Katrina Stories

Email sent to all Teacher Consultants:
What a rough start to the school year we have all had, but at least writing
about it has helped many students deal with the trauma. It seems everyone has
stories to tell about one storm or another, or even both weather events.

In hopes of making your life in the classroom a bit easier, I am giving you two prompts for your use to generate writing about the storms and the resulting aftermath in the lives of you and your students. I invite you to submit them for possible selection for the SLWP BLOG, now devoted to gathering selected writings for "Voices of the Southeast: Hurricane Stories" from both teachers and students. Some of the writing submitted will be selected and edited for the blog and possible inclusion for a KSLU radio show. Submission of the writing is easy; simply send your submissions to the SLWP Tech Liaison, Joan Anderson at __ and she'll acknowledge receipt promptly and notify me to await your permission slips. You'll need to send the permissions via snail mail to me before publishing is possible. I've included one at the end of this message so you can cut and paste it for duplication.

We hope you will respond so we can build on the Rural Voices, Country Schools, [http://www.i-55.com/rvcs] tradition of our site.

Prompt One: The Storm. Tell your story of how the day of Katrina or Rita was for you. Where were you? Who was with you? How did you feel? What events happened that changed your feelings? What were the ways of coping you and your family had?

Prompt Two: The aftermath of Katrina or Rita or both. Reflect on the affect of the storm on you and others. How did you, your family, community, region, or state change? What were the short term, immediate effects? How was your world two weeks after the storm? What changes are permanent at this point?

--------------------The permission slip-----------------------
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I understand that if I subsequently withdraw my permission it is unlikely that my writings and recordings will be removed from material which has already been published or broadcast.
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Date________________________________________________________
*Students of area elementary and secondary schools must provide this additional information:
Student’s Name______________________________________
Student’s contact information in case piece is selected:
Home address_______________________________
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Student’s School_______________________________________________________
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Please email this form along with each entry, and send a hard copy with appropriate signatures to
Dr. Richard Louth
Director, Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project
SLU 10327, Hammond LA, 70402

Writings submitted from SLWP and Acadiana Writing Projects

Keri Lanclos
Katrina!

Wind, water, and more water, soon it was all there.
It began to be so much, no one could bear.

Katrina
Katrina

How could this happen to New Orleans, a city so unique?
Everyone blamed everyone for being so weak


It was something that destroyed everything we loved
Everyone screamed as they asked for help from above.

Katrina
Katrina


Help came so slow and many homes were lost
Now, the city is just beginning to pay the cost!


Days, weeks, and months began to pass,
Everything just happened so darn fast

Katrina
Katrina

When I began thinking of what to write about, I thought of
something that everyone would have heard about; Hurricane Katrina. As I
brainstormed more and more, I got a lot of ideas from my journal. I had
written an entry on the Hurricane, which contained a lot of my thoughts
of the storm. I decided to make it short and to the point. I did this, because I didn't want to bore the person listening. In the lyrics, I described what basically happened to the city of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. I also wanted to describe the devastation that is being felt in the aftermath. I wanted someone who had not heard about the storm's damage, to be able to capture an image of what it was like, by just reading a few words.


If I was to hear this on the radio, or played by a musician it
would definitely be a slow song. I could never see something so
devastating, being played so happily. The mood of this song would be
sad. If the lyrics would be sang, I would emphasize the Katrina, Katrina
part, because that is what the song is about.

When someone writes lyrics to a song, I feel that the words should
matter to them the most. The words to me, is how a lot of people tend
to judge the song. Not only are the words a big issue, but the rhythm is
also something I think song writers should look at. If a song has happy and
joyful words, you wouldn't want a slow, boring rhythm. Usually a person
can predict the mood of a song by just reading the words. If I was to read
song lyrics about someone dying, I would automatically be prepared for a
slow song. If I was to read lyrics about holidays or friends, I would be
prepared for a fast, up beat song.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sarah Hinrichs
Dr. Louth
English 101
1 December 2005

Our World is Changing

Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us
Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us

The flood waters pour out devastation
The sun shines hope
Unexpected waters, unexpected wind
What will tomorrow bring us?
What will God send?

Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us
Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us

The sites all over the news
Gives everyone the blues
Watching our family and friends struggle,
While watching our home city die
There's not much hope we will rebuild,
But we will put up a fight
With all our might

Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us
Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us

All the soldiers and workers on there way
To yet again save the day
All we need is hope faith and love
With the power from above
And our city will be back again
Right here, right now

Right here, right now
Our world is now changing for the better
Right here, right now
Our world is now changing for the better


Sarah Hinrichs
Dr. Louth
English 101
1 December 2005
Our World is Changing


Is our world changing? The answer to that question is yes. The
world never stops it is always turning, changing, and discovering new
things. People are constantly having new experiences everyday whether
those experiences are good or bad. I have gone through a few traumatic
experiences: broken arm which yielded my tennis career, serious car
accident that had everything in my life on pause, and my home was
damaged by hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina has not only affected my
family's lives, but everyone's lives that live in the cultural city of New
Orleans.


The song, "Our World is Changing", I wrote was written about all
the devastating events and experiences our city of New Orleans has gone
through. The city was damaged by an unexpected category five
hurricane. Many residents of New Orleans stayed in town to ride out the hurricane thinking it was not going to be that bad. In result, these people were found dead or stranded in their homes or on roofs in the heart of the continuous rising waters. All of the residents of New Orleans, including myself, are currently displaced and working on rebuilding their homes
and lives. The outcome of this event was awfully upsetting, but the city of New Orleans and our country are helping to rebuild our remarkable city back and better than before.


When writing this song, I thought "Our World is Changing" should be
played at a slow alternative melody by a musician. The chorus "Right
here, right now our world is always changing around us; Right here,
right now our world is always changing around us" should be sung louder than
the other stanzas emphasizing this part making it the focus point of the
song. The last stanza the chorus is changed to "Right here, right now our
world is now changing for the better; Right here, right now our world is now
changing for the better" should be sung more loudly than the other
stanzas also being set as a focus point.


This song summarizes the devastation of New Orleans and other
neighboring states who have been effect exceptionally well. There were
songs written about the numerous about of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
terrorist, 9-11, Columbine shooting, along with a countless amount of
other traumatic events that have affected our country. This event did not
only affect one city, New Orleans, but all of the southern states and the
country. New Orleans is a big port for the United States and is also
made up of a never ending cultural background. It was time for this
horrible event of hurricane Katrina to be expressed and heard about in song.



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tomorrow

Capture my eye in black and white
A tree of hope instead of sorrow

A world of loneliness in red velvet
The beauty of which is deceased

Sad people absorb the message
It's extraordinary and unknown

I choose to go left

To pass by would be a mistake
This is what I'm looking for

Hope for tomorrow

Black and white but most is gray
A tiny window
An interpretation


Maureen Fleming
English 101
Dr. Louth
28 November 2005
Tomorrow


Imagine a black and white photo, with a few people, no gray. In the
center of the picture is a large gray tree. The tree is showing the
people how their lives should be lived. The gray areas of life are the most
exciting, and the people right now are lonely and sad. The red velvet
is a beautiful fabric meant to represent the beauty of the town. The town
has gone so long without gray areas that the beauty of the velvet has
faded, making the town less pleasant. The people are trying to understand what
the gray tree means, but the message is so big the people are overwhelmed.
They consider the tree to be extraordinary with an unknown message. Some of
the people figure it out and decide to make life good again. This is
represented by going left. The people who ignore the message of the
tree are missing out on a life of joy and happiness. They are missing out on
the way it should be, which is what everyone is looking to find. The people
want to know how to make the future happier. Making things gray is the
answer. Because some of the people did not want to accept the meaning
of the tree some of the painting remains solid black or white, but most of
it turns out to be gray. The tiny window is tree's message and the
interpretation is how the people followed through with that message.


If this song were to be played it would probably be a blues song.
It makes me think it is a sad song. However, I would prefer it to be
played with a more upbeat tempo. The song is about hope and the future. The
black and white colors along with the last stanza should be emphasized the
most,they are the most important parts of the song. My favorite line in the
song is "a tree of hope instead of sorrow" because it says so much about the
song. The town starts off lonely and sad but this one tree of hope sets
it free. This is a tree of hope amidst the world of sorrow. I decided to
write this song because I thought it would be an interesting idea to write
about a world being rebuilt emotionally. The world today has so many lonely
people that I wanted them to know there is a happy place meant just for
them. And most likely that place is gray.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mandi Walters
English 101
Dr. Louth
November 29, 2005

You're My Wish

Will you invade my soul?
I'm willing to take the risk
I want you to make me whole
So give me just one kiss

In the midst of chaos there's only wishful thinking
And I know that this isn't right
Without you here my heart is sinking
So you're my wish tonight

So you say you can't give my feelings back
But I can't make it all alone
Right now my life is so off track
I wish that you'd come home

In the midst of chaos there's only wishful thinking
And I know that this isn't right
Without you here my heart is sinking
So you're my wish tonight

You're my wish tonight
You're my wish tonight
You're my wish tonight

Yeah, you're my wish


Mandi Walters
English 101
Dr. Louth
November 29, 2005

You're My Wish


When I looked through my journal to write my song lyrics, I decided
to take bits and pieces of entries and put them together. Oddly enough,
alot of the sentences seemed to flow together better than I had
imagined.The song that I wrote is called "You're My Wish".

The first verse is a person asking someone else to invade their
soul. This line means that this person wants to be discovered for what
they are and aren't. They want to be known and understood completely,
whether it is good or bad. This line is followed by another stating that they are willing to take the risk of the other person knowing all these things about them. He or she is hoping that regardless of the things that he or she has done in the past, the person will love and respect them. He or she states that they want to feel whole, and for the person to kiss them. By this I meant that he or she wants the other person to love them despite his or
her faults. The kiss is a symbol of their union.


The chorus talks about how in the midst of chaos only wishful
thinking is possible. This could either mean that the chaos that his or
her life was is misleading, but the other person can only hope that things
will be better in the future; or it could also mean that with all the
feelings he or she has for this other person, that he or she can only hope that
they can be together. It goes on to talk about he or she knowing that the
situation is not right. He or she feels that they should be together.
By using the line about his or her heart sinking without the person there,
I tried to represent the emptiness that the he or she feels without the
other person around. Be my wish tonight simply means that he or she has
wished for them to be together, and wants it to come true, thus making the
other person their wish.


The second verse is obviously some time later when the speaker
finds out the the feelings he or she has for the other person can not
bereciprocated. He or she states that they can't make it on their own,
meaning that they can not be without the person they have cared about
for so long. His or her life is off track because for all this time he or
she had been building dreams on this one wish, and now that it will never
come true, they do not know what to do. He or she cries out that they wish
the person would come home. I use the word home here to define a feeling of
love and security, the love and security he or she could give the
other.


At the end of the song the line "You're my wish tonight" repeats. I
used repetition to show the speaker's desperation. Even though he or
she has been told that it will never be, they will never give up trying to
win the other person's heart, and continue to feel the way they always had.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From SLWP TC Caroline Derbes "One Happy Ending"

My son, Clark, was volunteering at the Pete Maravich Center those first few days after the storm. He was helping bring mattresses, blankets, etc. to the temporary medical patients that were brought there. He called me that afternoon to tell me about the sweetest little Filipino woman whom he had befriended.

The next day when he called, he was so concerned about his new friend, "Miss" Terasita, who was a 67-years old widow with no family in the United States.

I realized that I had taught some Filipinos in the gifted program, so I called Mrs. de Guzman who volunteered to go get Ms. Terasita from the Broadmoor Presbyterian Church and bring her to her family's home. She had been transferred there after being taken to the hospital for a checkup. At dinner that day, the grandmother of the family became so upset to hear the harrowing details of Ms. Terasita's near drowning that she had a mini-stroke. Then Mrs. de Guzman called to say that she had been depending on her mother to help care for Terasita when they returned to work and would have to return her to the church during the week.

I called another student's mother, Mrs.Patolilic, who said she'd start calling her church friends. Clark went to visit her, and finally that afternoon, he called to tell me that a family in Zachary offered to take her in. On Labor Day, Clark joined us for the bar-b-que dinner which we had prepared for our own extended family who had sought refuge at our home. He told me that Ms. Terasita had $1500 in the bank to by a ticket back to her home in the Philippines, but that her passport was in her watery apartment.

He had spent all afternoon talking with officials trying to find a way to get her a replacement passport. She would have to travel to Houston to do that and would have to pay for it with cash. The woman with whom she was staying offered to drive her to Houston but had no money for gasoline. "Mom, she needs $365 cash for the passport and the gas. Would you please pay it?" I told him hat I was not accustomed to handing that much cash to total strangers but that I trusted his judgment on this. Thankfully, the ATM
still had money in it even on the last afternoon of a 3-day weekend. Upon receiving it, Clark put it in an envelope and drove straight to Zachary to take it to Ms. Terasita.
She called me after returning from Houston to tell me what a wonderful son I had and to thank me.

Three weeks after Katrina, she called me to tell me she was on her way to the airport to fly home. Clark met her there to say good-bye. Oh, and she was able to fly for free thanks to the generosity of the airlines. Now, Clark has a new friend and is making plans to go visit her in the Philippines in the future. (He'll have to sell a lot more paintings to afford that trip.) I am glad that we had a chance to create some international goodwill toward Americans while helping this sweet lady from across the world.




Rebecca Soens Woodworth

Ashes to Ashes … Dust to Dust

It has been a long, hot summer, but it’s finally fall. I look out on my yard and see orange,
yellow, red and white flowers, a blue sky, and feel a cool tinge of autumn in the early morning frost. Within 100 miles, in nearby New Orleans, over 1000 people died only 2 months ago. Some died suddenly from drowning, trauma, or injury. Others died over a period of days suffering hyperthermia from a baking heat, dehydration, or despair so acute that they took their own life.

