Remembering Katrina

[D.A.L.U.I.]

It's hard to get my arms around the fact that five years ago I and my family felt secure and at peace in New Orleans.  Sure a storm was out there, formed a few days before and was approaching the Gulf, but that had happened numerous times.  Our youngest had just settled into her new shared house as a first year law student up river in Baton Rouge.  It was hot, and we'd probably go to our camp in Waveland, MS as usual to escape  the heat and humidity of the City for the weekend.  It was just so ordinary for that time of year.  Then, things started changing, the storm intensified rapidly and people were talking about evacuating to the north.  Friday, in the afternoon a meeting was canceled at work because the storm had triggered the emergency plan, it was a plan--obviously not a plan for the event that occurred but contrary to popular belief there was a plan.  A plan that assumed the levees were properly built and maintained. 
Then the mayor finally concluded that although there was no clear authority for his action he would call for a mandatory evacuation.  That didn't mean they put a gun to your back and marched everyone out of town, it basically was an order that would require you to stay off the streets until the order was lifted.  So lots of people stayed, but some, the poor who had no other transportation sought transport out and got it.  But many weren't able to get that bus, a lot of those were told that they couldn't bring their pets on board and were told to abandon their pets or they couldn't get on. The took their pets and went home.  The City was deadly quiet and empty Sunday evening. 
We stayed, our house was built in 1867 on the high ground.  It had stood through all the hurricanes since it was built.  I called a handy man who did work for me and we closed and nailed the shutters on the house--smart people back in those days, getting ready for the storm only took about an hour.  We had food, ice, everything we'd need for the 3-5 days that it usually took to regain electricity.  Our daughters were really upset, it was a Cat 5 storm, but I knew the house was high and that it would be safe.  My wife & I stayed our older daughter went up to Baton Rouge and stayed with a friend who was a teacher there.  I was more worried about them because of the experience many years before with Hurricane Andrew that turned and blasted Baton Rouge, big time.  I didn't know if the places they were staying were as solidly built as our old barn. 
We watched TV, checked the weather and turned in.  Early the next morning, Monday, 5:30a, we still had power but the winds were whipping around rather smartly.  We got the weather channel and saw that the eye was moving due north and the eastern edge would pass over the Mississippi Louisiana border, but we were on the "milder" western side of the storm.  I was even more confident although I had to admit I thought the Waveland camp probably was going to be flooded. 
The electricity failed about 6a or so, and the winds were at hurricane levels coming from the north.  They would then turn from the west and die down by around 10a.  Frankly, we didn't see much damage.  A magnolia tree on the neighbor's property in back slowly went down in the west winds---I liked that, it was messy and dropped leaves in our fish pond. 
We went out, and it didn't look bad, I was confident that we'd have electricity by Wednesday or Thursday, just not much damage.  Then i went down the street the other way--OMG, it must have been a small twister and it creamed the steeple at the old, 1870 Methodist Church, totally in the street.
But, the sun was coming out and we started to hear bad things on the radio.  WWL had pretty much lost all contact with the outside and was dependent on cell calls--calls from the eastern part of the City from people in their attics crying for help.  Something had gone terribly wrong.  Then there were reports of "something happening" at the 17th Street canal, but the reports said they were working on it and it would be okay soon.  Those reports never stopped.  My wife and the woman from next door took off on their bikes only to return about an hour later saying there was flooding about a mile from the house at Memorial (old Baptist) Hospital.  Some rough looking people were riding around in cars looking things over.  I let our Dobie, Mss Irma, bark her head off and she loved it.  Those "tourists" knew where that big dog was.  So Monday and Tuesday we cleaned up the yard, moved all the tree debris to the street and waited for normal life to commence again just as it always did.  We had the neighbors for dinner Tuesday, candlelight, just like the days when the house was built.  We sat in wicker chairs on the front porch after dinner finishing the wine--it was going to be a relaxing few days until things got back to normal.  But they still hadn't fixed what we found out was a breach of some sort on the 17th St. Canal. 
Wednesday morning, 9:30a, just sitting on the porch, my wife was cleaning up from the dinner.  Then the words that started our life down a slope, "The water just stopped running!"  Well, you can live w/o electricity, but you have to have water.  So we decided to pack up and leave.  Relatively easy departure, got to Baton Rouge and finally saw what the nation already knew--devastation.  Looking at the reports on television was awful, it was something that we didn't even know was going on. Our world, without television is so small.  We called friends in Austin, and moved over there.  It would be 10 days before I was called back to work at my job in the City Attorney's office, but it wasn't in City Hall anymore--that was flooded.  We were lucky, the flooding stopped several blocks from our house.  And so a new phase in our life began, and like all the other citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, our life is defined pre-Storm and post-Storm and will be forever after.  I think everyone who was involved in this storm is thinking about where they were and what they were doing five years ago, and we'll remember 8/29 every year as a divide in our lives. 


