Katrina

Okay, I"m just going to warn you, this entry is upsetting. If you don't want to read about a first hand account of hurricane Katrina, stop now.

Today during training, a man who had survived hurricane Katrina spoke to us. He lived near the French quarter with his three cats. He walks with a cane and had just had just been released from the hospital from a recent surgery when he heard the storm was going to hit. Most people just thought the storm was really an empty threat, like the way people are always saying one of these days an earthquake is going to break off a piece of California. New Orleans had been through dozens of hurricanes that sounded this bad, none of them had done this. He said there wasn't any information on the news about what people should do and by the time the rains hit, the day before the storm, the 3 ways you can get out of new Orleans were already covered in water. This flooding happened every time it rained, making the roads virtually impassable, and besides, he didn't have a car.
When the hurricane actually hit, it looked like the Wizard of Oz outside. He saw tree limbs broken like twigs and at one point, a car blew by. When it stopped late at night, the entire city was dark and there was no water or electricity. The next day a grocery store opened the doors and told everyone to take whatever they needed. He grabbed a case of baked beans, and ended up having to eat them for a week. That same day, the looting began. People stole guns and while he was shut up in his house he could hear numerous gun shots throughout the day. Through his window he saw 2 thugs beat up an old lady with a baseball bat to steal the gallon of water she had. Looters were hunting down cops and opening fire. Three days after the storm, THREE DAYS, some people showed up in a government vehicle. This was the first time he came out of his house only to find people dead in the streets including a woman and her baby in a pile of rubble.
The took him to the convention center where he met a woman who had climbed on her roof with her elderly mother, her 8-month-old baby and a 16 oz bottle of water. They waited on her roof for 4 days when she turned around and her mother was gone. In her haste to find her mother she accidentally dropped the baby into the water. In five seconds she lost her mother and her child but she waited on her roof for 4 days for someone to help them.
After a week, he got on a helicopter and was told he would be taken to Washington D.C. After he got here, he called a man who was helping animals in houses and apartments and trying to reunite them with their owners. The man called him back and told him he had found one of his cats, simba, and had arrangements to send the cat to D.C. Animal planet is airing a show about reuniting Katrina victims with there pets and this man is in the episode on the weekend of Thanksgiving.
He told us he was glad we were going to help, and that New Orleans was a great lady, and that we should take care of her for him.
As you can imagine, I was in tears. I just didn't really understand what had happened there. It seemed so simple, like they should have just left, and that yeah, people were looting, but no big deal. To hear him talk about it, really changed my perspective on the whole thing. I just wanted to share it with you.