I was here in my home hot, with out power but safe. I wasn’t surrounded by water or
compelled to stay in a dangerous position because I was caring for young, ill or elderly friends, family, patients or strangers who were stranded. I didn’t wait for people to pull me off my roof, or watch my mother slip into a deadly coma knowing there was medicine and help somewhere, but not here or nearby.

I wanted to go in to help them …these strangers crying out…these people who were in danger, suffering and dying. Every time I heard a voice on the radio of someone who had been rescued I rejoiced, if only briefly. I love the valiant coast guard. Hooray for the Canadian Mounties. Every time I heard that this Firefighters unit or that police team was going in and assisting I felt a pang of relief. The pressure inside my chest would seem to spasm with a brief contorted sigh. But where was the army? They have communication capabilities. They can establish and run supply lines in any conditions. They have transport vehicles that will empty out the endangered, neglected and the missed in short hours. That’s what Chertoff said he would do! Where is the army?

Neglect….. Disdainful, contemptible inhumane disrespect. Mr. And Mrs. Mangano were
indicted for neglectful manslaughter because they refused to have their nursing home patients evacuated. St Bernard president Henry Rodriguez was blunt. Over and over he repeated his plea for two days before Hurricane Katrina Hit. "Get out. Please evacuate. I don’t have enough body bags". He really didn’t have enough body bags.

As Halloween approaches I see it more clearly that ever before as "All Hallows Eve". Never before have I felt as acutely, the desire and need to honor those who died and respect death itself.

We all experience various degrees of adventure, terror and horror in our lives. I Thank Aaron Broussard for his perspective. " When you look back on your life, this will be a defining moment. Other than if you loose someone dear and I hope you won’t, this will be your defining time. What you do now is that important. This will be what you tell your grandchildren about".

The one thing I hope our people understand is that if our cities are attacked or devastated
they cannot handle the crisis them selves. Few doctors would suggest that a pregnant woman be her own mid-wife, or that an injured soldier reset his own leg or take out his/ her own bullet.

We live in hope that they can if they need to, but we don’t stand on the sidelines and chide them if they don’t. We are human and have empathy. We do what we can. So let’s get a plan and not leave a bad situation as it is. We need the capability to have crisis first response on a massive level.

From Nettie McDaniel and her students:

CATEGORY 5 SHOTGUN

Written by TYLER C. GOODEN

7th grade

Katrina bullying everything around

Katrina harming the innocent

Katrina scattering everyone like pencils from a dropped pencil box

Katrina destructive monster

Katrina crushing a blue sofa into nothing

Katrina menace to society

Katrina cornucopia of madness

Katrina knocking down two gigantic pine trees in front of my house destroying earth and concrete

Katrina home taker

Katrina crime scene

Katrina versus mankind

Katrina having mercy on my cat

Katrina battleground

Katrina sister of Denis the menace

Katrina ruining my baseball posters

Katrina expanding my bed ten times its normal size

Katrina category 5 shotgun


The Broken Trampoline
Written by Andre Vincent, 5th grade

Once there was a lonely trampoline that nobody ever jumped on.
It was broken. The springs were almost all broken. Then one day
everybody left. He got scared. Then the sky got black. It was a
hurricane. Now he was really scared. It started to rain. It
flooded, and there was a dog flying. The hurricane was getting
closer, and the power went out. Strong winds were blowing. It
sounded like a high pitched squeak. Suddenly he got lifted up
and thrown across the street and broke. The last thing he
heard was boom.

That was the end of the demolished trampoline. When the family
came back they saw the trampoline. It looked like a junkyard.
Then they buried it.


HOPE
Written by David Hilbun, 8th grade

"Adam, get behind me!" his dad called over the roaring winds and splashing waves. Adam’s reply was cut off by the crash of a huge oak tree being ripped out of the dirt and slamming into the ground a few meters away with the force of a stick of dynamite. "Quick, into the storm cellar!" The storm cellar had been designed by Adam’s dad years ago. It was made of 6-inch solid steel and had enough MRE’s to feed 12 hungry people for a week.

They made it to the door and were able to get inside. Fretful, cold, and frightened, they
got out of the storm. In their "secret place", as Adam called it when he was littler, they
felt strangely peaceful. Maybe it was the knowledge that they both were safe, maybe it
was the comfort of the cellar, they didn’t know, but at least they had each other.
Over time, the noise outside got worse and worse. At one point, it was so loud that
it felt as if a huge gong were crashing inside their heads. Suddenly, the noise stopped.

"What’s going on, Dad?" Adam asked.

"I think the eyewall passed over us," he said. "We can probably go outside for a little while."

Outside was a scene of total destruction. Their house was gone, a few planks in its place.

The school was wrecked, the remains of an airliner stewn all over the football field. But worst, they saw a huge fallen tree. Sticking out from under it was a human arm.
Feeling sick, Adam turned to go underground when the eyewall passed over. Hundred-mile-an-hour winds lifted Adam into the air. Screaming, flipping over and over, he bid a mental farewell to his father and a mental hello to his mother. Crying, thinking all hope was lost, he was miraculously caught by his dad. Inch by inch, they made their way back to the cellar, where they waited out the storm.

Finally, it was over. They looked around at the scene surrounding them in awestruck silence. Luckily, there were no bodies this time.

Too shocked to cry, too scared to do anything but stand there, Adam and his dad looked at each other. After a time, the shock wore off. They walked around. Adam motioned his dad over.

"Look," he said simply, smiling.

And there, amid all the destruction, was a single green plant.


Hurricane Attack

Written by Abby Landry

6th grade

everyone was happy

the sun came out that day

if only they had known

it soon would not be this way

a hurricane was coming

to claim its victims now

all needed to be safe

if only they knew how

some packed their bags

others did not

everyone who lived near there

got what they got

the hurricane came

and put them in a bind

then they all started

to lose their minds

after all was done

the flooding came about

nice people went to help

to get those people out

some handed out food

to people in a mood

it just got worse and worse

it must have been a curse

soon it got a little better

the sun came out again

hopefully the hurricane

had come to an end

through a crack

the sun shone slightly

this might be the real end

that chance is very likely


Secretly Afraid

By Nettie McDaniel

Enrichment Teacher

The evacuees are gone, but one has left

His rumpled blanket on a giant oak's roots.

The blanket has remained in the park for days.

It looked as though it had slipped from a mean bed

Or chair every morning. One day at sunrise

I mistook the blanket with the bulk below

For evacuee's legs – stretched out, sprawled really.

I didn't dare laugh when I mistook the covered

roots for a man's huge form, it was so real.

I secretly checked for it each time I passed

the makeshift bed. I always dared to look

and never stopped my dog from browsing there,

in the furrows between the swollen roots.

It's dark and gnarly there, under the oak.

In the early mornings following the storm,

I half expected to see the evacuee

Wake with a little sleep stuck in the corner

Of his eyes. I half regretted being afraid

Because he had done nothing to provoke this fear.

Today I stumble just as I see the blanket.

It’s on the path my dog and I walk down.

Deep red, not brown, but I know it. A glance

Beneath the tree confirms the roots are bare.

The blanket no longer resembles bedding.

I realize he’s gone. The blanket is folded

Neatly and stacked near the walkway trashcan.

He’s left what looks like a rag, khaki pants, cord.

My dog tugs, paws and bites at the restraining

Leash, but I keep her from touching his things.

I see it’s an argyle sweater on the blanket,

Hound’s-tooth check pants and a plain white apron

With the strings untied. His tidiness stops me.

How do I rescue these things of his?

Now I regret that the roots are merely roots.


Confused

Written by Kelsey Mayfield

7th grade

The girl jerked awake

from her sleep,

“Wake up, wake up!

There’s a hurricane

coming this way.”

The girl was confused.

It’s a category three,

she told herself

as her father,

and her brother,

used huge plywood boards

to save the house from fierce hurricane winds

The girl was confused.



The girl and her family,

they drove slowly away

from her home,

her sanctuary. New Orleans.

The girl was confused.



As they drove north,

the girl vaguely remembers

the radio saying

Hurricane Katrina was growing larger yet.

The girl was confused.



The girl did not eat dinner,

her stomach was full as her thoughts were empty,

the freezer had been cleared of

chicken nuggets, chicken breast, and buffalo wings.

The girl was confused.



The girl traveled

To Amite, Baton Rouge, Lafayette,

even to El Dorado, Arkansas.

The damage was done, a disaster had struck

emotionally and physically.

The girl was confused.



I know this girl.

She is still confused,

her mind is a maze; she’s trying to find her way out.

She is very close to me.

In fact, she is me.

The girl is confused.















From the students of Margaret Simon at ESA Lower School:

A Ride After Rita
by Andrew Broussard

If you don’t like things like catastrophic storms, this isn’t for you. Katrina, A.K.A. mass destruction, that’s what it’s known as to New Orleans, almost destroyed everything in its path, and Rita, an ominous thing to Vermilion Parish. There were floods everywhere.

It has been a few weeks since Katrina and within that time, Rita hit. They were both horrible.

After Rita, we took a ride through Henry. Many houses were destroyed, yet some were still standing.

Some cows were dead, yet some were still living. Then we came across the weirdest thing, boats in afield of muck. The stench of the muck permeated everywhere for two miles. After I saw something weird, I thought of something. If you take Katrina, take off the a, n, and k, rearrange the letters, you get Rita.



Lost Darkness

By Andrew Comeaux

A hurricane

Like a riverbank of shadows

Coming like history itself.

People see a mirror of their fears.

The journey of fears is about to begin.

The hurricane hits

Like the angels are trying to stop it

But they fail.

The sun they once saw is covered by evil darkness.

When the hurricane disappears

There are a few survivors.

But the shadows are not gone

They are just beginning.

Hurricane

by Emily Nolen

People are dying stars are crying

And I’m just standing there watching it happen

I just turned my back and walked away

And didn’t stop once to look back

Never even wondered what I’d say

Babies are yelling and no one is picking them up

A tree falls and there they go never to return

And I’m just standing there watching it happen

I look ahead and what do I see?

My mom is staring at me

My brother is there to but I’m just watching them blow away

Tears are crawling down my cheeks

Now I wish that I shared their fate

For after that tragic day I stand here watching families at the beach

Thinking I could be like that too

If it weren’t for that storm



From the students of Tammy Stiebing at STPSB


Fighting Scylla

When you start your morning, you either wake up on the right side, or the wrong side of the bed. For me, the wrong side is the right, but side preference differs from person to person. When you wake up on the wrong side, you are grumpy that morning, which influences your behavior, making you a less desirable person to be around. Before you know it, everything is just adding up and the whole world is crumbling around you. After Hurricane Katrina came, it was like waking up on the floor. Naturally, we were all really grumpy.

My home had three trees crush the roof. Our garages roof was gone. We had new skylights in the dining room and kitchen, 16 new skylights. All of our cabinets were warped. And the lovely firewood brown paint that had dried a week earlier was
discolored. Did I mention it took my parents 13 years to decide to remodel the kitchen? And six months to choose that firewood brown paint color? We had a branch slash through a wall in our living room; that room would have to get a new wall; and the
wood flooring buckled after being exposed to the wind and rain. We also found mold in all of those rooms, and in some other ones. Basically, 50% of our house needed to be rebuilt.

Sure, this was pretty bad, right? But we Twardowski’s are strong. We’re from Poland. We’re brave and can handle anything, just like Odysseus! We’re like Odysseus and our house is Troy, no problem, we know we’ll win! Unfortunately, our life is Poseidon. "Foolish Twardowski’s, you think you can live without a home, I’m never going to let your lives be good again! Things will never get back to normal for you!"

So he decided to send us to the land of the lotus eaters. We were in Lufkin TX for evacuation, I was attending school. I had good classes, my mom had friends, and life was good. Why did we want to leave this nice little utopia, luckily we pulled ourselves together and once more tried to reach the shores of normal. Well this doesn’t make Poseidon happy so he shipwrecked us on a small deserted Island. A few weeks ago, my Mom’s car blew a tire while she was shopping for cabinets with her friend. She was stranded on a small deserted road named I12. Obviously, this is a bad day. To make matters worse Poseidon sent his sirens. The same day my mom blew a tire, my dad’s good friend at work, Cas, was given a good offer at a hospital in Florida and packed up her bags and left. But the Sirens only victim wasn’t Cas. My great aunt, my father’s aunt,
found out she had pancreatic cancer. Two years with kemo and God’s help.

Of course, we had a massive foe to fight, our Polythemus however is not an evil, ugly, 30 ft. tall Cyclops. He is the only thing more frightening, a 5’8 insurance agent. Unfortunately, at the moment our agent still has full vision and he seems to be
swallowing our money as easily as Polythemus swallows Odysseus’ soldiers.

While we still have yet to blind Mr. Huddleston, we also have a mounting problem. Scylla has struck. Scylla, the monster whirlpool and mountain monster has attacked my grandfather. Right now, he is hanging on by a thread in the hospital, with three or four clogged arteries. This is the fourth time he has been in the hospital, this year, and it’s looking really bad. And now we must come to terms with the whirlpool. For the whirlpool is the giant pile of problems that are mounting up against us. Already the whirlpool is reaching for my mom who is down to her last wire, ready to fall prey to the waves below.

Luckily though, we have Athena on our side, right? Athena? Athena! ATHENA! OK, that’s, it I’m out; Athena’s abandoned us, now there is no hope. OK, so Athena hasn’t quite abandoned us, right now she’s coming in the form of little things like a finished
fence, church, school, and a real finished roof, things that add up and are helping us return to our beloved Ithaca, normal.

This is my Odyssey.

Bobby Masson 10-20-05

"Is This Really Happening"


When I really think about it, I can’t even imagine that all of this actually happened. As I watched those horrific events unfold on the TV screen three days later, I felt like I was watching a movie or something. I couldn’t even fathom the thought that this was happening merely miles from my own home. This was happening to New Orleans. My hometown. My city. The place where I went to a Saints game every other week. The same place I grew up and went to Mardi Gras every year was sinking before my very eyes. It was as if there was a layer of bulletproof glass between the city and me and all I could do was watch.

