Hurricane Katrina and how it affected me.....
Take a deep breath in and let out a sigh of relief...that's what I'm currently doing.
I'm sitting at my boyfriend Marc's sister's house on Whidbey Island. I'm back in the Seattle area and we are currently looking for housing and jobs downtown. We brought a 4 x 8 uhaul trailer with us and Marc's best friend, Ian.
I had moved in with Marc in July, and thank god for that location-wise. I been where I was origianlly living ended up under water. 2 miles east of the french quarter and 2 blocks off of the mississippi.....yah, I'm a lucky girl. Marc and I were living in Ponchatoula, which is on the North Western side of Lake Ponchartrain. All we really had to deal with as far as the actual storm itself was a bunch of wind and rain. We were living in a building in their tiny little downtown area that was about a block long in total. (We lived upstairs above an antique shop. How quaint huh? I loved it, great apartment!) One of the buildings at the end of the block had a tin roof that blew off and took the whole front of the brick building with it! That was exciting to say the least. (yes I have pictures)
Day one after the hurricane we went into Baton Rouge for supplies and to check out the scene. Not too bad really and after many attempts for each number we could call out on the cell phone. We spoiled ourselves and got Jack in the Box. Seemed quite decadent at the time. That night we went to our friends' house in Hammond (about 5 mins away). He had a tree fall on his house but it was really only leaning on the roof, no real damage was done. As we drove over to his house we had to make our way around down power lines and trees, sometimes so far as having to drive in mud filled ditches under down power lines. All was silent, and all was black... eerie to say the least. The house next door to our friend's house was in the process of being looted! About 17 police cars showed up. It was pretty exciting. It was a real eye opener for us though since we were in such a small community and already "the madness" as we dubbed it, had began. Marc and I decided to drive to his parents evacuated house and see if it had befallen any damage. The scene driving was the same, eerie, silent, black, deserted, trees and powerlines decorating the streets. Thankfully thier house was okay, though the houses on either side had trees through thier roofs. On the quiet drive back, I was trying to grasp the fact that this really wasn't a movie set, this was real life and in the surreality of the moment marc broke the silence "What do you think about moving to Washington?" I blinked a few times...."what?" He owns his own company, (NOLAgraphics.com) web design and development, "I don't see many people putting out much money into web development for thier companies. Any money these people have is going to be put into rebuilding thier businesses." I agreed, and we made plans from there.
The next day we left the house to drive into Baton Rouge again and get a Uhaul trailer. All we did was get a uhaul trailer, check on an address, get gas and go to taco bell...we got home at 11 pm. The evacuees from the city had inundated the outlying towns, Baton Rouge had electricity and resources and like a moth to the flame.... It was only natural they would go there, hell, we went there. The natural progression of the evacuees would be as water down a hill, they would all spread into the outlying communities. Ponchatoula was one of them. All of a sudden our safety had become an issue along with everything else. That night and all the next day we packed up anything we could and invited ian to come along with us. Packed away all our "must haves" went into the uhaul. The three of us piled into the car and decided to head as far north as the half tank of gas could take us. We got to McComb Mississippi, where there was no gas, no lights no nothing, other than a red cross shelter set up in a church and a lot of people ready to stay up all night to get to the gas stations as soon as the gas came in. Martial law was in effect and we had to stay in the church's parking lot. Most were very nice people but there was definatey a feeling of "survive at any cost" in the air. Ian stayed up all night and around 10 am (the lines started forming at 6 am, there was mass confusion and a lot of pissed off people as cops re-routed cars here and there) we got gas and got the hell out of there. We head west into northern louisiana, where normalacy seemed to resume, though they were all out of gas as well. We went to Paris Texas, then Texarcana, then into Oklahoma and we went North all the way to south dakota where we hit I-90 and headed west young man.
It really is a dog eat dog world when the proverbial shit hits the fan...
We have survived solely on PAYPAL DONATIONS to get us this far. Paid for food, gas, flat tires and everything else so far. Of course now that we made it, we're dead broke again. If anybody knows of any web design jobs, restuarant jobs in 4-5 star restuarants, or medical assistant locations lemme know ;) Or a place the 3 of us could crash for a couple of weeks??
*shrugs* at least we're safe and away from the disaster. I'm sure as soon as we're on our feet we'll be doing anything we can to give back to the other victims that weren't so lucky.
