I will no longer take written criticism of my stories, writings, literature, emails, or whatever you want to call them and their length. If you do not want to read what I have taken the time to write that's fine, just don't and press delete. I'd rather not know. For those that wish to read, this is my story from a week ago till now. It is a story of close calls, survival, and tragedy and while myself, family, and friends faired ok to my current knowledge most of the damage and hardship has been and is experienced east of my parents home located in Laplace there was no one from Houma, LA to Gulf Shores, AL along the Gulf Coast that was not affected. I will write this as if you do not live down south because many of my friends that I'm writing to are out of state.

It is August 28, 2005 and a historic disaster that has been on the minds of many for days is approaching from the extremely warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico just south of Louisiana. This category 5 Hurricane which at one point reached 175 mph with gusts of 210 mph was bearing down on New Orleans. All of the models for the duration of many forecasts predicted it would make a direct hit on the city of New Orleans and if not a direct hit that it would indeed make a blow that would be remembered for the infinity of all time to come. For weeks my car has been out of commission and I'd been driving the backup vehicle (the van) until such time that I could give my car the time it needed to try and fix it. After two trips to Florida the 135K van's transmission gave out after arriving home from the 2nd trip. Thankful that it gave out at home and not on the road I brought it to a transmission shop to get repaired. The week before this storm I had been bumming rides to work as now both my vehicles are inoperable. Watching the Hurricane steaming past Florida and knowing that it will gain extreme strength in the 95 waters of the Gulf I have a situation to think over. Now I must decide what very few things are important to me and take those few things with me to my parents home and leave some things there and take even fewer items with me as we only have one car that works as dad's car as well is not working right. If it weren't for mom's car we would've had no way to leave and would've been forced to ride the storm out in Laplace.

Sometime around noon to 1pm Dad came to pick me up from Harahan (In Jefferson Parish) to bring me to Laplace to prepare for evacuation. The mayor of New Orleans (Ray Nagin) has ordered an unprecedented mandatory evacuation for New Orleans. Adding this to the evacuation of Jefferson Parish, St Charles Parish, St Tammany Parish, St John Parish, all of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and some in Alabama the number of evacuees exceeds well over a million, probably more over 1.5 million spread throughout the entire country.

Debating what to do now at 5 AM in the morning on Aug 29th, I decided with the parts in hand to try and get my car running so that I could bring it with me. I have had that car for a very long time and it has been thru a lot with me, but also if I left it I stood to lose both vehicles as the van was stuck in the shop. After hours of researching what I needed to do with the car while also watching reports from the weather service I finally decided to get into action and actually try and fix the car. In a race against time while listening to the radio that Katrina has become a Category 5 with 175 mph winds and predicted to make landfall at this point as a Cat 5 my haste is sped up even further. Dad nervous and ready to leave, he tries to get me to stop working on the car so that we may begin our journey to save our lives. After putting in the new plugs and wires and driving my car around the block a couple of times we decide to bring it along with my mom's car as well. If I had not gotten my car running the reality is that I would not have been able to bring ANYTHING of my own. Mom had packed her car FULL of her own stuff as well as a few things of my sister's. Adding them and the dog, there was just no room for anything I wanted to bring and I ended up filling my car's back seat, trunk, and passenger seat full. Now that the car is packed we are set. After doing all the checks, shutting off the power breaker to the house, locking all the doors, off we go... I pull my car into the street to lead the way and it stalls.... twice. The problem that I believe was contributing to this stalling revealed itself later on. For now I could drive the car with both feet keeping gas going thru it even while I was at stops and there were several of them. The evacuation route was jam packed with cars and the pace was about 5 mph. With only 2 miles to the interstate from our subdivision, we began the crawl. Turning North off of Hwy 61 (Airline hwy) making our way towards I-55 North thru Mississippi we encountered fairly well flowing traffic between 30 and 55 mph for the first 100 or so miles. My car's A/C clutch is bad, so I could not use my A/C on this 96 degree hot day especially at low speeds and there was a constant stop and go pace. We stopped somewhere before Brookhaven, MS to coordinate and get some gas. Gas was already in severe shortage at this point. All the sandwiches were gone from all gas station freezers and all hotel rooms were booked everywhere no matter where you turned. We had not reserved a room anywhere, which is typical, but not smart. Looking underneath my hood and not yet far enough away from the Hurricane to make a difference I discover that my auxiliary driver side radiator fan has spun off the motor and started to dig into my radiator. Luckily it stopped there and the radiator was not punctured. This is obviously a problem, especially in stop and go traffic which spanned hundred's of miles and to my knowledge this was the case on the road all the way up to just a few hours before the Hurricane made landfall between Grand Isle and Venice, LA. After we left the small town we got back on the contra-flow interstate and for a while traffic was moving beautifully, but the closer we got to Jackson, MS the more stops and idle moving traffic we encountered. About 30 miles south of Brookhaven, MS after criss-crossing from the contra-flow lanes and the regular north bound lanes the contra-flow interstate side as well as the regular north bound side were both at a complete halt. I'm sitting there on this 96 degree day with the A/C on while I was able to go fast, but now that I'm sitting in this grid locked traffic I don't notice it, but my car has started to overheat. All the while I'm alternating the gas and brake pedal just to keep the car running so I don't become a traffic block. Having forgotten to turn off the A/C at this slow speed I then notice that the temperature gauge is going way up. Luckily I remember a trick that I saw in the movies a long time ago that actually works. I must do the unthinkable on such a hot day and turn on my open air vent and heater and turn that flow dial all the way to HIGH. I point the vents away from my face and I'm guzzling water the whole time like its addictive drug. In the contra-flow lane I decide to get off the interstate and perhaps give my car a chance to cool. Mom and dad follow me. I see some sort of official watching the exit and I ask him if there is a parallel highway that runs along the interstate because I can't stay in the interstate traffic due to my car overheating. He's an old codger and he either lied to me to keep traffic out of their small towns or just didn't know anything and either possibility seems likely. He says that I can just cross over the interstate and get back into the north bound lane which doesn't help me. From my experience as a driver I know that usually there is a state highway that parallels the interstate. I drive about 2 or 3 miles to the east and low and behold there is a Hwy 51 that parallels and goes North and is nearly free of traffic. Mississippi didn't suggest this to the public on purpose. I feel this in my mind. With the hood popped open and the heater on I make a left to the North on Hwy 51 and begin our trek to Brookhaven, MS. The car has cooled off significantly and since I'm running at a moderate speed I'm able to turn off the heater. With mom and dad following behind me now we're truckin. Arriving in Brookhaven I see that there is an AutoZone and later I find out there is an Oreilly's, Carquest, and Advance Auto Parts. I stop at Autozone and next door there is a Sonic that is inundated with customers trying to get food. I decided to pull into the Sonic stall so that I could have some shade while I pull out the radiator fan. The heat is unbearable. Just walking into Autozone for some A/C is a treat. As luck would have it Autozone doesn't have the fan I need and neither do the other 3 auto parts stores. They do however have a 3rd party fan that I could get to work, but there is a slight issue. From what I see on my stock fan it has two plugs and 4 wires and the 3rd party fan comes with only two wires. Without my shop manual I don't know which wires to try to hook up and I'm not about to try and then short something out making things worse. The missing knowledge of which wires do what stopped me from installing the fan and left me to strategic driving to keep the car from overheating. Mom had told me that she saw white smoke coming out of my car on the interstate back there. Luckily it was the beginning of white smoke and not very thick. I don't feel that I've damaged my engine, but I will find out for sure later. While I'm trying to fix my car at Sonic Dad buys me a biiiiiig milkshake. Thanks Dad. :) Mom and dad go off looking for hotels while I'm fiddling with the broken radiator fan. As it turns out I discover that the radiator fan switch wiring plastic coating has eroded off from the bend in it over the years and the two wires are arcing positive and negative and anyone that knows a little about electricity knows that this is not a good thing. This could possibly cause the car to stall as it had been doing. Using the only tape I had (scotch) I resealed both wires and removed the faulty fan. After that the car didn't stall on me. Did I fix my car? Who knows. LOL