There was no electricity in Baton Rouge for the first few nights after the storm. The only source of media my family had was a little blue handheld radio we decided to grab at the last minute before we evacuated from Mandeville a couple nights earlier. We had no idea of the importance it would serve to us for the days ahead. There we were, my family, sitting in the darkness of my sister’s driveway, for hours on end, silently listening to the events that were taking place inside that little blue radio. All of us were extremely concerned about my father, a New Orleans reporter, who was at ground zero during the whole storm. I could only imagine what he was witnessing at that point in time.


As the news came in that the levees broke, I knew that the New Orleans I grew up in would be the same city no more. The city I knew and loved would resemble the sight of a war zone for months to come. I will forever hear the radio announcer’s frantic voice in the back of my mind saying, "Fifteen feet of water is expected to flood the city of New Orleans overnight." And all I could do was attempt to wake myself up from this nightmare and ask myself, "is this really happening?"



By Ender Beurgois

On the Tuesday after Katrina’s landfall, I almost came to believe that I was even worse off than the New Orleanians stuck inside of the Superdome because I would be stuck in my brother’s apartment until something better revealed itself. I was asleep in the car that afternoon. It was a pretty deep sleep because I believed it was going to be okay, that I was not in any sort of immediate danger, and that we were heading out west and we would stay with family. At around three o’clock, I woke up. I found myself in familiar turf, but didn’t know exactly where that was. With no "Do you want to come with us or…" option, my parents dropped me off. We really did go west and I did stay with a relative. We went from Mandeville to Baton Rouge and I stayed with my older brother, Chris. They left before four that afternoon and gave Chris money for me (which I would have to say was less than one dollar because he only bought me one pack of gum over the entire time). The only thing they could possibly do without me was… Ugh. That’s disgusting.

My brother, like my parents, disowned me. Until seven, I sat in his living room which was rather "malfurnished". He works at Best Buy part time so he has an extensive video game and DVD collection, and because of this, I was not allowed to enter his room. His belongings were sacred. He has a picture of himself at age four hanging above his bed with the word "Master" inscribed in the frame.

The door opposite his room was his roommate’s room. Ryan. I had no knowledge of what he was like. However, I knew Chris’s other roommates in the past. They were of course the partying crowd who believed every day was Mardi Gras. Not Lundi Gras or any other parade day, but Mardi Gras every day. I had low expectations, but something did seem different about Ryan. The door was closed and Ryan wasn’t there.

For dinner, I ate some macaroni Alfredo which was familiar. Chris, being the mooch that he is, stole tons of food before the storm, which was in fact a smart move considering the rest would go to waste inside of the refrigerator. I took a shower. Chris yelled at me for using his Q-Tips and toothpaste. I was yelled at for using my own soap and shampoo because I wasn’t supposed to use anything but water to clean myself. He yelled at me for leaving it on an empty counter which was devoted to entirely nothing. I found myself wondering how objects on a counter could possibly distract him enough to make him unable to use the bathroom.

That night he actually let me sleep on the floor of his room - bare floor, too. His reasoning was, "If anyone came, I don’t want them to see you." I lay on the floor and rested, but couldn’t sleep. I tried to turn on my Nintendo DS, but the turn on noise alerted Chris who responded, "No light or sound." I couldn’t play in the dark, and he wouldn’t let me play under something blocking the light because he could still here me pressing buttons. I tried to leave a few moments later, but was yelled at for opening the door and making a very low noise that distracted him for one second. That bastard. Anyway he just sent me to Ryan’s room and I gladly accepted. The room looked normal when I just passively looked around. I thought to myself that he must perform. He had three different guitars and a drumset. As I set up, I noticed that the floor seemed more comfortable. The room was laced with Febreeze. That was good. I only hoped the guy wasn’t loud if he came into his room so I turned off the lights and dropped to the floor and actually slept.

At around midnight, I was stepped on. Ryan walked into his room after a night of hardcore poetry reading at CC’s. When he turned on the lights to see what made the "ow" sound, we had a certain exchange. I was wrapped up in several blankets with my head poking out and cuddling with several pillows. I noticed his hair, which can only be described by the movement that comes to mind, and his tight vintage fit t-shirt and ripped up girl jeans. I laughed. Chris and Ryan. They seemed like such an odd pair. A hardcore rocker and the dictitatorial jock. He gave me a look.

The look was priceless. It was a look of "Um…" mixed with "Okay. Whatever."

He set his books down, turned off the lights, and plopped on his bed. When I woke up the apartment was empty. Both were off somewhere, but not at class because classes at LSU were cancelled. That meant they could be back any minute or half of the day later. I was alone. When I raided the pantry I saw several of boxes of Kashi’s Go Lean cereal. I knew that was not Chris’s and I laughed. Ryan was already lean. Chris set me to believe that soy does something to a certain something in the sense of losing something which wasn’t weight. What made me laugh even more was that I disregarded that and had a bowl. It was actually pretty good and it’s now a staple to my own daily breakfast.

Ryan came back from jogging. He gave me the same face, got his books, and left. We didn’t say anything, but that exchange was enough.

I had enough time to look at Ryan’s room. There were tons of stuff that had to come at eye level to see who he actually was. They were things that seemed to have a sharper reflection than if it was seen from faraway. The Notebook was inside his DVD player. I looked to the outside to make sure they weren’t coming back, and I played the movie and something clicked in the back of my mind. I looked around some more. There were tons of artwork. By his instruments there were piles of notebooks that were completely filled with songs and ripped through in the same handwriting with red ink. I was truly inspired. His mini-fridge was filled with Evian and Diet Rockstars which seemed so like him. I went into his bathroom. There was a Chi hair straightner and hairdye and everything you would need to make your hair look really cool. Honestly, I wanted to shave off Ryan’s hair and make it into a toupee that I could wear. It was that cool. I was truly inspired by his artistic passion.


The Friday before the storm, before Katrina was on the map, which was five days before that Wednesday, I dropped out of a class that was supposedly recognizable by colleges. The teacher killed my essay on a quote by giving me half of my grade for supposedly being off topic. The essay was open to any opinion. Apparently because one professor wrote a book saying a writer never means what he writes, then all writers conform to that idea. If that teacher read the book that teacher would know the professor was also hinting there are exceptions and what he said was actually false. The teacher killed my interpretation of fishing.

Chris came back and he forced me to play him in some video game which he had just bought. He wastes his money on stuff like that. No one would have guessed it from looking at some square headed, huge guy that brings The Rock to mind, but he collects Star Wars and Lord of the Rings "action figures." The raid on the Jedi temple and the ride of the Rohirrim are recreated on little pedestals. Before he came home everyday, I would switch the clone troopers or orcs around just to see if he noticed. He didn’t.

Anyway, after the first couple of plays we heard the door open. We kept playing and Ryan, with the same face asked, "Ender... Did you watch The Notebook? You forgot to turn it off."

I nodded a little bit. Chris uttered, "Pansy."
Ryan just came out with, "Shut up. I love that movie. Um… Well that’s good." He nodded and left. I was amazed that Chris got cut down and burned and took it so well. Chris and I resumed our game, and I lost miserably. I wondered how that made him feel.

A win in a game that I played without any care. He probably felt superior, but I knew he was thinking of how Ryan shot him down that quickly. Immediately after the victory video, he said straight out, "Get out."

It was dinner time and I found myself eating clusters of cereal. It was really satisfying. Ryan came out. "Do you like those Diet Rockstars? Because three of them are missing. Chris only has water. Oh, I also have an air bed so you don’t have to sleep on the floor. I can get some movies from Chris. And we’ll talk… and whatever."

"Sounds good," I laughed. How he said it reminded me of how sleepovers are for little kids. They say they have all of this random stuff and that they are going to have fun. What made me laugh even more was that it felt like a teenage girl sleepover because we wound up talking about and watching movies that can be considered chick flicks. We would’ve watched television, but the cable was out and we didn’t have rabbit ears. We watched The Princess Bride and Attack of the Clones. We both wanted to skip to the battle scenes which are the only thing Star Wars excels at, but we wound up watching the whole thing. The other movies also had good actors. Ryan Gosling. Cary Elwes.

"I hate sand. It’s rough, coarse, irritating, and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Everything is so… (touches her back) smooth." We agreed we hated Hayden Christensen.

I lied. I actually love Hayden Christensen for one reason. "She" saw Revenge of the Sith with me because "she" had some crush. A rather serious one, too. We weren’t Star Wars fans so we waited several days; the seating in the theatre was so spread out to the point we were only joined by an old couple and a mother, a young boy, and his even younger siblings. We sat next to each other… Usually there was a security seat between us so we wouldn’t look like we were together. But this time we sat next to each other. We slouched after the opening scroll and the five seconds of capital ship hovering over Courascant. Then we saw the two fighters come in stage left. After a few shots were exchanged, "she" tugged my arm at the close up of Anakin’s close up inside of his cockpit. "(laughs) We got ‘em, R2." "She" tugged again when he made his angry face as he scissorred Count Dooku’s head. "She" held my arm and rested her head upon it when Anakin, after hearing Padme was pregnant, said softly, "This is a happy moment. The happiest moment of my life." "She" firmly grasped my arm and rested her head upon my shoulder at the exchange on the balcony. "You are so beautiful." "Only because I’m so in love." "(laughs) No… Only because I’m so in love with you." After the movie, we ate at Shogun. We ate sushi. We had to get forks because we couldn’t use sticks. We talked about the movie. "She" told me she was sad about Anakin’s conversion to the darkside and "she" didn’t have a crush on Christensen or any other guy because "she" was in love…

Chris Carrabba sang his heart out. "Hands down that was the best day I can ever remember, I'll always remember the sound of the stereo, the dim of the soft lights, the scent of her hair that she twirled in her fingers and the time on the clock when we realized it's so late and this walk that we shared together. The streets were wet and the gate was locked so I jumped it, and I let her in. And she stood at her door with her hands on my waist and you kissed me like she meant it. And I knew that she meant it, that she meant it, that she meant it, and I knew, that she meant it, that she meant it."

It was Thursday morning. I was with Ryan and we were running some errands. We were listening to Dashboard Confessional’s MTV Unplugged CD. "Hands Down" was the last song so the player spat the disc out. Ryan turned on the radio and skipped around until I said "I like this song."

"Beauty queen of only eighteen, she had some trouble with herself. He was always there to help her she always belonged to someone else. I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door. I had you so many times but somehow I want more. I don’t mind spending everyday out on your corner in the pouring rain. Look for the girl with the broken smile. Ask her if she wants to stay a while. She will be loved. She will be loved. I know where you hide alone in your car, know all the things that make you who you are. I know that goodbye means nothing at all. Comes back and begs me catch every time she falls. Tap on my window knock on my door. I want to make you feel beautiful."

She loved Maroon 5.

My hand was at my chin and I stared pensively out of the window. She will be loved. It fit with what I was thinking, and of course I was thinking about her.

"I love how these songs can be applied to any loser. Gah. I can relate to it. Seems a bit much," Ryan told me with truthfulness, but not an ounce of regret. "Someday though." To reinforce what he said "Just the Girl from The Click Five played.

"She laughs at my dreams, but I dream about her laughter, strange as it seems, she's the one I'm after, cause she's bittersweet, she knocks me off of my feet and I can't help myself I don't want anyone else, she's a mystery, she's too much for me, but I keep comin' back for more, she's just the girl I'm lookin' for."

Baton Rouge was overcrowded. We were in the car for thirty minutes and traveled about a mile away from the apartment. We were headed for Wal-Mart. It took an additional quarter of an hour to find a parking spot. Because of the long wait, I dashed for the necessities after we parked. I didn’t care how dangerous the front of the Wal-Mart was; they had three cars come at me from three different directions. After the deed was done, Ryan was already waiting outside the restroom with all of his hair products already retrieved.

All we needed was food and water. All of the food was organic and healthy. When we looked for water, I saw his face when we had to settle for Desani. He wondered how Evian was bought out. We were finished and in the check out line he asked me to go back and get several things for Chris. An odd list. One Four Meat Digorno pizza, a few packs of Meatball Hot Pockets, and some ground beef. I had just realized that we didn’t get anything with meat in it before he asked me. Ryan was a vegetarian. Not vegan, though, because he bought eggs and cheese. I realized for the past week I did not eat anything with meat in it.

During Lent I would always complain about the Tuna subs from Subway or the Fillet o’ Fish from McDonalds. It had never occurred to me that I wouldn’t want meat as badly because I substituted it for something almost like it. If I would’ve ate something different, that craving wouldn’t have been that bad.

I became a vegetarian without knowing that I was one for a week. For some reason it just stuck. It seemed different. The fact I was willing to change that made me feel hardcore. The line was still long after I got back. He asked me to go to the toy section and get Scrabble. If Chris was there he would’ve seen the Star Wars toys. I passed by the Lego sets and saw how far they took each set. Before a square castle was enough. Now the castles are so elaborate and each tower is unique and there were four cavaliers instead of two knights and one horse.

When we got back, which seemed like hours later, we played Scrabble. At that time I told Ryan about the teacher who essentially stole my writing’s soul. He read the essay, saw a few bumps, but said it was great. "They err." He read that aloud, but said it how it sounded and laughed. He told about Michael Chricton, which I immediately responded with Jurassic Park and E.R., which I said phonetically, and his mishap with Harvard. I felt better about it. I felt like I wasn’t leaving because of one occurrence, but because I was fighting an injustice.

"Dude, that is awesome." He put down an E-R-R. Three points. I put down O-R after the E-R-R. He knew I was going to do that. He put down a J in front of my O. Jo. A lover. The J was on a triple letter bonus. Twenty five points and the game.

I got my revenge. I didn’t have an S. I put down Q-U-A-D. He responded with an S at the top. I added R-O-N and took that one.

