August 29, 2010 marks the 5th anniversary of probably the worst natural disaster the United States of America has ever witnessed. I often give an abridged version of my experience. Now would be a good time to give my full story.
The last week of August 2005, meteorologists began following Katrina when she was just a tropical depression. She made land fall in Florida as a Cat 1 hurricane, then came into the Gulf of Mexico. Around Friday, Aug 26th, I knew the storm was moving towards New Orleans. As we know, storms can change directions so I wasn't too worried. I went to work Sat the 27th like it was a regular day. Storm trackers continued watching Katrina. I left work that night thinking I would be back that next morning. (Oh I had just started that job Aug 1, 2005)
Sunday, August 28, 2005 I woke up & turned on the news to see where Katrina was now. She was getting stronger & had Cat 4 & 5 winds at some point while in the Gulf. I knew then I wasn't going to work. Still not too worried about the storm, I laid on the floor in my apartment I moved into around Aug 22, 2005. My roommate, our friend, & I had no plans of leaving, so we turned off the news & put Friday After Next into the DVD player. We periodically turned to the news & answered & made calls regarding Katrina.
I called home often to inform them of what was going on. Mommy told me to make the best & safest decision. I planned to stay thinking Katrina would be like Hurricane Ivan that "hit" the year before.
*Side story* For Ivan, myself & 2 friends tried to evacuate, but ended up back in the city. It took us 6 hrs to go ~30 miles. We stopped at Waffle House, ate, & made an executive decision to go back to N.O. & weather the storm. We ended up staying with a friend of my family's & I must say we had a good time! The city was indeed quiet, but we had fun being fed gourmet meals & walking down windy streets while on a mandatory curfew (rebels!) Ivan brought mostly wind damage to the city that year.
Calls continued coming in & going out of our phones. I made sure to keep track of the decisions being made by the lady I stayed with for Ivan. Her family NEVER evacuates for hurricanes. When she said they were leaving, my worries heightened. One of my good friends Elijah & I were going through our occasional "I'm mad at you & not talking to you" phase and when he called and said, "Carol please leave," I knew I had to do something. I started to convince my roommate & my friend that we need to go. I went outside & started talking to a family that stayed in the building across from mine. Coincidentally they had twins that went to Xavier and they were from Atlanta. The mom told me to get out. She gave me their number & asked me to keep her posted & she would do the same.
Back at my apartment, we started packing. And like every other evacuee, I packed about 3 days of clothes. I decided to leave my car with hopes that a tree would fall on it. The 3 of us climbed into one car & hit the road. That started our SIXTEEN HOUR journey to Decatur, GA.
Live.Love.Laugh.Sing.Dance.
Carol I think it's great that you are sharing your story. I'm also super glad that you did decide to leave. I really can't believe that it has been five years since Katrina...it seems like it wasn't at all that long and I can only imagine what it seems like to you and others that were affected by it on that level. I say that level because we were all affected by it. I mean I remember just being stuck watching CNN trying to figure out how that could happen. I mean not really the hurricane itself but how the people were being treated in the aftermath. I really appreciate you for sharing this.
ReplyDelete