Back on the road again and looking back I'm glad that mom and dad did not find a hotel in Brookhaven. It would've been a very bad place to be as the storm was still packing a big punch when it went thru there. Continuing now back on the interstate we encounter the same sort of traffic, but at this point luckily there is a bit of overcast probably from Katrina's outer bands circulating overhead so it doesn't seem as hot as it was before. Hwy 51 around Crystal Springs eventually stopped and the interstate was the only option to Jackson anyway. Not having slept and filled with two cups of coffee I'm starting to think that maybe I could get us a hotel room in Jackson to save us 6 hours of driving to the west on I-20. Using road signs, a dear friend in Ohio, and 411 about 10 to 15 miles out of Jackson I begin to make calls to try and get us a room. Somehow I manage to reserve a room for 3 days at the Comfort Suites off I-55 exit 103. Dad and mom have no cell phone and we forgot to bring the FRS' walkie talkie's to talk car to car. While on the phone and trying not to lose the signal I roll down my window and signal to Dad to follow me beyond the I-20 / I-55 junction to further north on I-55. Since this is not what Dad and I had discussed he thought that I didn't know what I was doing and he continued west on I-20 and I went north on I-55. I reserved the room and without thinking clearly I guess due to lack of sleep I figured there was no way now I could find them or catch them even if I did make a u-turn so I continued on to the hotel. Mom and dad stopped several times to use the phone to try and reach me, but at this point I've realized that cell phones are nearly useless. Mom was really worried and really emphasized that to Dad repeatedly after they'd lost me. LOL - Little did I know that I shouldn't have gotten a room in Jackson because I was even then at 265 miles inland still not far enough away to avoid the full wrath of Katrina. At least it bought me a few hour's sleep and the ability to "somewhat" relax because how can you fully relax during all this.