I'm sitting at my boyfriend Marc's sister's house on Whidbey Island. I'm back in the Seattle area and we are currently looking for housing and jobs downtown. We brought a 4 x 8 uhaul trailer with us and Marc's best friend, Ian.
I had moved in with Marc in July, and thank god for that location-wise. I been where I was origianlly living ended up under water. 2 miles east of the french quarter and 2 blocks off of the mississippi.....yah, I'm a lucky girl. Marc and I were living in Ponchatoula, which is on the North Western side of Lake Ponchartrain. All we really had to deal with as far as the actual storm itself was a bunch of wind and rain. We were living in a building in their tiny little downtown area that was about a block long in total. (We lived upstairs above an antique shop. How quaint huh? I loved it, great apartment!) One of the buildings at the end of the block had a tin roof that blew off and took the whole front of the brick building with it! That was exciting to say the least. (yes I have pictures)
Day one after the hurricane we went into Baton Rouge for supplies and to check out the scene. Not too bad really and after many attempts for each number we could call out on the cell phone. We spoiled ourselves and got Jack in the Box. Seemed quite decadent at the time. That night we went to our friends' house in Hammond (about 5 mins away). He had a tree fall on his house but it was really only leaning on the roof, no real damage was done. As we drove over to his house we had to make our way around down power lines and trees, sometimes so far as having to drive in mud filled ditches under down power lines. All was silent, and all was black... eerie to say the least. The house next door to our friend's house was in the process of being looted! About 17 police cars showed up. It was pretty exciting. It was a real eye opener for us though since we were in such a small community and already "the madness" as we dubbed it, had began. Marc and I decided to drive to his parents evacuated house and see if it had befallen any damage. The scene driving was the same, eerie, silent, black, deserted, trees and powerlines decorating the streets. Thankfully thier house was okay, though the houses on either side had trees through thier roofs. On the quiet drive back, I was trying to grasp the fact that this really wasn't a movie set, this was real life and in the surreality of the moment marc broke the silence "What do you think about moving to Washington?" I blinked a few times...."what?" He owns his own company, (NOLAgraphics.com) web design and development, "I don't see many people putting out much money into web development for thier companies. Any money these people have is going to be put into rebuilding thier businesses." I agreed, and we made plans from there.
The next day we left the house to drive into Baton Rouge again and get a Uhaul trailer. All we did was get a uhaul trailer, check on an address, get gas and go to taco bell...we got home at 11 pm. The evacuees from the city had inundated the outlying towns, Baton Rouge had electricity and resources and like a moth to the flame.... It was only natural they would go there, hell, we went there. The natural progression of the evacuees would be as water down a hill, they would all spread into the outlying communities. Ponchatoula was one of them. All of a sudden our safety had become an issue along with everything else. That night and all the next day we packed up anything we could and invited ian to come along with us. Packed away all our "must haves" went into the uhaul. The three of us piled into the car and decided to head as far north as the half tank of gas could take us. We got to McComb Mississippi, where there was no gas, no lights no nothing, other than a red cross shelter set up in a church and a lot of people ready to stay up all night to get to the gas stations as soon as the gas came in. Martial law was in effect and we had to stay in the church's parking lot. Most were very nice people but there was definatey a feeling of "survive at any cost" in the air. Ian stayed up all night and around 10 am (the lines started forming at 6 am, there was mass confusion and a lot of pissed off people as cops re-routed cars here and there) we got gas and got the hell out of there. We head west into northern louisiana, where normalacy seemed to resume, though they were all out of gas as well. We went to Paris Texas, then Texarcana, then into Oklahoma and we went North all the way to south dakota where we hit I-90 and headed west young man.
It really is a dog eat dog world when the proverbial shit hits the fan...
We have survived solely on PAYPAL DONATIONS to get us this far. Paid for food, gas, flat tires and everything else so far. Of course now that we made it, we're dead broke again. If anybody knows of any web design jobs, restuarant jobs in 4-5 star restuarants, or medical assistant locations lemme know ;) Or a place the 3 of us could crash for a couple of weeks??
*shrugs* at least we're safe and away from the disaster. I'm sure as soon as we're on our feet we'll be doing anything we can to give back to the other victims that weren't so lucky.