Chris was home and he joined us. It was horrible. Chris won. "If this was a kung fu movie, I would be the guy that does a split kick in the air and kicks the **** out of both of you at the same time." He won, not because he was good at the game, but because he knew Ryan and I would be playing against each other. Chris was after me so he played smart and stole points by playing cheap. In the end he had all of the vowels, D’s, and S’s.

Chris told me to come with him to Taco Bell. It was getting dark outside and traffic was still heavy. That meant we had time to talk. "Just because you’re not going to school doesn’t right now doesn’t mean you’re not gonna have a Back to School dance or Homecoming." I never went because I only wanted to go with one person, but I never brought myself around to asking because it seemed so impossible. "When I was in tenth grade, I had my little group of followers."

"Of guys? You went to Rummel..." He messed up, but I knew what he meant. It was true, but how he went about it just seemed wrong to me. He bought their mood toward him. To ask a girl to prom he bought her some jewelry and a gift certificate at the Esplanade. He didn’t know her at all though. What I had with "her" was ten years of a close friendship.
Taco Bell was drive through only. They ran out of tacos, so we got twenty bean burritos for fifteen dollars. I told Chris I was a vegetarian and he responded "Pansy." I knew he said that just because it was me. He never said anything about Ryan. They were cool with each other. We stopped by Walgreens and he bought me the pack of gum, the only thing he actually bought for me that wasn’t required. Orbit Original. I honestly unwrapped all of the pieces and made one really big gumball. It didn’t last very long though. I chewed all of the flavor out in minutes.

On Friday, the cable was back. Channel seven two. MTV. Ryan and I watched the TRL reruns to see what we missed over the last week. I was reminded that The Click Five had cool suits and they had a helicopter. They’re that cool. Kanye West was high up on the scale with "Golddigger." We also saw Kanye later that night… His comment. It seemed so true, but we kept laughing so much. Kanye getting cut off, Mike Meyer’s face, Kanye’s absence at the end. It was priceless. Now it’s never going to be shown again.

On Saturday, the internet was back. I tried to call "her" but cell phone service was shoddy. But "she" was online. In Virginia. So far away. "She" was staying for the entire school year. The next thing she said almost killed me.

"I have a new BFF…" A new best friend forever?

"I thought I was your only BFF," I responded.

"Oops, I meant BF." A boyfriend?
"WHO? I mean who?"
"My new friend Alex. He showed me around. He reminds me of you. He’s a junior. He’s in drama. Longish beautiful hair." I hated the guy already.

"When are you coming home?"

"This summer."

I always wanted sweet summer to come fast, but not as fast as I wanted it now. I began to fashion an idea in my head where I would impress her with every word I said and it would come out brave or smooth or insightful or charming. I feel bad thinking that her relationship with that guy was finite, but it was. I have a year to become hardcore. In a year I have to impress her. I want her to say "Aww, you didn’t have to impress me," but I did anyway.

Ryan peeked into his room as I was using his computer. "You really like that girl don’t you? I could hear the IM noises and you mumbling ‘I hate you. Waah you’re in drama and she likes your cool hair.’" As I turned around I stared at Ryan’s hair. It was dim, but I could still see the accents in his hair. And it was like "Whoosh," the way it moved.

"How’d you get your hair like that?"

"Colored it and fixed it up? This costs a lot to upkeep."

"I want my hair like that." In the current state, it wasn’t there. He told me I would have to cut it down and start conditioning. The next day, the three of us went to the mall. I needed a haircut. Chris was paying for it, so I didn’t do anything special. We looked at one of those hair books and there was a guy who had Ryan’s hairstyle. The face even. His response was, of course, the face.

"You can see your face and now you don’t look like a girl." Chris told me.

Of course, I couldn’t get anything. Ryan offered because there were tons of sales, but I couldn’t. Chris bought so much stuff. He even wore one shirt straight out of the store so he can show off his muscles. The shirt was comparable to a kid’s small and it looked like it was about to burst.

At Hollister, one of the workers commented on Ryan’s hair, calling it radioactive. As we left, Ryan told the guy, "There are only five great artists in the world, Ry-on, Ry-on, Ry-on, Ry-on, and Ry-on. *****, I spit hot fire." He said it like Dylan from Making the Band. It was out of character and the delivery was perfect. He faked out the guy and there was a sense of satisfaction on Ryan’s face. As another insult, we didn’t buy anything from there.

That night we were watching episodes of Made, where losers have a set amount of time to accomplish a goal. I told Ryan that I wanted to become hardcore. That was almost a mistake. Everyday until Saturday a week away, I jogged right when I got up. "Faster. More hustle. Better!" was what he yelled, sometimes when he was ahead on foot and once when he was in his car.

I wish I knew how to play guitar. I wanted to be able to serenade "her." He offered to show me, but I told him I wanted to be self taught because it sounded cooler and more hardcore to do so. But then he told me it’s not really the guitar that would make it, but how I sang. He grabbed his acoustic and played the intro to "my" song. She Will Be Loved. He played it once and stopped to ask if I was going to sing.

"No."

"Come on," he said as a mother would say to her child. "Chris isn’t here if you’re worried about him hearing. You can do it. I believe." He said it almost mockingly, but he was serious. I opened my mouth and was about to start, but then I asked which version. "1.22.03." That was the acoustic version that ended with Adam Levine yelling "Yeah!" and building up and winding down. I sang. "Good."

In those two weeks, I found more about myself than I ever did before. When I left Chris said I can stay whenever as long as I wasn’t in his room and Ryan nodded to signal goodbye with the face. My parents came back on Sunday because our power was back on at home. Nothing happened to our house except the extra plant that we put behind our fence door was smacked by the door when it must’ve flung open. It was still alive, but some it was still beat up. My dad didn’t like that I was a vegetarian and my mom laughed at me for wanting to get my hair to look hardcore and I wanted a guitar, but that’s okay. I’m actually more active, too because I jog. I even love that our rooms are separated by the living room and kitchen… Because I even started singing when they’re asleep.

Before they picked me up, they went to Wal-Mart. I was hungry. I looked through the bags. I saw a twelve pack of… well it wasn’t Coke or Sprite. That’s disgusting.

From the 4th-6th grade gifted Language Arts students of Angie French:

The consequences of Katrina were devastating. It was horrible I couldn’t stand it. You never knew what could happen. One of them was medicine. Another was injury. And then there were trees. Boy, I hated those trees. The clouds as thick as lead. The wind carved trees into nothing. The rain murdered the roofs. The lightening caught items on fire. Gusts slicing trees and tossing them onto cars. You could not get medicine or food.

I was very scared. I am lucky I am alive. We had to cut our way out with a chainsaw. The toxins in the air were horrible. I felt noxious and it gave me a bad headache. It was horrible. I will never go through it again.

Why did it come? I don’t know. How did it affect me? It made me like electricity a whole lot more. Why did this happen? I don’t know. Why do hurricanes exist? I don’t know. I don’t know why this was so devastating or destructive.

Probably the only two good things about it was that I came to a better school and it opened up people’s hearts. You are lucky to not have hurricanes where you live.

David Shockley
5th grade
Pine View Middle School
Covington, LA


I am a 4th grader named Lenus. After Hurricane Katrina, I had a house missing two bushes, a tree in my backyard, and the roof on my tree house is gone. There is also a hole in the roof of my house and the screen of my sister’s window is gone in her room. We also have something hanging on the back of my house. The good part is; I still have a house. We also go the roof patched up. Although my house is damaged, I still sleep very well. In many ways, I still love my home. And it also still provides shelter.

While Hurricane Katrina was passing, I was in a house with forty-two people in in in Tennessee. We had three babies and two toddlers in the house. In Tennessee, we had lots of stuff donated to us by nice people like- toys, balls, a basketball goal, food, snacks, bikes, booksacks, movies, board games, video games and furniture.

Now, I’m living very well. I’m well taught, well fed, and well lived. If you went through a hurricane, what would you do?

Lenus Jack
4th grade
Pine View Middle School
Covington, LA


So you want to know about Hurricane Katrina, well here it goes. The hurricane was horrible. My parents and I went to Bush, LA for the hurricane. Pretty much all I did was read and watch movies until the hurricane came.

When Hurricane Katrina came my parents asked me if I wanted to see what it was like to stand in 170 mph winds. I said, “yes”. My pa paw took of his rain coat and let me put it on. It was way too big, but my curiosity was too much. I ran outside to find my parents on the porch. I was about to walk over to my parents when a big gust came and knocked me over. It was horrible, after that I just stayed inside and read by cangle light. I read 11 books that were 300 pages or more! The power was off so long that it became very annoying, but the cleaning was even worse.

I sprained my ankle just trying to walk in my back yard. Our pile was monumental, it was made of all kinds of stuff like sticks, pine needles, pine combs and stumps. It was literally as big as my house; it took a month to clean ALL of it up.

We finally have power and we feel a lot better. Except for the packing. A tree fell on our roof, and we have to move so we can fix our house. We are moving into our backyard! It is going to be a little cramped in the camper that we are renting for 3 months. I think we can manage though.
Kelsea Sharp
6th grade
Pine View Middle School
Covington, LA


Hurricanes change everything, and I don’t like them! For the hurricane I went to St. Francisville, Louisiana, about 2 or 3 hours from where I live. It was a very little town I stayed in. At first, I stayed at one of my family member’s house, it was very crowded there, so we (me, my mom, my sister and step-dad) didn’t stay more than a week. We ended up at a hotel across the street. We stayed there a week also, and spend each day looking for a generator (a machine that runs on gas so you can have power) in Zachary ( a near-by town) so we could go home. Finally, one day we found a generator and the next day we were gone.

When we finally got home we hooked up the generator. The generator didn’t run the air conditioning so every day was long and humid. Every day we went for a daily search for gas. It was very hard to find since everyone was getting it for their own generator.

It was two weeks before we got power again and everyone was excited. Everything was getting better but all that anyone ever talked about was how their house was and where they went for the hurricane. It may sound insane but it became normal to see a tree through someone’s house. It seems everyone I know is moving away because their house can’t be mended or their job is now in another state.

If you are wondering, my house is ok. At least I’m back at school and things are almost back to normal. One good thing about the hurricane is we don’t take as many things for granted because we lived to weeks without them.
Olivia Metz
5th grade
Pine View Middle School
Covington, LA

Nothing is normal when Hurricane Katrina hit….Hurricanes can ruin your life…even your house. Getting hit by a Category 5 hurricane is scary and horrible…

Many people died from Katrina. Depressing, isn’t it?

Some people are lost. Very depressing.

Evacuating is a gigantic pain; you have to pack everything. You can leave a few things, they might get wet though.

Well, not everything…Your possessions…

When my dad went to the parish, it wasn’t that bad. It was damaged, through. The weirdest thing happened; there was a Pot-Belly pig in our backyard! Wow! He’s my new pet! But when I went, he was gone. Oh well.
Todd Loupe
4th grade
Pine View Middle School
Covington, LA


By Patricia Ann Koksal
This piece was written six weeks before Katrina and the ultimate demise of the Orleans Parish School System and therefore has an eerie feel of impending eulogy to it in view of what occurred.

These issues: standardized testing, comprehensive curriculum, limits on copies (!), are not my issues. Part of the reason I can be objective is because I am not directly impacted by their implications. I administer state required testing for what it is, simply, required. I neither teach to the test nor ignore the fact that it is necessary and that my students are expected to perform according to their varying degrees of ability.
I guess from the perspective of someone who spent thirty months with the State Department of Education, I just would not consider taking on hat beaurocratic dinosaur to effect change whatsoever. And then what is the consensus on what would need to be changed? Is that constant statewide? I think not. My opinion has always been that teachers would not only benefit but applaud the assistance offered by the DOE if their local administrators, read Superintendents, would adopt a policy of collaboration rather than territorialism where the State Department is concerned.

There seems to be a gross misunderstanding of the fact that the function of the (State) Department is to ‘serve’ the districts rather than serving as a punitive watchdog bent on taking control from any local district. Of course, much in the way of a parent withholding the car keys, there are times when due to difficulties encountered, the State steps in. But, I challenge anyone to cite an instance of this occurring unwarranted, prematurely, or without cause. My contention would be quite the contrary, every effort to allow local level control is extended; Orleans Parish School System alone supports that warrant, not once but at least fifty times over.

Statewide of 63 schools receiving failing grades, 50 or more are in Orleans Parish and only 5 of those have been ‘taken over’ by the state. Well, if I were allowed to use God’s name, I would thank Him for that and say “What about the other 45?” How long are the local district political entities going to be allowed to put Band-Aids on broken arms while students fail and or drop out of school at alarming rates? Do you suppose there is a correlation between the academic failure rate and the distinction that
New Orleans holds as second most dangerous city in homicides in the United States?

I speak also from the viewpoint of someone who has lived there and attempted to teach very briefly in that school system. The faculty and staff were well-educated professionals, the buildings were acceptable and clean, and the expectations were ridiculous considering the population we were attempting to serve. It would not take much research to compile examples upporting any nightmare you could ever imagine occurring in the classroom.

It would behoove any at-risk parish to seek out whatever the State Department or any other entity can offer to prevent that group of children from being washed away in the erosion of the intellectual coastline of that system. They are by far the most exposed, most at risk, most endangered that this state has to offer.

Let the Save our Coast motto extend to saving our children’s future as well.

As Told by Hunter Johnson, written down by Nonie Futch, Kindergarten,

Live Oak Elementary School in Livingston Parish, Louisiana

The Storm

The storm came when I heard thunder. I ran to the window and saw the lightening.