I felt guilty relaxing in my cushy room while mom and dad were alone with the dog driving west 6 hours away. Counting the hours that went by as I didn't hear from mom and dad I remained worried about them and I knew they were worried about me with the state of my car. I began to get a little anxious. I didn't like being alone even though I was safe. The hotel had wireless internet and I had my new laptop with me and sometime before the power went off my sister managed to get online and IM me. Mom had contacted her and then she got me on the internet because phones were useless. Immediately Vera tells me where mom and dad are and their contact information in Texarkana, AK. Just a few moments after that I lost the wireless internet. Relieved to have gotten some kind of information I call mom/dad at their hotel and all seems to be well. Plans for regrouping were not easily made and sort of left up in the air. Do they drive to Jackson or do I drive to Texarkana? Lucky for them they didn't drive to Jackson. Sometime around 3 PM CST on the 29th the eye of still Hurricane Katrina was passing about 40 to 60 miles east of Jackson and during this time the hotel lost power. Normally power going off is not such an ominous sign as it is today. Where I was we were getting anywhere from 60 to 90 mph winds and I was able to video it from the west side of the hotel. Throughout this ordeal the best form of communication I had was my portable old tyme looking radio that was a gift to me a couple Christmas' ago. It worked better than my car radio because for some reason my car radio has trouble getting good reception. The winds and rain actually didn't look as bad as I thought it would've, but I know that 150 mph winds are a much different story than 90 mph winds. The power remained off at the hotel for at least 4 days though I left on the 2nd day (the 30th) because it wasn't a very pleasant place to be anymore. After gathering some food, water, supplies, a clip on fan for my dash, and a mini electric cooler for drinks (that didn't work well) I am just a little out of sorts. Hearing the radio and seeing the TV when I could get TV I understand now that the devastation is severe along the coast and Mississippi has been affected statewide. I buy a Mississippi special edition paper that says: "Coastline Decimated". Power is out in 80% of the state. I need a break, so I go in search of anything still open. There is a shopping center that looks abandoned, but somehow there is a chinese food buffet that has power, is still open, and has very few people there. I stop from the grind of playing evacuee and get some good food. Its the first decent food I've had in what seems to be a week, but its only actually been a couple days. Time seems to have slowed to a grinding speed. I still haven't heard from mom and dad since the first time I talked to them when I found out they were in Texarkana. Not knowing what to do or where to go because it is rumored that gas is short everywhere and there are extremely long lines out for hundreds of yards I begin to think. Rather than get in long gas lines (I have 3/4 of a tank) or in long food lines I decide that I need to leave Jackson. I'm either heading towards Shreveport or Texarkana as its where Dad said they'd be.

Before I leave I recall that I need to change my oil. The oil in my car was so dirty that the pressure was lower than normal on the pressure gauge and since I'd overheated it was probably a good idea to swap it out. Luckily since I knew I was having problems with the car I brought nearly my full tool arsenal and now all I needed was some oil, a filter, and a cool shady spot to change it. Luckily just not even a mile down the road there was another Advance Auto Parts. I stopped there to get what I needed and found that they had a nice shady spot to do the change, but the guy there wouldn't allow me to do it because of insurance purposes. I got a little aggravated at this point especially in light of the disaster, not to mention that Advance Auto had no power and there was a traffic jam outside because all the lights were not working. I left and found a place to change the oil that was evacuated behind some insurance building. It was nice and private and shady. Bust out the jack, use a container that held photos to drop the oil into, and uh oh.... I need a new drain plug gasket. The one I had on there was completely brittle and fell apart after I took it off to drain the oil. Here I am with tools sprawled out all over, no oil in the engine, and I cannot put oil back in the engine without this tiny gasket or else I'll have an oil leak as soon as I go down the road just a few feet. Luckily the Advance Auto Parts was only 1/4 mile (if that) down the road, but still it was damn hot on this day too. I bummed a ride from a family that had pulled over into the place next door at that very moment and figured if I couldn't get a ride back I'd just walk back. They were happy to help. I locked my car up and went over there. Of course they didn't have the very oil plug gasket I needed, but they had an assortment pack which was bound to have one I needed and thank goodness it did. Gasket and plug on, filter on, I filled the engine with new oil. With pressure restored confirmed by my pressure gauge I'm down the road running smoother than I had been before.

I decide I need a map and the Target store near my hotel is open on emergency power. There are armed guards inside patrolling as is the case in most places now. I go to the map section and then I decide that it would be a lot better since I have the laptop to have map software loaded so that I can interact with it. I could've just bought an atlas or a map and been, but I'd been meaning to buy this software anyway so what do I do.. I bought an atlas and the software. lol - The software came with a GPS USB device which when plugged into the laptop becomes a navigational guide and beacon. It can locate my current position via satellite and guide and follow me as I go. After loading it into the laptop it becomes an instant help by showing me an interstate path that I wouldn't have taken to get to Vicksburg. Vicksburg is west of Jackson and I figure that they will have gas and food and shorter lines. They are also more likely to have power.

10 miles west of Jackson's center and yet still in Jackson I stop at a Ramada Inn that is down a ways on the interstate service road. I see its porch lights on from the interstate and see that they have power and figure that they could possibly have a room since they are not directly off the interstate exit. I was wrong. Though I did hang out in the lobby for a couple of hours watching the national news and photos/video of the devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi. Someone setup a computer in the conference room of this hotel to try and get information from the internet. Here I was greeted by numerous evacuees from surrounding familiar towns (Metairie, Kenner, Harahan, New Orleans) and everyone is sharing information and resources to try and help each other. Watching the TV in the lobby I was captivated. This entire ordeal seems so surreal. As I see the pictures on the national news I mutter a common phrase of surprise, "Oh my God." Everything was really fine in New Orleans until the lake levees were overtopped and then broken, but little did we know that in the outlying parishes there was much flooding and devastation already yet not due to the levee breaks. Thousands of people were/are stranded stretching from New Orleans to Alabama with most from New Orleans and Mississippi.

