My Hurricane Katrina Story - Part I

I live in New Orleans and have been meaning to post my personal Hurricane Katrina story here. I have been corresponding with an out-of-town friend who is asking me questions about, as we commonly call it here, The Storm. I thought posting our emails here would be a good start to my story. His emails are in red; Mine are in blue.

I hadn't realized you were down there. You survived, obviously, no thanks to Bush.

Carlos and I evacuated to Montgomery, Alabama for five weeks, but have been back since the beginning of October. New Orleans has a long way to go before it's back to normal. I could tell you many stories.

I was lucky: My house only had some wind damage - but no flooding - and I didn't get laid off from my job. (They let almost 70% of the employees go.)

How did you find a house on high enough ground there not to have flooding?

Contrary to what was shown on the news, not all of New Orleans was under water. I think the reported statistic was 80% of New Orleans flooded. That might be true, but it's misleading. That stat only counts Orleans Parish - New Orleans - not metro New Orleans. I live in Jefferson Parish, the next parish over, though I still live about seven miles from Bourbon Street. New Orleans is very compact.

My area of town didn't get ANY flooding. We did lose electricity for almost a month.

To Be Continued...