I always do, I prepared for a storm.  I bought water, canned food, batteries, candles, lanterns, dog/cat supplies, money, Rxs, etc.  We took the boards out of storage and put them in the front of the shed in case we needed to board the windows.  We went through the motions as we've all done many, many times before. 

I woke up a couple days before (I think) and thought I was hallucinating.  This had to be a bad dream.  This B**ch was basically a Cat 4, expected to get to a Cat 5 and pointed straight for Louisiana/Mississippi.  It took up almost the entire gulf.  I sat there gaping at the TV.  My boyfriend's work called him in to do emergency prep while I started prepping the house.  Thankfully at that time he mainly worked from home so it wasn't too bad.  I honestly don't remember when it happened exactly (could have been the same day, could have been the next...its all a blur) but I remember every television in my house going off and announcing an Emergency Statement.  Our parish was under a Mandatory Evacuation (1st time in History for this parish).   They were expecting a storm surge taller than my house, winds gusting well over 150 mph and driving rains...she was called a "doomsday storm" more than once.  The weather forecasters were so somber...they KNEW this was going to be extremely bad.   Before long there were police patrols in the streets repeating over and over, "Get out...we will not be able to help you if you stay."  We packed what we could, put the important stuff in the attic and prepared to go...north. 

I called my mom to make sure she was leaving.  She actually fought with me about having no where to go and said my grandparents were staying as well.  To say I lost my $hit is an understatement.  But none of them would budge.  All I kept hearing was "we stayed for Betsy and Camille, this will be fine." Finally my younger cousin called me FREAKING out.  She lived more north where she was in school, granted not REALLY north...not even Central LA but still North of us.  She told us to go to her place.  It was small but we were welcome.  Together we convinced (barely convinced) our family to heed the warning and get the F out!  I am not ashamed to say I used tears to get our Patriarch to listen.  By this point the wind had begun to blow a bit.  She was still well offshore but she was so big...it is the most disturbing feeling...you have the sun blazing and a nice breeze on a seemingly BEAUTIFUL summer day but there is nothing but the sound of people packing up their lives.  No birds, no animals, no bugs really...nature had left.  My two dogs were pacing paths in the grass and my cat was no where to be found, they were clearly nervous.  After boarding up the windows on our new home (can I tell you how creepy it is to be inside a boarded house!), we packed up what we could in our cars (including our pets) and headed to our state capitol.