August 28, 2005 Five Years Ago Today
The car was gassed up and packed; we checked in w/friends and family; and started on what will turn out to be a journey we never expected to take. We packed for 2 or 3 days thinking worse case we would stay in Mississippi for a few days.
The future was uncertain.
We drove 228 miles to
Forest, Mississippi in about 9 hours, a trip that would normally takes about 3 hours. How did I chose Forest? Because it was about 160 miles inland and I expected winds would be somewhat diminished over land by that point.
August 29th the day of Hurricane Katrina. We're anxious, waiting out the storm at a motel in Forest. We speak with a family from St. Bernard Parish who loaded their truck, including all their photos, paintings. They've been through a bad hurricane before and didn't want to take any chances. Thinking about them, I imagine they indeed lost everything that wasn't in the truck.
When the hurricane reached Forest, winds were still strong enough to tear the roof off our motel.
August 30th, sitting in a motel with half a roof, in Forest, Mississippi, without power, we have to go. Somewhere. Anywhere. We are unsure what direction to head. A friend was driving to Arkansas so we went west to catch up with her.
Vicksburg had power so we stopped for lunch. Nice town on the Mississippi. News trickles in. Just heard a levee broke in New Orleans. Wasn't sure of the magnitude. A lot of misinformation flying around right after the storm. We ate at a Vicksburg luncheonette, walls plastered with celeb pics, turns out owner was a musician and played w/Bo Diddly. No mention of the levee breaks from anyone having lunch.
Back onto I-20 and up US-65 to Arkansas. We kept driving until Little Rock. Checked into a motel and saw CNN for the first time. Death, destruction, flooding, fires. I just assumed our house was flooded, broken into by cadaver searchers, and picked over by looters. The lack of communication out of New Orleans was frustrating. A week later I spoke w/neighbor for a few minutes he assured us our home was relatively in tact.
We stayed in Little Rock, Arkansas for almost a month. Thanks to Vicki and so many, many friends who tracked us down and offered shelter. Hats off to all the people of Little Rock and restaurateurs for their hospitality. Special thanks to the Red Cross and Salvation Army for being there with food, cash, and answering our questions. Little Rock gets a thumbs up.
Out of the blue an employment company called me a few weeks after Katrina, turned out he found my name on a Katrina refugee job board. The guy offered me web work up north! All my New Orleans clients were scattered in Atlanta and Houston, I took the job and we headed north, expecting to return to New Orleans just as soon as the national guard allows us in. Time passed and we are currently living up north.
I miss our friends and all of the little things that makes New Orleans unique. The images of the death, destruction and chaos is imprinted on my mind. Damn you CNN for keeping us glued to the television and thank you CNN for on the ground updates.
Some people far away think the city is rebuilt when they see images from the French Quarter, but New Orleans is still rebuilding and needs your help. Donate to your favorite New Orleans / Gulf Coast charity, offer to build some homes with Habitat for Humanity, or think of the music,
the soul of New Orleans. here are a few music organizations
and there are many more great organizations, nobody was left off intentionally.
"Thank you" doesn't quite say it all, but thank you again for the help, too many people to call out in a blog post and I'd be sure to forget two or three so I send this thank you to "everyone".