Having left the Ramada now after several failed attempts using a land line in a person's room I am 30 miles west of Jackson now in Vicksburg. Somewhere about a mile or two down the road off the interstate I'm able to pull up and top off my gas tank and use a pay phone. I called a couple people and had them try to contact my family for me and leave me voicemails or emails taking a chance that I'd be able to get either one of those. I'm hearing that several people have been trying to call me and by several I mean between 20 and 30 friends and family members. In Vicksburg I look for a hotel room, but of course there is no vacancy though there is a laptop in my car with wireless internet and the hotel that has no vacancy (Days Inn) has wireless internet access. In the parking lot about 100 feet away I'm able to utilize their internet connection from my car. I immediately get online and start IMing people and getting people to call my sister to try and locate my parents so that I know where to go. My laptop battery is going down and my power inverter in the car cannot sustain the laptop because it draws too much current. Lucky for me I have a car charger for my useless cell phone that hopefully will become a useful tool once again.

After powering off the laptop I drive a bit further east into Vicksburg and find that 4 hotels are also booked. There is no where to go now, but 4 hours west to a friend's house, back to powerless Jackson where I'd left my room reserved, or back home to Laplace. Feeling hungry now and knowing I'm about to make a bit of a drive I happen to find a McDonald's on Hwy 61 (Airline hwy which leads right back into New Orleans all the way from North in MS). I get me a good grilled chicken sandwich and a medium coffee and begin my drive back to Laplace. Somewhere along the wasteland path of Hwy 61 (and I mean wasteland; there is very very very little of anything along 61 north of Baton Rouge) I was able to get a cell phone signal to call out to my cousin in Baton Rouge. I figure I'll head there because they probably have power and faired much better than anyone east of them. Luckily I was able to get a hold of my cousin and he actually knew of the whereabouts of my parents and offered me shelter. Finally some sort of good news after waiting and worrying for hours about where my parents were and what I was going to do for myself. Airline Hwy south to Baton Rouge was free and clear at 11pm - 2 AM, though scary, but free and clear. It was the best choice to return home as I heard that trying to go south on I-55 was a bad idea and that it was blocked due to the Hurricane and not wanting people to return to New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. Now that I knew where mom and dad were I began the cycle of failed calls until I finally was able to get thru to them in Laplace where amazingly the phones were still working. I know I must have a slew of roaming call charges now. LOL - When I arrived at my cousin's house I was able to relax, take a bath, shave, and watch more news. More and more the situation seems to be deteriorating in New Orleans and outlying parishes. The response by the federal government was nearly non-existent the first 3 to 4 days, which is horrible.

When I left my cousin's house on Wednesday the 31st for Laplace the I-10 west was free flowing and full of rescue vehicles and convoy's of state police cars. It was definitely a site to see. It is odd for the I-10 to be free flowing the day after a Hurricane because normally everyone is coming back because it wasn't as bad as it could've been. This time everyone was still staying away. I actually did see many buses and large evacuation vehicles heading west away from New Orleans EMPTY. The common sense element was definitely not there for FEMA and/or possibly some of the military. Why on earth evacuation vehicles would be turned away is beyond me. Its complete stupidity. Speaking of stupid, I love my dad and he is very intelligent yet very impatient on all counts. I think it was a really bad idea to come back to Laplace as soon as they did. Keep in mind that they returned home the day after the storm whereas I was in Baton Rouge the day after the storm and returned to Laplace to be with them 2 days after the storm. What I came home to was deplorable conditions. The conditions were not nearly as bad as those faced east of Laplace, but things were very sketchy here. Laplace has become a checkpoint for going into Jefferson Parish, Orleans and anything east of that. There are state police and military guarding the interstate exit and roads into those areas. All of the hotels at the interstate exit there have been commandeered by the police and military and this is just 2 miles from mom/dad's house. I even had a booked reservation for the Best Western in Laplace at that location till the 6th so that we would have A/C and some type of relatively normal services and when I got there I was told that all reservations that come in from the 800 number (which is based in the Philippines) are not being honored. The man at the hotel said that he was only allowing rescue and authority personnel at the hotel. Here I came to Laplace thinking that I had a room for my family (luckily) and this was not the case.

As I drove into Laplace I snapped photos of damage and "not your everyday sights" that I noticed as often as I could without wrecking my car. I noticed people camping out at the Racetrac gas station and when I say camping out I literally mean CAMPING. There were some sitting there with sofas, blankets, and tents. Racetrac and the Shell station on Airline Hwy towards the Bonne Carre Spillway between Laplace and Norco were both price gouging gas over $5.00 a gallon. I still have my receipt from the Shell station and I plan on using it later on.