I told my Dad his pet squirrel was outside and needed help. The wind almost blew my barn over. The wind was too strong; our horse got blown over on his back. My Dad and me had to go out and help him get inside. It was really, really bad rain. The rain was trying to knock my house over. The satellite on my house got bent. The satellite tells us the rain is coming on our T. V. After it was bent we did not have T.V. for a long time. I heard the news about the wind and rain coming. It rained so hard that the water came down and filled up my yard. There was a big strong cloud and a lot of little dark clouds. It was very scary. Our ferret was outside. He heard the lightening and thunder; he ran inside and I slammed the door. He was safe. My grass turned orange after the storm. All of the trees fell down and we had to pick up all the dead tree parts. My big tree had parts that fell down. All of my dirt got so wet that it sucked my boots under the mud when I went outside. There are cockroaches under that mud; that is where they live. The cockroaches live by the toads in the grass under the orange grass. All of the animals were scared. The storm was really scary; it almost killed my favorite toad named Sally. That is all about the bad storm. The bad storm is called Hurricane Katrina.

By Margaret Simon

Never the Same



Before we knew each other,

She played dress up with her friends.

Before, she believed

in costume parties and her mother’s smile.

Before, she slept

soundly in the only home she’d ever known.



Instead, in my arms,

she chokes on the words,

“I don’t know where my friends are.”

Instead, she wakes

to the fear of looters and shooters.

Instead, she realizes

She will never be the same.


A report to the National Writing Project Rural Sites Network listserv “The Day of the Storm”:

Hello,

I am In my undamaged, powerless home using equipment in the piney woods of La. 15 miles from the state line on I-55 using my UPS, an inverter on a car battery to run my battery powered lap top to dial in to Bell South who has just come on line. We fire up the antique car V-8 using the battery and run it for 30 minutes to recharge it as we use our camping equipment to cook and then watch the horrifying news on the low volt TV using the inverter. The phone will not work past this city, but I have gotten long distance calls on my house phone from my sons in SoCal using their Sprint cell phones to call my ATT long distance service. Verizon is coming online according to the Governor We lost power at 4:30 AM the day of the storm and the DSL did not stay up long after and is still not back in my city so this is dial up.

I am 15 miles north of Hammond and Southeastern La.University where the power company people are staying in the dorms and where electricity has been just restored since the campus sustained little damage. The Hammond and Ponchatoula, Amite and Kentwood, city water and sewer systems are working and those without transportation are in dire straits without food and medical help and complaining about it to the Hammond radio station broadcasting on campus facilities. As a result, the announcers are passing along the info to the police dispatchers as best they can. The very rural and
very poor are really suffering with temps in the mid 90's, no transportation, and no food up and down the 55 mile long parish.

The hospitals are next to be provided power and the power company is having to rebuild the lines since we had hurricane force winds and incredible downbursts as the storm traveled parallel to our parish, flattened Bogalusa, and passed directly over Hattiesburg, MS., as a category 2 hurricane according to our radio reports.

The Governor is really angry now about all the looting inNew Orleans so special teams are being dispatched to deal with that. In the rural areas, most of of us are hunters so we'll have no looter problems as the sound of a breech slamming shut or a bolt being thrown are universally understood sounds. However in the cities at night, people are reporting they can't rest because they hear people walking the streets in the total dark, and they are scared so they call the radio station about it. Once power is restored all of that will stop.

Baton Rouge is fully operational so many from our parish are going there to buy supplies and get gas that is in short supply here.

This morning, as I drank coffee at my camp stove and looked around the foot thick carpet of mangled pine limbs and other leaves covering my yard, my eye caught quick movement along the ground; I smiled at the symbolism in seeing two cardinals in a mating dance beginning the cycle of life again since their nest had been destroyed. These Southerners are survivors and will sustain each other as those with leadership skills jump in and start providing direction to others. They turn to their various faiths and help each other whenever possible. There are a very few without total regard for others. You constantly hear people saying, "Be safe, ya'll" with true caring and patting each other even among those who do not do that in daily living.

Giving cash to the American Red Cross and saying it is for Hurricane Katrina Relief is the best way to help those here.
Hurricane* Joan
SLWP Tech Liaison teaching at Southeastern La.University
*A nickname my family put on me permanently after hearing an ICU nurse call me that after I had “blown in” on an emergency flight across country to the California ICU where my mother lay fighting for her life and I had to “take charge.”

Here are the works of my students written in early September when we returned to campus Our audience is a group of German evening college students with whom we have an email culture exchange:



By Ty Booker

What Happened To Me the Day of the Storm

I don't watch much T.V., so to hear a hurricane was heading for Louisiana was a scare. Earlier in the week, I was talking to my sister and she had informed me a storm was brewing in the Gulf. I paid little to no attention because every storm since Andrew in 98 was supposedly due to hit Louisiana directly and didn't. As a matter of fact, Andrew is the only "big" storm I can remember. Vivid images come to mind? pine trees, emitting their signature smells from the freshly cracked wood, lie in the street like barricades. For about a week my family survived on Cheerios and Spam; it was all we had. Since then, a hurricane only meant a day or two off from school, and Louisiana dodging the bullet one more time. Friday, August 26th, my cousin and I drove to New Orleans to pick up another relative. We took for granted the scenery and simple pleasures of the city. We never realized what lied ahead.


I have always been a hard-headed person, so this particular weekend I'd decided to stay on campus. My cousin traveled back to Baton Rouge alone to go to work, while I stayed in Hammond, ignorant to the events that lied ahead. On Saturday, the calls flooded my cell phone. Everyone called to tell me about Katrina. I finally, after 20 phone calls, decided to turn on the T.V. There she was: coming straight for New Orleans. I was only a city or two away. Every channel and every news bulletin carried the same, yet simple message: Get out while you can! As I watched her turn like a propeller, it all became grim reality?we were going to be hit and hit hard. I had nowhere to go. Here I was on the fourth floor of Livingston Hall in my room with a category five hurricane headed for a city only 52 miles away.

I knew I needed to stock up on food if I was going to be here to endure the storm. Cayman's was closed, and the Lion?s Den wasn't an option. The only thing I had was my SLU ID, so I decided to make a "vending-machine run". After three trips to the electric snack havens, I'd figured that I had enough. The last time I walked across the barren, deserted parking lot, a man in Army fatigues caught my eye. Curiosity took over, and I went to inquire as to why he was on campus.

He proceeded to explain that the Kinesiology and Health Studies building was being used as shelter for ill people. As he continued to ramble on, my thoughts began to come into focus?this was serious. I pretended to listen, but only a few words stuck out in my mind: dorms closed, University Center, shelter. I thanked him, walked away, and those words formed themselves into two ton bricks, each falling upon me like rain; each one came faster than the one before. I realized he had just told me we had to evacuate the dorms, and take shelter in the University Center. I panicked, packed up my belongings as if it were check-out time, and waited for the all-call. At about 5:15 p.m., the clouds couldn’t take the pressure as they succumbed to the rain, surrendering themselves peacefully without a fight. The wind picked up, and here I was running to the University Center on North Campus with the few belongings that I could grab. The wind began to howl like a werewolf in the night? this was the one! Katrina was here, and she was as strong as two oxen.

I made it into the University Center, soaked but safe. I looked around, found a spot and made myself at home. I drifted off into a deep sleep.the last peaceful night of rest I would get for a while. When I did awake, I heard the University President, Randy Moffit, on the loudspeaker telling us that Katrina was in fact here, and she was marking her territory all around us as he spoke. He told us we were in the worst two or three hours of the storm, and we had no water or lights, until the generators could be powered up. I went to the window looking out on University Avenue, and surveyed old oak trees thrown around as if they were small branches. As I took all this in, I couldn't help but think this isn’t the worst, this is only the beginning.

When we were let out the University Center on Tuesday, August 29th, the water was on, but cold, and there was still no electricity. I came back to a dank, dark dorm room, but I was thankful to have survived and to have a place to call home to come to. Later in the day, my cousin came back to pick me up, I was relieved, and cried tears of joy. I was grateful to be back in Baton Rouge with my family, and out of harms way. However, once I arrived, I realized the devastation Katrina's wrath caused along the Gulf Coast. When I turned on the T.V, I thought it was something unreal, I couldn’t even have imagined what I saw houses submerged to their roof, a whole city flooded. It was then that I thanked the heavens above allowing me to be fortunate, and it was then that I vowed never to take life's simple gifts for granted.

By Destin Poche

What happened to me on the day of the storm

As daylight fell on the day before the storm winds were starting to increase lightly, rain was beginning to fall, and people were becoming more frightened. I lie to sleep that night knowing that when i wake, the eye of this devastating hurricane called "Katrina" will make landfall in the worse place possible, Louisiana.



Morning rose around 6:30 a.m. for me on August 29, the day of the storm. Anxious to see what kind of damage Katrina was yet to bring I walked outside and there lay a bunch of tress and small debris everywhere. Being on the westward side of the storm, and over a hundred miles away from the eye, left me and my family knowing that we were the lucky ones. After losing power around 8:00 a.m. I then knew the storm was moving closer inward. As time went by, winds increased dramatically, and the damage being done by the storm was horrific. We stayed in touch with the hurricane through a radio station out of Baton Rouge. I spent most of my day listening to frightened callers and waiting for the storm to exit Louisiana. Listening to the interesting callers stories as they were being told live was only the beginning of what id be hearing of this catastrophic storm.

As evening came the storm slowly stirred to an end and that's when i decided to take a ride around me neighborhood and scope out the damage. Lightpoles, rooftops, trees, and other debris was scattered everywhere. Some homes were left crushed by this disaster. I was in relief knowing that no damage was done to my home. Laying down to rest that night i realized that the after effect of Hurricane Katrina was just starting and that the worse was yet to come.


By Brandi Durocher

The day Katrina hit Louisiana is one that I will always remember. That fateful day shattered and changed so many people’s lives forever. Thankfully my personal encounter with Katrina was not tragic, and my family and I survived without many difficulties.

The afternoon before the storm hit, my family and I were sitting in the living room watching the news. We were trying to see exactly where Katrina was headed and what to anticipate. The forecast showed that the category five hurricane was coming straight towards Louisiana. Even though it was a category five hurricane, my family and I were not too concerned about it. We had plenty of water, food, flashlights, batteries, and candles. My brother and I were both actually really excited about this hurricane, because we thought if the storm hit us we might have a break from school and work.

I had a terrible time trying to fall asleep that night, because I was just too excited. I do not remember what time I finally ended up falling asleep, but I do know not even a couple hours later I found myself waking up to Katrina’s wrath. I woke up to the whistling wind blowing through the trees, the loud thumping of branches falling onto my roof, trees splitting and cracking, and the hard rain beating against my bedroom window.

After a long night of tossing and turning, I woke up to a yard covered with chest high debris that fell from all nine of my oak trees and no electricity. My excitement faded. When the rain started to let up, my family and I spent three hours picking up large branches, twigs, and leaves. Cleaning up the yard was not something I enjoyed.

Katrina’s unforgettable life threatening wrath affected everyone in Louisiana that day. My family and I are very lucky to have survived the storm with no damage. My heart is filled with remorse for the ones that had even the least bit of damage. I was happy at first when hearing about the arrival of Katrina, and now I hope that nothing like that ever happens again.



By Tina Stanley

Katrina's effect on me

I hadn't really been paying much attention to the storm. My fiance, Bryan, had just got back in on Saturday night, late Saturday night. Bryan works for Delmar, an oil rigging company and had been out for six days on a boat. He arrived in Hammond at about 11:30 p.m. I met him at the Waffle House on Railroad Avenue. We ate and he helped me with some of my Algebra homework.

On Sunday morning is when I really started to have concern about the storm. Bryan?s dad, John, called and told us that he had bought 4 generators. He wanted us to go to the farm in Mississippi. I started to worry because John wasn't the type to panic and this behavior was out of the norm for him.

Bryan didn?t seem too worried until we went to Wal-Mart and they were closed. I told Bryan, ?You know it?s time to leave when Wal-Mart closes!? So we went back to the apartment and got Annie, our dog, and Jessica, our cat. We also got some extra clothes and Bryan brought his bag in case Delmar called him out again.

We were on our way to Mississippi, and the traffic was unlike any other I?d ever seen before. They had a contra flow; both sides of the interstate were going north. Bryan and I had never even heard of contra flow until now. We had to stop and get a picture of it.

When we finally got to the farm, Bryan's ex-stepmother, Sandy, was there. Becky, Bryan?s sister, and Jamie, her friend were there too. We grilled chicken and drank some beer. Things were fairly normal. We watched a movie and went to bed. The next morning the power had gone out before we woke up. The wind was very strong and it was raining. It wasn?t as bad as I expected, though. Bryan got the generator running and we plugged in the refrigerator.

At the farm there are two separate houses. Sandy was in one and Bryan, Becky, Jamie and I were in the bunkhouse. The wind had blown a piece of tin off of the roof. Bryan, being the macho man he is, just had to get up on the roof and fix it immediately. The rain was leaking terribly into the kitchen. So, Bryan tied himself to the chimney and put the tin back on. The rain had died down my mid afternoon and things were pretty calm. We grilled hamburgers and stayed at the farm that night. Tuesday morning we decided to go see what other damage had been caused. Once we were out of the driveway, it wasn?t hard to see. Huge trees were down across the road everywhere. Thank God we have four wheel drive or we wouldn?t have gotten very far.

We met John and Dee and drove into McComb to use the phone at Dee’s law office. Bryan couldn’t get in touch with Delmar so we went back to the farm. On our way back we started sliding down an embankment and a man pulled us out. Bryan helped him cut up the tree blocking the road so we could go around. When we got back to the camp, Bryan got the tractor and went to push trees out of the road. That afternoon we went back to Hammond.

All the power was out in Hammond. We had hot water because our gas still worked. We took a shower and went to Lafayette to be closer to Bryan?s work. We spent the night there and the next morning I came back to Hammond. My power was back on. Bryan left that morning and still hasn?t come back from the Gulf. I would have to say that the worst effect Katrina has had on me is that Bryan has been gone so long. So, I consider myself pretty lucky.