[img width= height= alt=Live Science looks at Hurricane Katrina's aftermath on the 5 year anniversary of the storm." width="400" border="1]http://www.livescience.com/images/hurricane-katrina-disaster-aftermath-facts.jpg[/img]
 Source LiveScience.com, Science, Health & Technology News for Curious People.

[The Scottish Ambassador]

.....and as Saint remembers, let us all stop for a moment and remember those in ALL corners of the world who have been victims of the worst that Mother Nature can throw at us.

[Rob-Raz]

Saint,
          Thanks for sharing your story and memories of such a tragic event. I always get so sick of hearing the "why didnt they all just leave....they knew a storm was coming" attitude that a lot of people who weren't there have. You really put a personal "face" to what so many of us only heard about on the news.

[Mikekoz13]

Saint...... thanks for sharing your story.

Last year when I visited Morgan City, La. we drove thru N.O. ......... we could see areas off to the sides that were still devastated.

My wife and I made a conscious decision NOT to go into N.O. to look at those areas that had been hardest hit. We thought that it just wasn't appropriate to gawk at the devastation that had once been home to so many.

I vividly remember when we were headed home my wife looked out her window as we were entering N.O. and off to the right there was an area that showed the devastation even four years later. She said, "My God.... those poor people lost everything.... that's so sad."..... and she cried.

Peace and Prayers..........

[tomgallagher]

Just saw your new "surge protector" on CNN saint. Impressive.

[Magoo]

Saint, those were and are some tough times you guys in that area of the country have been going through. I hope eventually things can get back to some sense of normalcy. You have my thoughts and prayers, that it will be sooner than later.

[Kojak]

I wish the ones that moved to Houston and are still here living on welfare and subsidized and free housing and food stamps and so forth were thinking every year on 8/29 that it is time to head back to NOLA. We will keep the good transplants that have found become productive members of our communities.

We had a very devastating Hurricane 2 years ago along the Texas Gulf coast and in Houston called Ike, and my experience with that storm was very similar to yours. My wife was pregnant at the time, and I had a badly broken foot that happened a week before Ike, I was scheduled for surgery and that was postponed 2 days because of the storm. I had a lisfranc fracture which is one of the most painful fractures you can have. I had a total of 9 bones broken requiring 3 screws and 3 pins.
After the surgery I returned home to Texas heat and no power for about 2 weeks. Life was pretty miserable hobbling around on crutches not being able to do any cleanup. We lost part of our roof, 2/3 of our fence and had substantial upstairs water damage.

I had to put my German Shepard on a run line in the back yard because the fence was gone and she was a real escape artist and would get off the line at least once every other day. You should have seen me with my casted foot and my wife which was 7 months pregnant trying to catch my Shepherd.
2 years later and Houston is very much normal as well as Galveston. There are coastal cities between Galveston and High Island that will never be the same and thousands of homes that will never be rebuilt because of changes in the shoreline due to the storm combined with the total absence of their homes after the storm.


There were hundreds of homes in the area where this picture was taken before the storm hit and in many cases not even a board was left as evidence to testify to the beautiful homes that were there. The same images could bee seen in both directions for miles from where this picture was taken.