When I arrived home I found mom and dad in the living room with windows open in a sauna watching a black and white battery powered TV that I'd bought some 7 years ago. That little TV was our lifeline to the world for 5 days. As soon as I got in Dad showed me that he'd loaded his 357 Magnum and put it just inside the fireplace with the chain-link fire curtain pulled open just a bit so that there was easy access to it. I found out later that there was a 6pm curfew and that there had been reports of criminals with guns robbing convenience stores in town (Laplace is not a very large parish) and there were also reports of people driving cars thru homes about 5 miles away to steal property and supplies. Here I was relatively safe in Baton Rouge and even up North before that and now I'd put myself in a sketchy situation, however what was I to do..... not be there to protect my family? Can't do that. Each day seemed to drag on and on and on. I welcomed any activity to end the monotony of "nothingness" and having to clear the yard free of branches and debris was even a good change of pace because it was productive. Each day I went out to look for supplies. The 1st day I attempted to get ice, water, and milk and found it at a convenience store just outside of my mom and dad's subdivision, but little did I know I was being given priority and luxury for some reason. The Vietnamese owners of this convenience store were rationing their ice I suppose to prevent problems or riots. When there were not many people at the store the guy asked me how many bags I needed after he saw me trying to chisel out bags that had frozen at the bottom of his freezer. I asked for 3 and he went and got them and low and behold at that moment people just happened to start pouring into the store and now all these people saw that I was buying ice. Immediately and coincidentally the owner of the store said that he was OUT of ice. I got in at the right time and the right place for a change however credit card systems were down and I had to use cash and all I had was a 20 and buying the pack of water, 3 bags of ice, and milk was over $20. I ended up leaving the pack of water and took the ice because we were relatively good on water at the moment. Immediately I returned home to drop off the ice and milk. Mom was cleaning out the freezer/fridge as everything was going bad. I believe there were 3 trash bags of food that went out. After that I left and went out for more supplies (water / food) after getting a bit of cash from Dad. All banks were closed and atms did not function. Luckily Dad had gotten a lot of cash before we evacuated. Staying in the house was aweful. 4 days of heat for me was something I couldn't really tolerate. The immediate days after the storm were dead air days. It was as if we were living in a doldrums section of the Earth and on these days we needed breezes the most. I found myself in the garage working on my car as often as possible because I could generate a breeze by opening the garage door and the other exit door on the other side of the garage, not to mention of course my car needed fixing just like it always does. :) At least I got to do some things that I'd been putting off for quite some time now, but not being able to come inside for a rewarding A/C break was really a trying thing. I went thru tons of paper towels wiping buckets of sweat off.

On 9/1/05 the flood waters that had filled our streets here in Laplace from the Hurricane were still saturating the grounds and the drainage system was only 4 inches from the tops of the street drains. All of a sudden a FLASH storm began mind you a couple days after Katrina had passed. Immediately in a matter of 15 to 20 minutes the water level was probably 2 to 3 feet hitting the first crack of the driveway. The back porch began to flood and the water unknown to us was seeping into the living room and made it in about 5 feet of distance. Luckily the storm was fast moving so the rains stopped after about an hour. I went out in my bathing suit to take a cool break to clear the water drainage ditch my dad had dug from the back yard to the front to try and get the water flowing better from the back porch. Later on the next day we noticed a bad mildew smell in the house and I found it to be coming from the wet carpet padding; a smell I know all too well from having gone thru this before in my old apartment. Each time after this flash storm I wondered how many more flushes we had in the bathroom before it started backing up into the house. After the rain outside smelled pretty bad. To drain things faster I raked out leaves and debris from both drainage holes nearest our house. Unbelievably this actually worked and water drained much faster from about an 8 house section of the street. I even got a little clever and while I was raking one drain, I put a fishing net in the other so when I went back to rake it out I'd have a head start and just be able to pull that net of leaves out.

Living in the heat obviously is a difficult thing and living in the heat with other people sometimes can get edgy too. LOL - Not to mention on Friday and Saturday I wasn't sure if we could do it anymore. I began to start experiencing some dizziness and possibly slight delirium. Dad and I shared the same physical effect of heat rash and Taz (our beautiful Golden Retriever) was panting faster and starting to worry us because he wouldn't eat or drink right. We definitely came back too fast. Next time I will be very strongly and forcefully against it because next time my parents will likely be in even worse physical health and we'll all be older. It isn't as it used to be. When Hurricane Andrew came thru we were without power for a few days, but back then we were all in better shape.

Sometime around Thursday or Friday most of Laplace got power back. I exercised the LAND LINE phone to get some friend's to let us come over. We were able to take a few A/C and food breaks at my friend David/Kevin's trailer who had power intermittently and then Jose's parent's house who had power for a couple days. We were able to wash/dry clothes there and also get a bit of a cat nap that was much needed. Trying to sleep sound in the heat just does not seem to work. I couldn't sleep more than 4 or 5 hours at mom/dad's when there was no heat and sleeping between the two grizzly bear sleepers (very loud and strange snorers; lol) I just couldn't sleep in the same living room with mom/dad like I wanted to in the extreme comforts of the 1 oscillating fan I managed to get running off of a car battery and power inverter which lasted us a couple of days off of car recharges.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, chips, candy bars, etc.. were in the majority of what we ate during the days up till we got power back. Getting into the grocery store was even different because they were only letting in 15 to 20 people at a time. All alcohol sales were/are banned. No one was allowed it for the obvious reasons that alcohol consumption would probably not have made conditions better in any disaster area. On Saturday I managed to get 5 bags of ice, a small amount of raw meat, more water, and various other things. Mom had sterno heat so she was able to cook on a tiny hibachi grill on the kitchen table, which was my reasoning for getting a small bit of meat since we hadn't had in days. Having a hot meal Saturday afternoon was a real treat.