By Amie Marie Oncale

Sunday morning was not a typical morning for me. I work at a grocery store in Prairieville, LA as a cashier/office worker. I arrived there at six in the morning and I did not stop all day. I do not have much time to watch television so I really did not know what this storm was going to do. Honestly, I did not find out about the storm until the Saturday before it hit. All I knew is that they were evacuating New Orleans and surrounding areas. Of course, everyone was freaking out. All the grocery stores around my town were out of ice, water, batteries, and bread. People were frantically running around trying to find these necessities. After about eleven hours of work that day, I was able to go home. As I was driving home, I saw gas stations that were full with people trying to get gas at the last minute. I remember thinking to myself that is was not going to be good. I have never been through a hurricane that I actually remember. Baton Rouge was not expected to get hit hard, but all of the evacuees were coming here so it caused traffic. When I got home, I found out that my whole family had decided to stay for the hurricane. We had about seventeen people in my house. We all stayed up that night and played cards and chatted. I awoke the next morning to the wind howling and my electricity blinking on and off. I looked at my cell phone to find that it was only five thirty in the morning and it had already begun. We lost electricity that Monday morning and we did not get it back until the following Saturday. Luckily, hurricane Katrina did not cause any damage our home or to my neighbors. The most anyone around my neighborhood got was tree branches and leaves covering their yard. My family and I were very lucky. As we watched the news, all I could think of is how lucky we all were. I prayed, and continue to pray for all the families affected by this tragedy.

By Stacie McIntosh

What Happened To Me the Day of the Storm?

Sunday morning was the longest day of my life; Kevin, my boyfriend, called me at 4:30 in the morning and told me that he was leaving for Texas. Then around 5:30 my mom comes and tells to pack up we are leaving, the storm is getting stronger. I was scared because we never had to leave for a hurricane this big before and I did not know what would happen. I was rushing all morning trying to pack everything I had in my house; I still wound up leaving a lot of my winter clothes, my dolls that were worth $500 all together, and my keyboard. The bad and good part was that a lot of my stuff was in my dorm room here in SLU. I left stuff there because I did not know about this storm; I was coming home Friday night to watch a long waited football game. I had carpooled with a friend Friday afternoon so I could save on gas. So all my stuff and my car were still at SLU and my mom did not feel like fighting the heavy traffic just to get to Hammond.

By 7:30 we had crammed everything we own into the van and truck and left for my Aunt Shannon's house. She was in D.C. and did not know about the storm before she left; so my family had to help clean the yard up and put her horses up. When we got there my Aunt Tamie (my mom's sister), my Uncle Slade, and their two girls were there already. Then my dad showed up with his mom and helped pick up the yard. After all this we still had to go to my cousin's house because both her and her son and her parents were coming with us to Winnfield, Louisiana to go to the camp up there. When we go there though she was not done packing and she was crying because she was afraid the storm would take her house. It was around 10:00 when left there then it was a nightmare to get to hwy 84. My cousin?s dad would not slow down or wait for anyone to catch up. We had to stop a few times to find each other.

After about the fifth time stopping all six cars were together then it was another hour before we stopped to eat and walk all 4 dogs that were with us. After that we were on the road forever, we got stuck in traffic in Natchez for an hour. After that it was smooth driving all the way to Jena, where we made our second stop of the day. It was about an hour away from Winnfield. When we got to Winnfield we did not feel like finding the camp so we pulled into this church parking lot. They had open as a shelter that night so we stop there, and that is when we saw they took pets and we almost cried. We stayed the night there but I could not go to sleep.

By Sabrina Angele Moldaner

The day of the storm was not a very difficult thing for me, but the day before was. I did not know that there was a category 5 hurricane coming straight for us in the Gulf. Truthfully, I did not even know there was a hurricane in the Gulf, period. Here is how I found out.

At about 7 o'clock in the morning I get a phone call from my brother, who happens to be a cop.

"Sabrina, go wake Joe up and tell him to call me. I need some supplies for work," he says.

"Supplies for work? What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Supplies for the hurricane. I can't leave work until it all blows over," he says.

"Hurricane? What hurricane?" I asked.

"The category five hurricane in the Gulf that is coming straight towards us. That hurricane," he says.

"Oh. I guess I'll go get Joe." I said.

That is how my Saturday morning went. Up at 7AM, watching the news in horror as the Texas-sized hurricane came barreling towards our home state. I told my step-dad to call my brother and he did. Then, my aunt from Kentwood calls me and asks me if I am staying or leaving. Of course I'm staying; I have nine animals in my house that I just refuse to leave behind. She tells me that part of her job is boarding animals, and to get myself and my pets up there as soon as possible. I thought this was a great idea, but Joe wanted to stay.

While watching the news for a little bit longer, I decided to go pack my bags without telling Joe. Not ten minutes after I packed my bags, Joe came in and said, "Come on, go pack some things. We're going to your aunt's house." I gave a sly little smile and said, "Already packed." He laughed a little bit while he packed his back and I tried to figure out how to get my cats into my car. All of my animals are strictly inside animals. My cats are terrified of going outside, so I just grabbed the easiest thing; a pillowcase. After finally getting all five cats into my car, Joe put the four dogs into his car and we were on our way.

Everything was going great: Traffic was not too bad, the animals were starting to calm down, and I was starting to calm down. Then contra flow starts, and I'm stuck going Northbound on the southbound side of Interstate 55. All of the exits were closed off and no one was being let off. Joe and I were talking on our Nextel?s the whole time, trying to figure out what to do. So we did the next best thing; we crossed over the median so that we would again be going North on the Northbound side.

After that, we were fine and on our way to ride out the hurricane in Kentwood with some of my family. This was going to be fun.


The Aftermath of Katrina
By Ty Booker

As I walked outside, the tragedy became evident—overnight Katrina had turned Louisiana into her toy. There were trees strewn everywhere like a child’s pick up sticks. We had not sustained much damage, just loss of electricity, hot water, and phone services. I said a silent prayer, but then my thoughts went to everyone else—what about everyone else? I decided to stay in Hammond to ride out the storm, so my whole family was in Baton Rouge.

My cell phone was not working, so I could not call to let them know that I was safe. I walked from North Campus to my dorm, all the while my mind produced images that made me wince just thinking about them. I took a cold, refreshing shower, and proceeded to pack my clothes, hoping that a member of my family would be coming to get me.

The air outside was stale; it smelled of desertion. I had no food, no lights, and no contact to the “outside world”. I was alone; my worst fear. As I began to calm down, my phone rang in my room. The sound to my ears was bittersweet bliss. I answered to find out that my mother had been trying to contact me for two days and that I would be getting a ride out of this ghost town, formally known as Hammond, Louisiana.

When I arrived in Baton Rouge, I cried tears of joy. I was happy to be with my family again, and out of danger. However, when I turned on the news, the vivid images, the devastation, and the human suffering that I saw, turned my tears of joy to sadness.



By Tina Stanley
The first few days after the storm, I had to stay with a friend in Lafayette. We didn’t have any power; so it was just to hot to stay at home. It was bad because I couldn’t take my animals. I had to drive back and forth from Lafayette to Hammond and take out the dog and feed her and the cat. Luckily; I was one of the first houses to have power, so this only went on for a few days. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but the fuel prices had skyrocketed and a lot of gas stations in Lafayette only had premium left. I couldn’t even get gas in Hammond. When it was finally available; people had to wait in long lines and they were restricted on how much gas they could buy.

The worst effect was that my fiance had to leave. He was gone for almost two weeks fixing the oil rigs in the Gulf. My life seemed pretty hectic for a while. School was out. My power was back on that Wednesday evening or Thursday morning after the storm. The only thing that I didn’t have was cable or internet. I have a cable modem; so they’re linked. My neighbors didn’t get power back until a week after I had mine. It was a weird feeling being one of the only houses on the block with power.

When Bryan is out on the boats, we have no means of communication. He was able to come home early because we are members of the National Guard. Our unit had duty the weekend of September 10th and 11th and he wasn?t able to attend. He had to come in and make it up.

I've also noticed that I'm a lot more jumpy than what I used to be. I think it's from the all the media and the introduction of refugees. I just worry because I've heard of things happening and I feel vulnerable. I feel that a person would look at me and see easy prey. I only walk my dog on a regular path for no more than ten minutes after dark.

I am still being affected by the storm. Businesses are being bombarded with customers. What was once a simple trip to the grocery store; is now a lengthy endeavor. Most of the time, I have to stand in a long line outside the store until we can be ushered in like sheep.

The aftermath of Katrina has affected people everywhere; including states that weren?t physically in the storms path. Other states are receiving refugees and experiencing stress at a minimal level. Life is never going to be the same in Louisiana. The aftermath is an ongoing effect.



By Stacie McIntosh

The Aftermath

The next morning at the church there was a nice breakfast for us and the news was on so people could see what was going on. My sister and I spent most of the day outside just sitting in the warm sun and wanting to go home. Winnfield was a small town with what seemed to be a very big logging company and a Wal-Mart. Therefore, we could not go anywhere and did not even have cable just one news channel. That afternoon the Dish Network came by and hooked up the cable free so u can have more then one channel, but they still kept it on news all day. I did not think we needed to have the news on in the main room were all the little kids where trying to play. That is all they had on and did not change it to anything to keep the kids quiet.

On the news thought, they were not showing anything on Slidell and we were getting worried because we had two people stay in Slidell and your cats were at home. One of the people that stayed in Slidell was a sheriff and was the only one that could tells anything that was happening the Slidell. The other person was my mom?s younger bother and he stayed because he just wanted to. We were so worried about both of them but the sheriff did not know where the other one was to tell him where we were. I spent most of the day outside p I did not have to hear about what was going on; the only time I went in was to eat and I really did not eat much. That day I made friends with these two people one was 16, the other was 21, I spent most of the time outside talking to them about where I came from, and the school I went too. They know about my high school because of the band; we competed against them one year. Which I thought was cool because it gave us something to talk about to pass time everyday. Everyday was the same thing, wake to the news, breakfast, and then outside. I started sleeping in so I did not have to hear the news but the grandparents would not let me and called me rude. Every day it was a nightmare to try to call anyone on the cell phones, but I was able to call Kevin everyday and talk to him as long as I was in different part of the church where my Meme could not find me. She would yell at me because I was on the phone saying my dad lost his job grow up and get off the phone.

Everyday it was as if I was trying to find a place just to be alone and cry because I wanted to go home so badly. By Friday, the pastor said he had a house we can stay in across the street. So all 18 of us went to stay in the house and that when WWIII broke out and we all just wanted to go home. It was a week and half before I got back to Hammond and I am so glad to be back.

By Sabrina Angele Moldaner

Honestly, the aftermath of hurricane Katrina was not so bad for me. Though we did not have electricity or hot water up in Kentwood, we had our family and a generator. The generator was only good for so much. Things like keeping the fridge and phones on were the bulk of the generator’s job.

The one thing that I hated most about not having electricity was the fact that we had no hot water. Normally this would not be a problem for me. This is only because in LaPlace, where I live, there is no such thing as cold water. The water is always at least lukewarm, but in Kentwood it is totally different. In Kentwood, they use wells to get their water. You know the Kentwood water that you get in those nice plastic bottles? That is the water that they use to bathe in up there. The water was freezing cold. I could not even take a shower over there. I had to stand in the tub with the shower running, splashing a tiny bit of water on myself at a time. It was terrible. But, I’m not going to complain too much. Most people in New Orleans did not even have water. I was lucky to have what I did.

Well, finally they decide that LaPlace is okay and we can go home, so that is what we do. But first, we went early in the morning without the animals so that we could see if the house was even livable. We got there and the house was fine. There was a small tree down in our back yard, but other then that we were good. The power was on and the water was running, so we decided that it was time to bring our animals home. We got back to Kentwood and told everyone about the house and told everyone good bye. We then took our animals out of the kennel, packed them up in the cars, and made our way home.

When we got back to LaPlace we noticed a lot of water in the streets that was not there when we had visited earlier. We tried to get to our house from the back way, but the water was too high to get through. So, we drove around LaPlace for a while and finally found a way to get home. When we got there, the water was about half an inch from getting into our house. I think my mom was looking over us that day, because I do not know what I would have done if my house were to end up unlivable.

I do not think I have ever seen my animals more happy to be in my house than they were that day. I do not think I could have been happier either. It was a great day for all of us, but it was always just the beginning of starting over.


By Amie Marie Oncale
Only a few things changed for me after hurricane Katrina. The grocery store where I work was outrageously busy. The store was out of everything but we were still really busy. The warehouses where we get our food from was also out of everything. The traffic around Baton Rouge had increased tremendously. Also, the wait to get gas was about thirty minutes to an hour. My home did not get any damage at all. We were without electricity for about five days. Luckily, we had a generator and we were able to watch the news. The things that were going on in New Orleans were astonishing. The looting that was going on was ridiculous. I was very surprised to see how people were acting during this situation. It only seemed like it was getting worse by the day. The news kept talking of how many people were stranded on top of their homes without food or water. People were getting sent to all parts of the United States. There were many people that were left with nothing. It was sad to see how many people died, stranded in their homes. Things began to calm down about two weeks after the hurricane. Our store was fully stocked again. The lines to get gas decreased and things began running smooth. But, the traffic is still bumper to bumper in Baton Rouge. It seems like no matter what time of the day it is, there is going to be some sort of traffic. When I hear people complaining about the traffic and how their lives were changed because of all the new people in Baton Rouge, I just listen. I know it could be have been worse for my family and I. I am just glad to still have my home and my family together.



By Destin Poche

Once leaving Louisiana, Hurricane Katrina left many of families brokenhearted. But it put them closer in a way that nothing else could. The mass devastation this hurricane caused was incredible. From days on my family and me were left with no power and just a few tree limbs in the yard. But that was nothing compared to what most people in Southeastern Louisiana had got from the storm.

The day after the hurricane struck my family and I spent all day picking up sticks at our home and at some of our rent places. Even though it was a long and tiring process it brought us closer as a family. Its not to often that we do things as a family anymore.



