My Katrina Story, post 1
My Katrina Story
In this blog I plan to post pics of my home and hometown that were ravaged by Katrina. With it I am posting an excerpt from a book I am currently writing.
My Katrina Story
by: Alicia Kinchen Martinez
**is a work in progress**
I graduated from the University of New Orleans December 2004 with a bachelors in Civil Engineering. I was already engaged at the time and had most of my wedding planning done. I had worked at my company's corporate office for four years, and transferred to the Bay St. Louis, MS office to begin working as an Engineer In Training. Cory (dh) and I began house shopping. We looked at every house in our price range in Bay St. Louis and Waveland. There was one neighborhood we were in love with and we went to look at the two houses for sale in it. One of the homes was perfect. It was a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. It had 1800 sq ft with a double garage attached. One of the bedrooms was seperate from the others and would be perfect for an office. DH could stay up all night playing boom boom games and never disturb me. We bought the home and moved in in March 2005. April came quickly and before we knew it we were married. Our house quickly grew into a home with all the wedding presents.We really loved being married and living in our own huge home. From April 2005 to August 2005 we shared the best five months of our life. Then August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall and changed our lives forever.
The Friday before the storm hit, was a normal day at work. Everyone thought she was heading to the florida panhandle, and no one was concerned. As everyone was leaving we all said, "see you monday, have a nice weekend". My SIL was having a family game night party at her house the following evening, and I had promised to make some banners for her. I stayed late at work to print the banners up. At about 5:20pm, i get a call from my sister. She heard on the radio that Katrina was changing her heading. I was outside taking a smoke break, and didn't think too much of it. I told her I would go look online, as soon as I was done. I finished up, went inside, and pulled up the national hurricane center website. I click the projected path, and was shocked. Her projected path had changed. She was now heading towards NO. I started searching online for hotel rooms. I booked three rooms in Canton, MS and then called my mom. She had heard the report too and booked three rooms in north LA. I didnt' think much off it, cause this was the third time this season I had booked rooms in preparation to running. I left work, as I was locking the door, dh called me. He heard the storm was shifting too. Before he could say anything else, I said, "the rooms are booked, we're ready". Saturday morning was just a regular morning for us. We were well stocked for hurricane supplies from the two previous scares, so were just gonna relax. We planned to drive to Covington, LA at lunch to drop off the banners I had made to SIL. All morning the news kept saying Katrina was expected to strenghten. She was a category 2 when i went to sleep friday night, and was still a 2 the next afternoon. We were thinking that they were wrong and she wouldn't strengthen. The last hurricane scare, my city was under mandatory evac, but the storm missed us by a long shot. DH and I even went driving along the beach during the worst part. With this in mind, we got in the car and started heading towards SIL. We get on Hwy 90 and begin and begin driving towards the interstate. About 20 minutes after we left, the radio makes an announcement. Contra Flow will begin at 4pm this evening. Uh Oh. We call SIL and tell her we can't come. Once Contra Flow starts we wouldn't be able to get back to MS. She understands and forgives me for not getting the banners to her. We turn around. Since contra flow will start, that means people will begin to evac. We decide to get gas while we still can. We drive to Chevron by our house. We get in line. There is one car filling up and one waiting ahead of me. The one filling up finishes and the waiting one starts. We are getting anxious while waiting. We have been waiting for 20 minutes at this point, and are getting nervous. We notice some people pumping are having problems. Then the attendant comes over the loud speaker and announces they are out of regular gas, plus and premium only left. We are getting more nervous. The guy ahead of us is taking a long time. Someone at the next pump fills their car and then begins filling up gas cans. We are really getting nervous now. Do we leave and go to another gas station at the risk of being at the back of a longer line?? Do we stick it out?? Luckily, the attendant sees the guy filling tanks. She comes outside and announces that each person can fill their car and one gas tank. Anyone caught doing more, the pump will be shut off and the police called. Whew! We manage to get gas. We go home and try to relax, but are nervous cause we know we have to evac the next morning. I tried calling coworkers to see if they are leaving and to make sure our boss is okay with evacing and not going to work on monday. I can't get through to anyone. I am also calling my family to get our gameplan togethter. We used to follow each other out, but with me being in another state, we had to come up with another plan. I can only get through to them once in a while. For my cell phone to even get a signal, i have to walk down a block. This is weird, cause it usually works great on my front porch.