Nightfall came again Saturday night (3rd) and we still did not have power though we did see power trucks finally in our neighborhood that we had not seen since the storm hit. As Laplace seemed to calm down and more and more people slowly got more supplies the eminent threat of thugs seemed to ease off and at this point I told dad that I could no longer subject myself to living in the house like we were when we had friend's houses that had power that we could go to. I left just as some of the houses in our neighborhood were getting power, but was discouraged that it hadn't kicked on for us too not to mention while working on my car I ended in a bad point where I couldn't start it. I was sweaty, filthy, stinky, and extremely exhausted so I left. Mom and dad called me moments after I arrived at a friend's parent's house to tell me that something like 5 minutes after I left the power came on. I was really happy for them, but too tired to get in the mode to drive back after I'd unloaded everything at their house. After a nice cool/warm bath I konked out.

9/4/05
I woke up and headed back over to mom and dad's and walked into CASTLE REFRESHMENT ! I knew they'd have the A/C on cold cold. It was such a relief. Immediately I got into E-mode. Cable wasn't back yet so my objective was to get dial-up internet access. Where's an AOL free CD when ya need it? LOL - Unfortunately I'd purged the house of all those a while back, but on my new laptop there just happened to be a package to install AOL. After several failed attempts on the land line the AOL program finally found a local dialup access number to use. After a little effort I was online and I had a slew of emails from everyone to check. My first objectives were to contact friends and let everyone know everything was ok, check on work, and check on bills.

Though my experiences are nothing compared to what has happened east of us these experiences have been extremely trying. Having lost my parents on the road all while this storm hit and not knowing if we'd have a home to return to was a lot to bear and especially not to mention enduring the heat during the aftermath which is still taking place more than a week later. Below I cite some of the more memorable statements and information I have heard and came across during the past week and a half which to me help to visualize and project the true gravity of this travesty.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2125587/

"On Monday night, right after Katrina hit, Mayor Ray Nagin went on television to tell his battered constituents that "the city of New Orleans is in a state of devastation." Speaking softly, and often directly into the camera, Nagin said the only good news he had was that "at some point in time, the federal government will be coming in here en masse." Days passed, looting started, the feds didn't come, and Nagin cracked. In a radio interview Thursday night, he ranted passionately for 14 minutes that the feds had done little to stop thousands of deaths: "Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here! They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country!" Nagin didn't stop until he broke down in tears."

I heard this radio broadcast when it happened and then it was replayed several times thereafter to emphasize the gravity of this situation. 4 days after the major category 4 Hurricane hit the government was still not mobilized in the way they should've been to help resolve the catastrophe here. It took the mayor of New Orleans crying on the radio to bring the help that was so desperately needed. At the end of this radio broadcast not only the mayor was crying, but so was the broadcaster hosting the radio coverage.

On Sunday September 4th, 2005 Aaron Broussard was on "Meet the Press" on MSNBC. I saw this broadcast as it happened. Aaron Broussard is the Jefferson Parish President covering all of Kenner and Metairie and much south of those areas on the south side of the river. In a very emotional prepared statement Aaron had the following to say which should be remembered forever:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/

" (Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.

Jefferson Parish President Broussard, let me start with you. You just heard the director of Homeland Security's explanation of what has happened this last week. What is your reaction?

MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go. And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership.

It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.

We need strong leadership at the top of America right now in order to accomplish this and to-- reconstructing FEMA.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard, let me ask--I want to ask--should...

MR. BROUSSARD: You know, just some quick examples...

MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?

MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. <begins to cry> His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night. <cries>

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...

MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody. <cries>

MR. RUSSERT: Just take a pause, Mr. President. While you gather yourself in your very emotional times, I understand, let me go to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi. "

The fact that two high ranking officials of two very large parishes out here broke down and cried in the eyes and ears of the public is enough to show anyone just how grave this situation was/is.

9/8/05

I had the opportunity to go tour Jefferson parish and get to the Orleans Parish line when I went to look at my apartment. Katie went with me to try and see what her old workplace looked like and if we could get to her apartment we were going to. Metairie (Jefferson Parish) has sustained some serious damage from the Hurricane and I can see why it will be weeks before people can return. Katie's workplace (UHaul) was near the lake which caught most of the winds and was basically pretty well devastated and probably should be torn down. There was damage all around us. I snapped photos where I could. We arrived at the Jefferson/Orleans parish line via Veterans Hwy and found our way to a parking garage that borders the 17th St Canal. We were able to get up to the 5th floor only because the 6th and 7th floors sustained some roof damage and it didn't seem like it was a good idea to try and drive over that stuff. The 5th floor gave us a good view of the area just across the 17th St Canal into Orleans parish. On this day 9/8/05 at approximately 5:30 PM the water levels in Orleans parish in the Lakeview area were still about 1 foot from the ceilings of homes there from what we could see. We were actually able to see a break (if not the big break) in the 17th street canal from where we were and photographed it.

-CNN - Hurricane Headquarters; a laugh at best - The journalism I saw on CNN especially during this onset of this disaster was full of false information and hype. As the situation has developed they've gotten more accurate, but at first it was deplorable. I found myself watching MSNBC more than any other news broadcast when I was out of town and when in town the best news to watch are the local stations.

-Shark swimming in the city of Metairie at Severn and Old Metairie road almost bit Aaron Broussard; rumored that waters are as much as 17 feet deep there near the roadways, but I'm sure the water is deeper than 5 feet at least.