At night it was very miserable because of the power outage in my town. A few days after the storm we heard word that a place in Baton Rouge was bringing in large amounts of generators daily. We were quick to jump on that situation and we left town in search for a generator. After waiting around an hour in line we finally got what we were in search for, a generator. The generator powered our television, freezers, and a small ac unit that kept us cool at night.

As I watched television from days on I noticed how lucky we were to have little damage done by this massive storm. Some people weren’t so lucky though. As the storm nearly missed New Orleans I realized that it was the aftermath that really hurt the city. Levee brakes is what killed the city of New Orleans leaving it 80% underwater. As water flooded the streets of New Orleans the thousands of people that were still left in the city had to be transported out by helicopters. Knowing that if this storm would of touched down 150 miles more westward than what it did, it would have been my family and I in the direct path of this storm.

By Brandi Durocher

The aftermath of the storm has created an enormous amount of difficulties in my everyday life.

One of the first difficulties I encountered was no electricity for a couple of days. I never realized how dependent I was on electricity until I had to live without it. I had a hard time adjusting to no air conditioning, using flashlights and candles, and not being able to cook or eat hot meals.

The morning after the storm, I woke up to some horrendous presents all over my yard left by who I wished was Santa Claus, but instead it was Katrina. My yard was covered in chest high debris that consisted of: tree limbs, twigs, water, leaves, and seriously injured baby squirrels. It took my family and me three hours to clean up all of the debris out of my yard.

However, the biggest negative effect the storm caused is relentless traffic. Since the people from New Orleans evacuated, traffic has almost tripled in volume. I live in Denham Springs and work in Baton Rouge. The drive to work in the early morning hours used to take me twenty to thirty minutes, and now the drive is an hour to two hours long. I am still adapting to the traffic, and this conflicts with me remaining punctual.

I never thought a hurricane could disrupt my life as much as Katrina did. I know the storm did not affect my life as much as it did other people, and I am very thankful. I hope a hurricane like Katrina does not occur in the future.

By Brett Carbo

Day of the storm

Sunday morning at around one thirty a.m., my parents finally made it to

Lafayette Louisiana. They were hauling behind them a horse trailer with two

horses in for the ride. My girlfriend’s family offered to let us stay in their

summerhouse, which is located in False River. Michelle my girlfriend, and I went

up and down the road looking for a barn for my mothers horses to stay, not

realizing how long they would have to be held their. We had to find a place to

put the horses before my parents made it to the refuge house. The people that we

found were so caring, it felt like they almost wanted to take the horses form

out our hands. After we put the horses up, we went back to the house not knowing

what to expect from Katrina.



The next morning at about eight a.m. Monday morning, I woke up in a warm sweat,

knowing that something was wrong. The power was out, and heavy winds were doing

their damage to the trees. All we could do was watch, pray, and hope that

everything was ok. When I went outside, the river was very rough, and tree

branches were down everywhere. To say the truth, Lafayette made out pretty good.

Tuesday came around with still no power or word from anyone. The wind had calm

down, proving that the storm had passed through. The night of the storm was not

scary, as others would say the opposite in the deep south of New Orleans. We

spent Tuesday playing games, and entertaining each other as best we could. The

storm passed, and we were for the power to be turned back on, to hear some word

of the devastation of Katrina.



In the back of my mind, I knew that there was major damage and problems for us

to look forward to. With this set in my head, I put myself to sleep in the

middle of the day only to be woken up by the television. The power was back on,

and we were stuck on the television screen. Only time would tell us, what our

future held for us the day after the storm.



By Mary Bickford

The Day of the Storm

We had heard about the storm all weekend. At first, the storm was supposed to turn north after it had gone into the Gulf of Mexico, but it did just the opposite. We were at home, when the storm finally made landfall. We had gone to bed the day before it hit, and was waken by our small dog. The wind was blowing so hard that it kept blowing our screen door open and banging it shut. At first, we didn?t know what was wrong until we heard the wind then we knew that the storm had made landfall. This was about four- thirty that morning.

About six-thirty that morning, our lights went out. We had no power for about eight days, but it was the first few days that were the roughest. It stayed dusky looking most of the day. There were many thoughts that run through my mind. My children got up to the howling of the wind and the beating of the heavy rains. It was the most awful thing that I had gone through in my life. I wasn?t here when Andrew came in 1992; I was in Virginia visiting with family. I told my husband that we will never do this again. I watched as the trees in my neighbor?s yard would bend under the force of the wind and almost touch the ground and bounce right back up. This seems to go on for forever. At one point during the storm, I was on my porch and the wind blew me back into the house. The noise of limbs scared my sons. After everything was over, my husband has been able to help the people around our neighborhood clean their yards. I have never see people, that never associate, come together and help one another. We were able to stop long enough to enjoy visiting with and helping each other. It is hard to believe that it took a storm of this magnitude to cause people just to stop and enjoy things in life.



By Sarah Graham

The day of the storm started a day early for me as preparations are part of the storm as well. It all started bright and early Sunday morning when I drove home to my parent?s house in Gonzales, Louisiana. Gonzales is a small, but upcoming town in Ascension Parish that lies thirty miles east of Baton Rouge and sixty miles west of New Orleans. When I finally returned home there was lots of work to be done. I live on a farm with a lot of open land around my house, so the first thing to do was to take care of the animals and the farm equipment. Apparently, preparing for a hurricane means spring cleaning for my dad. I had to clean out, straighten up, and sweep out the equipment barn behind our home. I could see the clouds moving in and the wind was starting to blow. I also went ahead and moved the bar-b-que pit and the propane stove into the barn along with the deck chairs and table. I figured when the electricity went out me and my family could eat in our newly cleaned barn. After lunch, moving into the afternoon and evening, the wind and the rain started to howl. The rain would sting my face as I frantically ran around trying to move our cars away from the power lines in case they fell. The rain and wind continued as darkness started to fall.

It was nighttime at last and the wind was howling more fierce than ever. Unbelievably, our electricity was still on. Me and the rest of my family watched the news all night as the news team continued to track the storm praying that the storm would turn north instead of staying the north west track it was presently taking. I decided that night to sleep with my little sister Michelle since it was safer. The addition of our house that Michelle sleeps in is all brick and concrete. My side; however, was the original part of the house which is made of all wood that sits on little concrete pillars about a foot and a half in the air. As Michelle and I went to bed, I could hear the wind outside howling making the bushes next to her window beat up against the glass. I stayed awake to watch the news until eventually I drifted off to sleep.

I was abruptly awaken the next very early morning by the wind howling up against my house. It was still very dark outside as it was only four ?o clock in the morning. I started to hear this loud creaking noise coming from above, something that I could only imagine was the roof coming off our home. Our home has a tin roof that is only held on to my mere screws. My excitement was rising. The roof started to make this loud moaning noise that sounded a lot like screws being ripped from the wood beams holding them down. I quickly sat up and ran to my parents room. They are very heavy sleepers, so naturally they did not hear the noise. I went to wake my dad worried that something was happening to our home; he did not seem as concerned as I was and went back to sleep. The moaning continued to get louder and finally waking up my parents. We waked to the front porch to see if damage could be spotted, but there appeared to be none. As the wind and noises continued on we began to watch the news, there was no going back to sleep.

The sun slowly started rise as it came close to seven ?o clock. The wind started to pick up very suddenly. The lights started to flicker so my parents and I walked onto the porch. The power lines across the street were blowing so hard in the wind the lines were tapping together. There was a loud boom from the transformer and then there were these flames coming from the lines. There went the electricity. The rest of the day seemed to drag on. Finally the night came and once again I had to sleep with Michelle. The window screens in my room had holes in them and were letting in bugs, Michelle's did not. So I went to bed ready to see what the day after Katrina had in store.

By Jessica Varnado

My heart feels saddened as I look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. To imagine babies floating in flood water, people literally sitting on their roof tops, and the elderly wading through the water praying to find help deeply saddens me. The day Katrina struck is a day that will always be remembered.

My journey began the day before the storm with cleaning and picking up in the yard so that random debris wouldn?t be thrown around. Afterwards my dad and I went to get my grandmother who would be staying with us to ensure her safety. Seeing the lack of room in our home I came to the conclusion that I would stay with my boyfriend and his parents due to the lack of space in our home.

We lost electricity around 5:30 that morning, as we were all fast asleep with unspoken worries. We awoke to bending trees swaying in the wind, and severe rain showers. Many of the trees littered the yard as they broke completely in half. It was then that everyone, including myself, realized that Hurricane Katrina was "the big one" that we had all heard of for so long.

Afterwards, the storm seemed to have changed everything. We sat without electricity for a week and two days, gas was short and hard to come by, and traffic was practically unbearable. Upon regaining electricity we turned on the television to see what we had all feared-- devastation. It was far worst than I had imagined. Seeing the horrors of many homes destroyed, people trapped trying to escape traitorous circumstances crying children, and news of women being raped in shelters.

We are very fortunate and blessed that things aren?t as bad on the North shore as they were below the lake in New Orleans. All one can do is pray. Pray for strength, and that these people can overcome this catastrophe, and maybe somehow come closer to God. There is still hope and I, myself, pray that people realize that God brings us to it to get us through it. This storm has changed and created new lives for many along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. Hopefully better days are soon to come.

By Ude Amobi from Nigeria

Until last week, I only read novels and watched movies in which places where hit by very devastating storms called hurricanes. I never imagined in a lifetime, finding myself in a similar disastrous situation. The word to describe how I felt when the storm hit would be utter shock.

I was at the 24hr lab where I work as a lab attendant when the phone rang. I picked up the phone and it was my supervisor on the other line. She ordered me to go ahead and close the lab for the day as a hurricane was anticipated to hit the southeastern part of Louisiana. That got me a bit worried and anxious. I got home to my apartment and met some of my neighbors talking about the expected storm and how they planned to evacuate to nearby towns and states. I told them they were overreacting, that the storm was probably not going to affect us and hence, I had no intentions to evacuate. Boy, was I wrong.

On the day of the storm, I was sleeping on the couch, when I was bought back to conciousness by a sharp noise. I peeped through my window, and for the first time ever saw the wind moving at almost 100miles/hr. I instantly lost all the braveness in me and became as frightened as a little just child thinking about how possible it was that I might not live to tell the story. I stood close to the window and watched the storm unleash its power. It blew my bike away from where it was parked and forced most of the trees to bow to its superiority. I was brought back to reality when the power went off abruptly in my apartment. I remember feeling like I was part of a horror movie. I reached quickly for the phone to call my family, only to find out the phone was dead. At that junction, it dawned on me that I needed a miracle to stay safe.

I swiftly made my way to the room, lay down on the bed and basically blamed myself for not evacuating when I hard the chance to. I went on my knees and prayed to God to keep me and others safe. That was the last thing I remembered doing. I woke up later that day excited, having realized I made it out safe. I headed for the window again, looked out and could not see the yard as it was covered with fallen trees and leaves. I also observed that some of the cars parked across the street were badly damaged by the trees that fell on them.

I took a sigh of relief and thanked God profusely for sparing my life. This experience was so horrifying and devastating that I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

By Kevin Monteleone

There has been several times when my family and I have had to pick up our belongings and evacuate our home. Once I heard that hurricane Katrina was heading straight for New Orleans, I knew our great state was in trouble. For the past few years during hurricane season, New Orleans, Louisiana has always been known for getting lucky and just sliding by. All of this will change when Hurricane Katrina hits land on Monday, August twenty-ninth.

When the hurricane touched land in New Orleans I was in Houston, Texas at my brothers. Along came my parents, two uncles, and my aunt. It was a lot of people to have in one house but we were all grateful to be together and have a place to stay. It was also nice because I don’t get to see my brother to often since he lives about five hundred miles away from Slidell, Louisiana which is where my parents and I live.

This hurricane has had a tremendous impact on my life. My house got five feet of water in it which has caused my family and I split up and live with different people. My mom now lives in Metairie with my uncle which is about thirty minutes away from Slidell. My dad is in Jackson, Mississippi because that is where his company was called for work. I am living in Slidell with my friend Eric and his family; his house didn’t get any damage so they are letting me live with them until I find my own place. I really miss my parents but this is the way it is, and there is nothing that I can do to change it. All there is to do is to live life day by day and take it as it comes.

By Samantha Achee
Hurricane Katrina

Dear German Students,

I am writing to you about the experience that I witnessed concerning Hurricane Katrina. The day I found out that the storm was headed towards the Louisiana and Mississippi's gulf coasts, I did not really pay much attention. The reason that I did not feel nervous about the storm is because I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I say this because Baton Rouge had never really experienced such a severe natural disaster in my life time and I did not feel like the area I lived in would be a target. However, I had not yet heard that New Orleans would be such a large target area until the day the news released the information that it would be reaching landfall that night.

When I found out that Hurricane Katrina would be passing right over Louisiana and hitting full force as a category 5 storm I was frightened. By tuning into the television and reviewing all the news channels, this seemed to be the only concern on t.v. I was interested and frightened at the same time about what this hurricane would do to Louisiana and the southern part of the U.S. I became aware that our city was on the so called, "good side" of the storm, meaning that we would get 35mph winds and rain. I remember the news reporter repetively saying that the hurricane would reach Louisiana lands and that New Orleans would be getting a lot of rough winds and rains and was at high risk of being the next Atlantis, meaning that the entire city would be under water.

Everything about the situation suddenly did not seem real and did not even seem possible. I think for the most part that day I remained in a subconscious state of denial about the storm. I spent that day laying around my friend's house wasting what I would later know as valuable time. It was almost as if in my mind I thought that everyone was over reacting about the situation, but this was not the case at all. I strongly believe that this is also how the people who got stuck in the cities of where this terrible natural disaster flooded over, that they too, felt how I did that day. Finally, after all the procastination, I received a phone call from my mother telling me to come home and pack my stuff because we would be staying at my pawpaw's house. I briefly remember the rush that I felt having to pack up all of my personal and sentimental belongings in a limited amount of time.