In this blog I plan to post pics of my home and hometown that were ravaged by Katrina. With it I am posting an excerpt from a book I am currently writing.
My Katrina Story
by: Alicia Kinchen Martinez
**is a work in progress**
I graduated from the University of New Orleans December 2004 with a bachelors in Civil Engineering. I was already engaged at the time and had most of my wedding planning done. I had worked at my company's corporate office for four years, and transferred to the Bay St. Louis, MS office to begin working as an Engineer In Training. Cory (dh) and I began house shopping. We looked at every house in our price range in Bay St. Louis and Waveland. There was one neighborhood we were in love with and we went to look at the two houses for sale in it. One of the homes was perfect. It was a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. It had 1800 sq ft with a double garage attached. One of the bedrooms was seperate from the others and would be perfect for an office. DH could stay up all night playing boom boom games and never disturb me. We bought the home and moved in in March 2005. April came quickly and before we knew it we were married. Our house quickly grew into a home with all the wedding presents.We really loved being married and living in our own huge home. From April 2005 to August 2005 we shared the best five months of our life. Then August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall and changed our lives forever.
The Friday before the storm hit, was a normal day at work. Everyone thought she was heading to the florida panhandle, and no one was concerned. As everyone was leaving we all said, "see you monday, have a nice weekend". My SIL was having a family game night party at her house the following evening, and I had promised to make some banners for her. I stayed late at work to print the banners up. At about 5:20pm, i get a call from my sister. She heard on the radio that Katrina was changing her heading. I was outside taking a smoke break, and didn't think too much of it. I told her I would go look online, as soon as I was done. I finished up, went inside, and pulled up the national hurricane center website. I click the projected path, and was shocked. Her projected path had changed. She was now heading towards NO. I started searching online for hotel rooms. I booked three rooms in Canton, MS and then called my mom. She had heard the report too and booked three rooms in north LA. I didnt' think much off it, cause this was the third time this season I had booked rooms in preparation to running. I left work, as I was locking the door, dh called me. He heard the storm was shifting too. Before he could say anything else, I said, "the rooms are booked, we're ready". Saturday morning was just a regular morning for us. We were well stocked for hurricane supplies from the two previous scares, so were just gonna relax. We planned to drive to Covington, LA at lunch to drop off the banners I had made to SIL. All morning the news kept saying Katrina was expected to strenghten. She was a category 2 when i went to sleep friday night, and was still a 2 the next afternoon. We were thinking that they were wrong and she wouldn't strengthen. The last hurricane scare, my city was under mandatory evac, but the storm missed us by a long shot. DH and I even went driving along the beach during the worst part. With this in mind, we got in the car and started heading towards SIL. We get on Hwy 90 and begin and begin driving towards the interstate. About 20 minutes after we left, the radio makes an announcement. Contra Flow will begin at 4pm this evening. Uh Oh. We call SIL and tell her we can't come. Once Contra Flow starts we wouldn't be able to get back to MS. She understands and forgives me for not getting the banners to her. We turn around. Since contra flow will start, that means people will begin to evac. We decide to get gas while we still can. We drive to Chevron by our house. We get in line. There is one car filling up and one waiting ahead of me. The one filling up finishes and the waiting one starts. We are getting anxious while waiting. We have been waiting for 20 minutes at this point, and are getting nervous. We notice some people pumping are having problems. Then the attendant comes over the loud speaker and announces they are out of regular gas, plus and premium only left. We are getting more nervous. The guy ahead of us is taking a long time. Someone at the next pump fills their car and then begins filling up gas cans. We are really getting nervous now. Do we leave and go to another gas station at the risk of being at the back of a longer line?? Do we stick it out?? Luckily, the attendant sees the guy filling tanks. She comes outside and announces that each person can fill their car and one gas tank. Anyone caught doing more, the pump will be shut off and the police called. Whew! We manage to get gas. We go home and try to relax, but are nervous cause we know we have to evac the next morning. I tried calling coworkers to see if they are leaving and to make sure our boss is okay with evacing and not going to work on monday. I can't get through to anyone. I am also calling my family to get our gameplan togethter. We used to follow each other out, but with me being in another state, we had to come up with another plan. I can only get through to them once in a while. For my cell phone to even get a signal, i have to walk down a block. This is weird, cause it usually works great on my front porch.