-Alcohol sales banned everywhere until the tragedy is over

-Rumors of New Orleans cops abandoning their jobs. Some of this MIGHT be true, but for the most part these cops either can't get here or are very likely part of the evacuees

-No communication; total black out on all means during the evac; Cell phones were useless unless you used what was called the most reliable way to communicate - text messaging

-Schools shut down; lives shuffled; tens of thousands of students must seek education elsewhere

-Two houses destroyed here in New Orleans and in Bay St Louis, MS - People who had homes in New Orleans and also had homes in Mississippi lost them both. As many people had these types of vacation homes in the coastal area of Mississippi I'm sure that this wasn't just 1 case.

-War zone; New Orleans was/is basically worse than a war zone with the exception of mass large artillery. I say mass large because there was small artillery all over the place. There were fools firing weapons at rescue helicopters and cell phone tower repairmen; WHY? - An old war veteran from Vietnam went on record to say that conditions in New Orleans were worse there than back in Vietnam because in Vietnam they at least had communication and some form of facilities. The national guard said that they have deployed more troops now to handle this disaster than they have for any disaster on American soil including a notable earthquake in California years ago.

-Curfews; living under curfews tells you enough; If they are implemented then you know there are things wrong with the community.

-Fight for ice, water, and gas (ice given to me at the Kart and Karry, but not everyone else) - why hold back? Just give it to the people that need it !

-Gas Gouging - $5.20 a gallon for premium and $5 a gallon for lowest grade 87 octane

-Vigilantes and gangs - It was hard to tell who was fighting for you or who was fighting against you in the city. There are true stories of babies and children being raped and killed in the Superdome bathrooms. One family evacuated the superdome and decided to fend for themselves on the streets as soon as gun shots broke out. The police were out numbered by the thousands of thugs in the dome and feared entering to try and bring order to the building because of that. They knew what was going on inside and admitted to it. There was feces and trash everywhere in the dome. It looks like everyone showed up for a game and forgot that there were bathrooms or that morality even exists. The people that committed these heinous acts probably don't even know the meaning of the word "morality". When things are at their worst, people are supposed to force themselves to their best, yet many turn even worse than their normal horrible.

-Looters - Looting did happen, but on both sides. The one side that needed supplies, food, water, and medicine and also the other side; the GREED side that wanted Nike shoes, name brand clothes, and expensive electronics that would serve them no purpose. These people looting for GREED are the same people I believe that do not know the word "morality". It is an interesting thought to think of these same two kinds of person's looting the same stores. The one trying to simply survive also has to worry at the same moment if they will be shot or pummeled for their supplies because a GREEDY person is greedy on all counts.

-Mass death - This is an area that I agree with Mayor Ray Nagin and President of Jefferson Parish Aaron Broussard on. Bureaucracy has murdered people and is responsible for thousands of deaths. Lets remember that it was Thursday before Nagin cracked on the radio and cried about the worsening conditions in New Orleans and thereafter Broussard breaking down on "Meet the Press"

-The worst kind of contamination in every living space - New Orleans is a pitri dish which had every contaminant dumped into it all at once. The contamination includes: dead bodies, human feces, crude oil, chemicals from hygiene products, gas from vehicles, and other miscellaneous toxins and diseases. There have been reported diarrhea/intestinal virus outbreaks which are being watched for fear of ecoli or other types of outbreaks.

-Range of destruction - From New Orleans to Gulf Shores, AL the entire coast was devastated. Mississippi reports destruction/damage as far inland as 100 miles.

-Power outages - 80% of Mississippi was out after Katrina passed thru not to mention large areas of southeastern Louisiana and other states North of MS which were also greatly affected by spun Tornadoes from finishing outer bands of Katrina.

-Size of the storm; as wide as the Gulf of Mexico

http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/index.cgi?page=products&category=Year%202005%20Storm%20Events&event=Hurricane%20Katrina

Before Katrina made landfall the governor of MS was called by the National Hurricane Center and told to tell the public that it was going to be worse than Camille. Camille was the worst Hurricane ever to hit the American gulf coast except that it was small and tight which helped to intensify its 200 mph winds when it made landfall. Katrina packed a heavy 160 mph punch at landfall, but the width of the storm stretched from nearly the western border of the Gulf of Mexico to the western border of it ( the shores of Florida ). When Katrina hit us the outer bands of her wrath were just now leaving the coast of Florida.

-Mortgage payments - Hopefully the talks I've heard of to put a freeze on mortgage payments and possibly rent will happen. I hope that the government can pull this off.

-Lost jobs - I happen to be lucky enough to have my job continue to pay me during this ordeal, but many people will not receive another check, receive a check only for the following 2 weeks, or receive a check for another month. Everyone must find new work or figure out what to do in the meantime until their jobs get back up and running.

-Lives shuffled - People have been separated. One comment I agreed with Jesse Jackson on is that people should've been moved in family units instead of women/children first. This experience has been traumatic enough and then to shove in separation of family members with it all was really a bad idea. On top of this people are forced to give up their pets and from what I'm hearing there are only a few rescuers willing to transport people's pets. The SPCA is also going in homes and rescuing pets where they can find them.

-Government's horribly slow response; where was the preplanning ? TRUTH - no one anywhere really believed this would ever happen again or rather no one who

could really make a difference thought so. Senator Mary Landreau has been trying to legislate a plan to protect New Orleans for 3 years and has not been able to get it passed that would replenish the wetlands south of New Orleans.

