Once Again I'm Telling My Story

Ofcourse You all Know by now that my blog was featured on CNN as the Katrina survivor blogging direct from the Astrodome. We'll Here's My Storm Story REVISED for the ones who missed it... or atleast want to know more than what was told the last time.

The week before Katrina Hit Louisiana. it was only a category 1 storm in the middle of the gulf. just days later it turned into a category 3 storm. My sister had evacuated with My nephew & little brother already. as the storm came toward the coast It had gotten stronger & Stronger .

The day before the hurricane Hit. one of my uncles, cousins, Tandra her husband Gregory Estes & family decided to stay at my place because we lived high enough off the ground *IF* the waters would rise. Same with my other family who lived in houses or in 1st floor appartments.. they all went by family to upper leveled appartments... We Rode out the storm that night, My brother jaime called thinging we were dead already. we told him we were safe & that I was on the PC Blogging That was until the power & Phone lines dropped. by then The storm had rose to a category 5.

That night we all stood awake all night while awaiting the storm. My Mom & Dad went to bed; so did Greg and the Kids . Tandra, Wayne & I stood talking about the good old days. (their old days) .. lol .. later Greg woke up & talked to us about what was going on in his life & how he'd met my cousin Tandra. he even talked of the Bible & how he loved his kids. Other than that it was Average things like sports and just life.

The morning came, everybody was up. Katrina was passing through; So Me , Greg, Wayne and Uncle Leroy started looking outside at the winds, rain & debris being blown all over. It was fun; we were sticking our heads out being stung in the face by the rain. we went back inside to chill out for a while. everyone was in the kitchen, we even our door open talkin to our neighbors about the storm also .. later on Things started falling The streets started to flood alittle and trees started falling. we all wanted the big tree infront my house to fall but it didnt :( .

While my mom was cooking they played cards & I went to take a nap. I woke up & the storm was over, But everyone started looting and playing in the waters. .. My neighbor even went to Hit up some of the stores. They came back with Ciggerettes, Liquor & food. we were even laughin at other people looting. This is when i got my camera. My mom wanted me to snap a picture of the water coming through the roof to show to FEMA ..lol .. so I decided to snap pics of the tree that had fallen & some other things.


later on that day My Cousins came over only to give us bad news. We had family trapped in a house near one of the pumping stations. . .. This is when Greg decided to go with them to get his daughter. .. little did they know, the waters were higher in that area. .. .. I went to sleep Only to wake up to The Terrible News. .. They Didnt tell me off back, but when I woke up I heard my Cousin Tandra Crying & Praying to God that it wasn't True .. so i went in the kitchen and Her childeren seemed to be fine, they werent crying at all. I went into the hallway and my Uncle was just looking out of the window. I asked What was wrong & i got no answer... I went on the porch and i saw my dad crying. He was the one that told me that Greg had Died in the storm. It was a Shock. my body was trembling & i shed my tears. We Knew that This man went out as a Hero. while on his way to save his daughter. He saw a young boy Drowning & decided that he'd ge save the boys life. He went under 3 times and never came back up. That was it. .. It was our family only loss.

We all cried about it. but there was a point till we couldn't cry anymore. The waters were rising and nightfall came & I took a nap, My mom & Tandra talked the night away. when she got ready to go to bed she woke me up, I was still shaken by the loss But I got up to talked to her what was more scary was that It was like 6 in the morning Pitch Black & all you could see was the reflection of the interstate in the water , From the other window you couldnt see anything. like a big Swamp or something.

The Next day the rescue mission started. The people We once thought were the Bad Guys became Heroes. They found boats, canoes, rafts, airbeds & kiddie pools & were saving peoples lives, Bringing them to Saftye. The coast guard came and started doing the same later on after they saw that there was a form of a rescue mission going on. They got people who were trapped in houses & appartments first. .We (my family) even helped the guard out with directions. they got many people to saftey; then they waited till the next day to get people from the other levels. But they only asked from Children & Elderly this time (this is when my cousin Tandra & her family decided to leave. I found out that my grandma was on there also. later my dad went to mark the spot where the flood had rose with a screw driver (he drove it in to a tree). he also went to check on some of our family also. There were babies Rescuing babies. pregnant woman stranded and everything .There were blackhawks and rescue choppers everywhere. it was like a Warzone; Exciting and scary at the same time. That all stopped untill the next morning. That night as we got packed up My neigbors boyfreind decided to cook a breakfast meal ., Eggs, Bacon, & Pancaked.... nice and good .. I was up listening to my neigbors down the Court Singing That "We Are the titans" them .. Which was replaced with "We Are The Projects" ..lol . It was Loud & they sang it proud .. I was so exited. after that I ate and napped like everyone else.


When the morning came it was a big lack of coast guards but they kept yelling"400 more are on the way" which was a lie. there were a few guards and the rest were The neighborhood rescue team ..lol We ate chicken and some of our found floating goods until they came to rescue us. They got our 2nd Neigbors First, Then my next door neighbors.. Then it was our time.

We had to slide down the poles to get on the boat because the waters were high and were said to get 9 feet higher. This is when I asked the guard where He came from. He told me that he came from Miami. which was so great because they were hit by the storm also. so we commend him for his efforts. :) . we got on the interstate to find out that Those Black hawks were there to bring food, water & also bring us to saftey. Those MRE's were Great.

We had to sleep on the interstate for 2 nights straight untill our squad of 50 had to load the buses. We got on those buses & were relieved. We finaly were able to get some Cool air and to sit down and not be hurting from the concrete like on the interstate. the bad part is that we had to leave our pets.

Riding Through the city was a Mess though. It was a big heartbreak for us. Our Whole Neigborhood was flooded... We thought we were in high waters in the hood; These houses were under water, some were even blown away from their foundations. If you looked to the left The waters were high. but looking to the right the waters were higher.

There were many people still trapped in their homes also. It was so nasty. later out bus driver stopped to check on this lady who lied lifeless on the interstate .. Yeah.. she was dead. they put a white cloth over her. & we all got back going. There were many other survivors Still on the interstate.. We were saying our "Ohh's & Ahh's & Aww's" Out durring the whole ride. Then we passed up the French Quarter area Where there was the Least amount of water.. The Canal street area.. It just looked like a Canal.. so did Tulane avenue (where Charity & tulane hospitals are ) . Poydras the areas near the Superdome were looking kinda dry. There were so many people still out there. you could see debris from the domes roof flying on the other side of the road. it was wild.

While crossing the Mississippi River we saw that the waters were flowing normaly and how dry looking the uptown area were & how the whole west bank was dry but had lots of wind damage.
on our way here we had the radio on.. the big announcement was the fact that they were closing Charity hospital for good. it broke everyones heart because it was were most of us were born.

When we made it to Houston there were mass amounts of people unloading the buses. This is when my mom went to give Gregs mom the bad news. She took it hard But then she was ok just knowing the fact that he died doing a good deed. See, Gregs mom had evacuated before hand and was awaitng on his arrival to Houston. They talked of greg for a while. We even were reunted with other family & friends. It was wild here the first few days. Thousands were here in the Dome and looking for family, Sleeping on cots & trying to get out of here .. all those pics you see are real. We are striving but we are living. There were many people with stories worse than mine.

New Orleans is now a ghosttown full of dead bodies & everything else. some day I'll be able to make it back. The city is like "The Day after tomorrow" come to life.. Just lost.

Thats basically It. you can read older my post now

Note From The Book