I don't know about for the rest of the world, but for Louisiana, today is a big day. Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast. August 29th, 2005 is a day I won't soon (if ever) forget. I was 16. My older brother had just gotten married the week before. The Friday before the storm, I was at a youth event at church, and when my dad came to pick us\\me up, he told everyone that it looked like we were going to be in the path of this hurricane, which at that time was a category 5... the worst a hurricane can be (as measured by wind speed).
When most people think of Hurricane Katrina, they think of New Orleans, because it was the biggest city that got the most damage. Except it was not hit the hardest. The damage to New Orleans came because the levees broke, and since NOLA is literally below sea level, much of the city was flooded. Badly. But I didn't live in NOLA - I lived Southwest of NOLA, where there is serious danger of storm surge, because we're closer to the Gulf of Mexico. Because of this, any time we felt like we needed to evacuate due to a storm (there were many times we did, and also many times we didn't), we went to my grandparents' house, in Mississippi (right on the border of LA and MS). We wouldn't necessarily avoid the storm altogether that way, but they weren't in danger of flooding, plus they were just better equipped to handle the "aftermath, with a decent generator, and their own well for water.
While we learned on the Friday that we would most likely be hit by this storm, we waited until Sunday (the 28th) to actually evacuate. It took 5 hours to make the normally 2 hour trip to my grandparents' house, not due to traffic as much as the fact that the weather was already getting bad, and the fact that we normally would have driven through NOLA, but had to take an alternate route, because NOLA was in evacuation mode as well, and they essentially don't let anyone
in, only
out. By the time we arrived at my grandparents house, we were finding out that the storm path had moved, and that it was now headed directly towards where we now were. We considered all (including grandparents) going to other relatives' houses in the Baton Rouge area, but with how long we knew it would take us, and the weather getting worse, the adults decided that wasn't a good idea either. That decision meant that instead, we were going to ride out the storm.
I don't remember a whole lot about that night - we all went to sleep, expecting to lose electricity at any point. I seem to remember waking up during the night and being surprised that we did indeed still have power. Then Monday came., and with it the storm. The whole day was spent in suspense, just waiting out the stormy weather. "Stormy weather" is understatement, by the way. Unless you've experienced it yourself, you can't imagine what it's like. A Category 3 hurricane (which is what Katrina was when she hit land), has sustained winds of 111-129mph. It's unbelievable. The power of the storm was awesome - I was in awe all day. About halfway through the day, the eye of the storm came through. You hear stories about the eye - the calm in the middle of the storm. It was so true. Suddenly, everything just stopped. We went outside, saw squirrels running around, heard birds singing. It was eerie. At this point the phone land line still worked, and we were able to get in touch with some family members to let them know we were safe. I don't remember how long the eye lasted, but before too long, the second half of the storm picked up, even worse than the first half. We sat inside and watched as trees (large ones!) were uprooted, or simply split in two. More than one of these trees could easily have come through the house if they had fallen the right direction. One of them fell with it's branches
touching the window... but not breaking it.
The storm finally started to die down. Tuesday, August 30, the weather held no sign of a storm - it was sunny and calm again. But there was so much evidence that we had just been hit by a devastating storm. We didn't have power. None of the phones worked. We had no way of assuring our relatives that we were indeed safe. The yard was
a mess. Roads were covered in debris. And we started to hear on a battery operated radio about what was going on in NOLA. And it was bad.
The next several days were an adventure, to say the least. Stores were closed. People were cooking everything in their freezers (on the grill, or with propane burners), and sharing it with their neighbors. A dairy farmer close by was giving away raw milk, since he couldn't do anything with it (raw milk isn't so bad when that's all you have!). Gas stations were either closed due to no gas, or if they had gas, there were long lines and it became dangerous to try to get gas, due to what people were doing in their desperation.
We spent days cleaning up around the yard. Thankfully the only damage to the house was some missing shingles, and damaged vent cover, or something like that. It was so hot and humid., with no relief , except a cold shower. Sleeping was so frustrating. I would take a cold shower, then go to bed with as few clothes as was decent on, then lay there, with no blanket or even a sheet, until I couldn't tell if my hair was wet because I had just washed it, or because I was sweaty. During the day we had the generator running, but only running a few select appliances - like the refrigerator and the washing machine. At night, we would turn it off to save gas. Toilets had to be flushed with buckets of water, sparingly.
I remember taking turns riding around with my dad and grandfather, just for the a/c in the truck. We found any pay phone we could, hoping to find one that worked so we could reach relatives. Word finally got out around town where there was a working one. We called several family members to let them know we were safe. We found out later that my grandfather's brother was planning on driving to come find out if we were all right, and to bring supplies. Another relative was either planning to, or had, called the police to see if they could find us.
After several days of this, we contacted someone who was able to tell us that the damage to our hometown had been minimal. Then came the question of whether or not we'd actually be able to
get home. 5 days after the storm, we decided to go for it. As we got closer and closer to home, things looked better and better. Restaurants were even open! We stopped at Popeye's to eat something before actually going home, and may have also gone to the store.
We finally arrived home, to find that we even had electricity! And to find that some of our church members had "broken in" to our house.... to plug our freezer into a generator :)
That was mostly the end of our Katrina experience. My grandparents didn't power for something like 2 weeks. It took us a scary amount of time to find one of my uncles, who lived in NOLA. But for the most part, life returned to normal...
...Until the next time we drove through NOLA, and every single time since there. 10 years later, and it is still easy to spot leftover Katrina damage. With some things you have to know what you're looking for, but others, it's glaringly obvious. There are houses on the street my brother lives on that were simply abandoned. You can still see the waterline on some buildings- 3/4 of the way to the roof. Some houses still have the spray painted markings on them that indicate that they had been searched... and whether or not anyone was found inside. One of the most poignant things that stands out as a reminder to me of the disaster is the amusement park - what was once Six Flags New Orleans, and before that, Jazzland. Most of the equipment is still just standing there, deserted. You drive past and can see the big roller coaster - The Mega Zeph - looming out in the middle of nowhere. I visited that amusement park several times before, both when it was Jazzland, and then when Six Flags took it over. I remember the rides and various different things there. To see such a recognizable place and to remember all the fun times had there by thousands of people, completely abandoned and deteriorating, makes me sad every time.
Life went back to normal for a lot of us relatively quickly, 10 years ago. But, for good or for bad, New Orleans will
never be the same.
-MNM
(For glimpses as to what an abandoned, destroyed amusement park looks like, check out this
video. It's 35 minutes long, so you don't have to watch all of it, just enough to get a feel for what things look like now. I didn't plan on watching the whole thing myself, but found it fascinating, so did end up watching it to the end. JSYK, there is a curse word graffiti-ed onto a post that shows for about 9 seconds, starting at 2:05, if you want to avoid that.)