-Knew this was coming - The federal government and state government knew this was coming for many years, but its a classic cause of "do after the fact" instead of being proactive. Compounding the fact that they knew this was coming with the fact that they took so long to respond makes this so much more a travesty than it already is.

-Thought we were sparred - I think the initial reports that said that New Orleans was sparred and dodged a bullet may have contributed to the slow response. The Hurricane (phase 1 of Katrina) was thought to have not been as devastating to New Orleans at first and the flooding (phase 2 of Katrina) I believe snuck up on many people. Officials and those with the ability to communicate across the masses knew what the oncoming flood waters from the levee breaks were going to do, but the people in the city still (the evacuees) did not know what was coming next. When the storm passed it seemed as though everything was fine except for downed power lines and broken trees. Little did anyone know besides the oncoming flood waters to hit the area that the outlying parishes suffered severe damage from winds. In Chalmette whole neighborhoods are likely going to have to be demolished even though they withstood the winds due to contamination from crude oil spills and receded waters that now leave extreme life threatening mold issues.

-Survived by tying himself to a tree - This was one of the most amazing stories I heard of. Click this link to see where it happened:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=chico+lagoon,+la&ll=30.107712,-89.866447&spn=0.069692,0.158675&num=10&start=0&hl=en

Somewhere along Hwy 11 in St Bernard Parish (going towards Slidell from Chalmette and New Orleans East areas) everything in that areas took on a 20 foot storm surge not to mention the worst of Katrina's winds near the eye. There was nothing left of this area except skeleton frames. A man along this highway decided to ride the storm out and to survive he had to tie himself to a tree. This was on the local news here and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up on the national news, but maybe not. In any case I cannot imagine doing what this man did. He was in the worst place to decide to ride out the storm. I would be very interested to know what this man saw. I don't know if I could've held my eyes open.

-A fool bathing in the Mississippi river; brushing his teeth with that water - There is video of a man bathing and brushing his teeth in the MS river. I understand that times are tough and rough, but the MS river has never been a clean source of water. One might venture to theorize though that it was probably cleaner at the moment than the flooded waters in New Orleans. Still, I think I would've gone dirty for a while. :)

-Constant gas fires - New Orleans continues to diminish as the days go on more and more fires pop up. Several apartment buildings have disappeared and the only way to fight fires is by helicopter water drop due to there not being any water pressure in the city.

-Death by the very thing that people thought would save their lives; generators; carbon monoxide poisoning - This is just another kick in the teeth that people do not need. Several uninformed people have either setup generators INSIDE their homes or in a position that was not safe and in turn died from the exhaust pumping into the air from the generators.

-A 700 foot levee breach repaired in 3 days with 2 other levee breaches to be repaired; Currently there are at least 4 pumps pumping water out of New Orleans and in at least one of the other levee breaches the water is back flowing back into the lake/canal from the city. As soon as the water equalizes the plan is to seal the levee breach immediately and start pumps at that location.

-Rescue workers search for the dead marking homes with orange spray paint. The homes are marked if there are dead inside, if there are persons that do not want to leave inside (people with pets), and if a certain home has already been rescued. The dead are not yet being collected and are everywhere around if not on every corner. Some people died waiting on the interstate amongst, in the dome, and at the convention center front doors to name a few places. Their bodies will wait there until all citizens are mandatory and forcefully (if necessary) evacuated. After everyone is evacuated and the city drained the disinfection process will begin, then body pickup, then I would think redevelopment/rebuilding of EVERYTHING.

-If you want to know exactly what happened down here watch the Katrina disaster special Oprah did where her trip began in New Orleans.

-Two civilian helicopters have crashed in rescue efforts and all inside are ok with minor injuries.

-People clawed at their roof tops from the inside to escape rising flood waters trying to escape from their attics. In many cases there were those that did not have the necessary tools to break thru their roof to get out and the water continued to rise.

I have written a great deal here and all of this information has taken me an entire day to complete. My purpose in writing all of this is so that it is not forgotten EVER by all citizens reading and so that the truth be told and not twisted or dramatized by national news coverage. For the most part normalcy has returned to Laplace because Laplace could not take on many evacuees and most are in other states or parishes further away. The only noticeable oddities that remain in Laplace is the 12 - 6AM curfew, waiting outside in lines to get into department stores, ban on sale of alcohol, and the intense traffic in and out of Jefferson Parish as residents are allowed to inspect, gather, and leave from their homes. I hope and pray that next time (because there will be one) this country takes these matters seriously and that we will be ready with implemented proactive plans that go into effect before it is too late. What people have failed to understand is that while New Orleans and Hell are synonymous right now, this is merely the 2nd worst scenario for the city. Had Katrina not steered east at the last minute sparring the city of its worst section (the Northeastern Quadrant of the storm) the flooding and devastation would've been much greater and death toll would've been much higher even than it is today. New Orleans would've looked very similar to the Mississippi Gulf Coast where there is little to nothing left. When the Northeastern quadrant of the storm hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast it was compared to a 200 mile wide F4 Tornado leaving -nothing- in its path. New Orleans not only would've been missing if the storm hadn't veered to the east, but it also would've been literally washed away in a 30 foot storm surge had it taken a direct hit. State government, federal government, senators, congressman, Mr. President - do something. This cannot be allowed to ever happen again.