[kenny57028]

Definetly Devestating times for the gulf, suprising that not more was done.

[Noodles]

Being a fireman here in Jefferson Parish ( a neighboring parish to Orleans Parish), I, along with every other off-duty fireman, (and all other Emergency-Related Services Personnel) was notified to take care of all the necessary preparations that we had to do to see that our families were securely on their way to their evacuation destinations, then report to work and prepare to try and deal with whatever type hell Katrina was about to throw at us.

To make a long story short, it would be almost 3 1/2 weeks before any of us could be relieved of duty, in order to try and locate our families and reconnect w/them, but we were given strict orders to be back within two-three days, so that the others could do the same. But one nightmare led to another as many of us would soon learn, that our loved ones were re-routed to destinations unknown and it was anyone's guess, who was where. Communication through cell phones was basically impossible due to the fact that Katrina took out the cell towers as she came onto shore, and what the towers didn't ruin, the flood waters did!!

I hope this city (nor any other one) has to experience a tragic incident of this magnitude ever again!!

- Cap'n Noodles -

It's the little things that we take for granted every day (like ICE WATER) that we don't realize how FORTUNATE we are to have, until it's GONE and NOWHERE to be found!!

[Stu]

It is indeed sad what Mother Nature can do.  I almost lost my lunch today when I heard your illustrious ex-Mayor Nucklehead recently talking about how he had done everything he could, and the federal government had failed him!  I guess he forgot about those dozens of school buses that were never commissioned to go round up people and take them to safety before the storm ever came ashore.  Don't let any facts get in the way.  What a moron!  Sorry, but the people of NO deserved better.

[Mikekoz13]

It is indeed sad what Mother Nature can do.  I almost lost my lunch today when I heard your illustrious ex-Mayor Nucklehead recently talking about how he had done everything he could, and the federal government had failed him!  I guess he forgot about those dozens of school buses that were never commissioned to go round up people and take them to safety before the storm ever came ashore.  Don't let any facts get in the way.  What a moron!  Sorry, but the people of NO deserved better.

As usual........ I agree with Stu 100%...........

[Noodles]

Yep - the loss of so many lives were unnecessary and could have been so easily prevented.

The building pictured above (The New Orleans Superdome) has its own tragic stories that happened within its walls, during that time period filled with desperation, devastation, and despair.

... It's simply amazing how the same walls of such desperation could later turn into such great hope once the Saints led this city to victory on their way to the SuperBowl World Championship! The team's winning streak had a way of bringing ALL the people of this city together, and gave the city a reason to stand strong and move forward TOGETHER!!

It may sound real strange to most that a football team could brighten up people's lives after experiencing such a devastating series of life-changing events, but if you lived here, you'd know the reason why.

It's hard to put into words, but it's just a feeling that residents have, in their gut, deep down inside.


- Cap'n Noodles -

[D.A.L.U.I.]

I have to correct the impression about the school buses.  They were owned by a private company and the company wouldn't use them to evacuate because they had liability concerns.  Other problems like that were the refusal of Amtrak to use the trains that were in the City for essentially the same reason.  At that time no system of refugee centers existed to take in evacuees who didn't have the means to rent hotel rooms etc.  After Katrina extensive work was done to establish such centers and take care of other problems.  What is often overlooked is that until Katrina, an extended evacuation of a large city hadn't ever been done in the US.  The buses that were available wouldn't permit pets, nor were they allowed in the Dome, so people with pets returned to their homes and some died for that reason.  Laws have since been changed at the federal and state level that mandates plans for the evacuation of pets.  Other problems were caused by the magnitude of the flooding--emergency equipment was stored where it hadn't ever flooded before but did when the levees failed.  New Orleans was not flooded because of a hurricane, it was flooded because of the largest engineering failure in the history of the country.

[tomgallagher]

It is still curious to me why or who decided to build a city below sea level. Very strange I think.

[tomgallagher]

Regarding pets. I own 2 Labradors and if anybody told me we can save you but not your dogs I would have made the same decision as those folks.