By that night, Baton Rouge started experiencing some winds and some rain but it was not bad. I can remember before falling asleep praying that everything would be okay come morning. I hoped that everyone I knew would be okay and that no trees would do too much damage anywhere. I woke up that next morning to the wind gusting outside and no power in my pawpaw's house. We had friends and family staying with us that had homes in New Orleans and they were very nervous the whole time about their houses. My pawpaw and I actually went outside in the hurricane to go pick up his boat cover that had blown off and flew over the house. The rain was like a mist and in the street down the road were a pack of men jogging steadily down the road toward us. They quickly turned into a driveway and disappeared. It was such an abnormal site to see in the neighborhood that I had grown up in. Everyone had their cars parked and backed up to one another to help prevent the surrounding trees from falling on them. In the sky around me were tree tops dashing frantically from side to side and leaves blowing in high circles above me.

The weather that I experienced that day was in every way different than any weather I had ever experienced before. It was a very strange experience to now know that the way I felt was nothing compared to how the people on the "bad side" of the storm felt except for ten times worse. I was only out of electricity for a few days but I had food and shelter with no water in my house. I do not know and can not even comprehend how the people who were left abandoned must have felt and continue to feel about the catastrophe that we were suddenly faced with in a blink of an eye. As I write, I reflect how it felt for me the day that I realized that just because we are America, that nothing is impossible and being alive is the most important and cherishable item that many are left with. I pray for these people and for our country.

By Lamaralus Northern

On Sunday, August 28, 2005, my family and I went to church for the 9:30 a.m. Worship Service. As we were driving we notice that the day was going to be a dreary day. Although it was hot, there was a steady breeze. The sky remind us that Katrina was on her way. We talked about everything we needed to do once church was out.

Church was out for 11:30 a.m. I called my dad and ask him for some plywood to board up two large windows on the front side of my house. When I turned in my driveway my daddy and my cousin had nailed the wood on the windows. In the same yard, my beauty shop sat about a 100 feet away from my house. My husband removed my air condition out of the window and covered it with plywood. We put tape on the others. We picked up all objects flying objects in the yard and secured the other items outside.

Later that evening we went to the grocery store. What a mistake that was. The stores were crowded with people. Because I am a last minute person, I had to shop around for batteries. The water supply was few. We went to five stores before we found the everything we need. It started raining and it would last about ten minutes, stop for at least thirty minutes, then start back up. I knew that the storm was coming and I knew that Katrina was going to be a bad hurricane. I continued to pray and ask God to dispatch his angels all around us.

Sunday night everyone was at home except my oldest son J'eanPaul. He's employed at Hunt's Correction, located in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. He packed two days of clothes because he wasn't sure the prison was going to let him come home. I sat my alarm for 5:00 a.m. so that I would be aware of my surrounding. I woke my husband and my youngest son. I told them to get up and put some clothes on. I wanted to make sure that if we had to leave we were able to do so quickly. I got dress and notice that my husband was still in the bed with his night clothes on. He told me that he wasn't getting up. My son was fully dressed and laying across the bed. All of a sudden, the wind started blowing hard, and within minutes the rain started. I begin praying again, I felt a little scared but, I felt a calmest in me. About 6:00 a.m. my son drove up and ran in the house. He told me that it was very hard driving through the storm. He came in took a shower, dressed, got his gear and went to the fire department to work over there. He loves being a fireman. I was very proud of him because he had worked twelve long hours and he was concern about the community as a whole.



During the storm all I did was watch the news, cleaned up, cook, laundry, and call my other family members. As the morning progressed, the lights began to blink on and off, but we never lost power. Every now and then I would here a hit on the roof. I immediately looked outside and my shingles were flying off. I called my daddy and told him about my shingles and all he said was yours and everybody else's. I began to then question myself did we make the right decision staying home. By that time I really begin to pray. I know I wore God out. But I was reminded that God didn't give me a spirit of fear.

Finally the storm began to settle down between noon and 3:00 p.m. and what a relief that was. Most of my family left New Orleans, Louisiana, but we wasn't sure about my uncle and his family. Once the storm left, I got in my car and went to every hotel in Gonzales, Louisiana because I couldn't get through on their cellular phone. I did find them, and I invited them to check out the hotel and come to my house. Seven of them came with me, four went to my aunt, and my uncle and his wife stayed at the hotel. Katrina did a lot of damage in many areas, but we were blessed that we only lost shingles.

By Brittany Shea

The day Hurricane Katrina hit was very memorable for me. It is a day that I will remember for a long time. I was at my parent?s house located in East Baton Rouge when Hurricane Katrina hit land. The emotion that filled the air as we all sat in the same room watching the news so diligently was still. It was like no one could quite catch their breath because we all felt in our hearts that it was going to be disastrous but didn?t want to say. I really didn?t realize the extent of the storm until I started talking to some friends of mine on the phone and they began to fill me in on what was said to occur. On Sunday night around 2 am we lost our electricity. I could begin to hear the wind pick up outside and the trees started swaying faster and heavier. The rain also began to come down harder and pretty soon Katrina was closer. I decided to go to sleep and I would wake up in the morning to discover the damage. Monday morning came without electricity and a completely different looking world outside. Tree branches and other debris covered the yard and streets. The neighbor?s house had a tree straight through the roof. Luckily we didn?t have too much damage to the house besides my parent?s room being flooded with water. We remained without electricity throughout all of Monday and into the night. It was as if the city had shut down and the world was turned off. I started realizing how meaningful all of the little things in life were such as light, running water, sewage, and just a hot meal. It wasn?t until the electricity came back on around 11 pm that night that I actually began to see on the news what it had done to the rest of the state and how my area didn?t really have much to complain about. My heart dropped as I watched the news coverage for the next few hours on New Orleans, Biloxi, and other coastal areas. I couldn?t believe my eyes. I had just been in the French Quarter that week before and now you couldn?t even recognize the city. I began to feel thankful that I was not in the position that thousands of family were now in.

Matt Dupre's Recollection of Hurricane Katrina

Guten Tag! My name is Matt Dupre' and, these are my recollections of hurricane Katrina. I live about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans and 20 miles southeast of Baton Rouge.

The night before the storm my girlfriend and I watched the Weather Channel until 1:00 in the morning. We knew it was going to hit us, and we knew it was going to be bad. The hurricane was a category 5; the storm was the worst I had ever seen. The pictures I had seen of the storm were as big as Louisiana. It was coming and coming fast!

My girlfriend wanted to go to her mothers' house for better shelter, but her mother had just as many trees as our house. We decided to stay at home, fearing the worst. The bathtubs were filled and so were the ice chests. The electricity was definitely going to shut off in the morning hours. We were as ready as we could be, so we went to bed.

Early in the morning I awoke to the sound of silence. The electricity had cut off and so did our air conditioner. I dosed back off for an hour or two. The next time I woke up the storm had just got to our house. The wind was howling similar to the sound an 18 wheeler. I was starting to worry. What if a tree fell on the house, or what if the roof flew off the house. We saw our neighbors barn roof flip off and across their cow pasture. Trees and limbs began to fall with loud shotgun like sounds. The gusts of wind were not steady, but they happened every 30 seconds or so.

Finally the storm ended; The only damage we had was a few trees down in the yard. Our power was cut off for about 4 days, but that was the least of our worries. It was an overwhelming experience to say the least, yet we survived!

By Morgan Melancon

Hallo! When I found out that there was a category four hurricane coming directly for Louisiana I told my family that I wanted to evacuate because I was too scared to stay at home for such a bad hurricane. My family also agreed that it was too dangerous and we should leave, so we went to Milam, Texas. It took us about ten hours to get there from where I live in Covington, Louisiana. Milam was the closest place that we could find a hotel to stay in for a few days. When I finally got to Milam I was able to watch the news about the hurricane on the television. When I found out that hurricane Katrina had hit the Gulf Coast and nearly demolished New Orleans I was shocked. The news said that when the hurricane came onto land it was a category four with winds up to 150 miles per hour. Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes in the history of the United States to hit. Since the New Orleans area of Louisiana is below sea level when the hurricane hit it had so much force that it flooded New Orleans with up to about 8 feet of water in some areas. There was a mandatory evacuation for everyone in the New Orleans area, but many did not want to evacuate or did not have the money to evacuate. Since so many did not evacuate and decided to stay in their homes, thousands drowned because they could not get out of their homes fast enough to escape the rising water. My grandmother and my uncle live in New Orleans, so their houses were totally destroyed due to the flooding. When my family finally decided to go home a week after the storm hit, we went to our house to find that it was still in good condition, but a lot of trees were down. My house did not get affected badly from the storm because the hurricane had the biggest impact on the New Orleans area and Covington is about 45 minutes away from New Orleans.

By Valarie Taylor

Wie Geht's! As many of the people who will read this already know, most of the Gulf Coast has been demolished by Hurricane Katrina. I live near New Orleans, Louisiana and what i experienced while at my home will never compare to what these people have been through. New Orleans, as you may already know, is many miles below sea level and part of the city is surrounded by water. The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, ordered a mandatory evacuation, but in New Orleans it cannot always be taken seriously. I do believe that many of the people that stayed in their homes did not have the funds or the money to escape. Hurricane Katrina was the strongest and most deadly hurricane that the United States has ever encountered. She was a category 5+, with winds ranging from 150-175 miles per hour. These winds alone were strong enough to uproot trees and blow away buildings, and that was before the rain and flooding. In New Orleans the levees that usually hold the water back were broke, and that is when most of the devastation began. As water began entering the city, houses, cars, people, and anything else in its path was flooded. All that could be seen in this area were the rooftops of what used to be homes. People were trapped on their roofs and were waiting to be rescued. This massive storm had a huge impact on me personally. I feel like i am helpless to these thousands of people that are going to have to rebuild their lives in a new city. I am also very grateful that this hurricane didn't have that same effect on my or my home.

By Bridgett Kinsey

When I first heard about the storm, I thought it was going to pass over us like all the rest. I went to Wal-Mart and I brought things that would have lasted for one day of a storm. The first day the officers were making everyone get off the roads and stores was closing down early. I was just at home getting my children ready and we started watching television. During the storm, I slept through most of it, so I didn?t hear anything. The next day we were out of lights, and it was getting hot so my children and I decided to go for a ride to look at everything. My neighborhood was a disaster we couldn?t get down any of the streets. A tree fell through the window of my car and busted my window. When we went home I fed my children what I had left and they just stayed outside until nightfall. At night, it was total chaos for me, because my sons were crying because they were so hot. I was just praying that my kids were all right and we get through this together. We had to sleep in the bathtub in cold water for four nights straight, my kids had bad cases of heat rash on their skin. I also had to decide what I was going to do because I only brought food for one day. Many people were giving away food so I had to go and get some for my children. The only thing I was worried about was my kids because I have two small children and it was my responsibility to take care of them. I was so appreciative to everyone who helped out because I don?t think we would have made it. We still have to stand in long lines just to get gas I stood in line for three hours just for gas. If it wasn?t for different emergency loans and food stamps, I don?t know how I would have fed my kids. I thank God that I am safe, and especially for my kids that they are safe and healthy. This storm has taught me a lot of things that you have to be prepared, because cash money wasn?t easy getting to during the storm. I have been out of work for two weeks because the daycares are closed and I need someone to watch my children. It?s hard and we haven?t started back to normal life yet, I advised everyone to pray because without the Lord we wouldn?t be here now. I feel sorry for the people that lost everything, I have relatives in New Orleans and we haven?t heard from them yet because they wouldn?t leave. I would like to thank all the people who have donated to us, because their donations were a major help to everyone. I am very grateful that we made it through alive.

Note: Here is the text of a song composed by Will Vance, son of SLWP TC Lynne Vance. Her interview follows.

KATRINA by Will Vance

It was a hot August day when Katrina left town.
I don’t think things will ever be the same

since she went and laid her way – laid her way down.

And there ain’t a light on for a hundred miles

except for burning candles and a few broken smiles.



And when Old Man Nash talks you’d better listen

Even though it might just be superstition

And you can call it an intuition

But you’d better hang on to every word he says.

Cause it might just be

a leap of faith

and it might just be

Amazin’ Grace

But I don’t think she meant to leave me this way.



Katrina. . . Katrina. . . Katrina. . . Oh, Katrina



I ain’t slept in days

In years it seems,

but I can’t be awake

This must be a bad dream.

With a broken mirror on the wall

And a face with lines

And the man staring back at me

I can’t say I recognize.

The house is such a mess

And it ain’t sunk in yet

Like a black and white movie

I can see all my regrets.



And when Old Man Nash talks you’d better listen

Even though it might just be superstition

And you can call it an intuition

But you’d better hang on to every word he says.

Cause it might just be

a leap of faith

and it might just be

Amazin’ Grace

But I don’t think she meant to leave me this way.



Katrina. . . Katrina. . . Katrina. . . Oh, Katrina





And I confuse the sweat for tears –

that are runnin’ down

Feels like I’m on a merry-go-round

And I don’t know who will stop the rain

Well, I just thank God that I’m alive –

Today.



And when Old Man Nash talks you’d better listen

Even though it might just be superstition

And you can call it an intuition

But you’d better hang on to every word he says.

Cause it might just be

a leap of faith

And it might just be

Amazin’ Grace

But I don’t think she meant to leave me this way.

Katrina. . . Katrina. . . Katrina. . . Oh, Katrina.

Interview with Will Vance By Lynne Vance
“’I held her for as long as I could. . . and she just slipped out of my arms. As
the current of the water took her away from me – her last words were ‘take
care of the children. . .’” began Will Vance as he recalled the inspiration for his
song Katrina written during the first 48 hours of the aftermath of the storm.
“ I was sitting on our front porch in the darkness and the heat, listening to a
scratchy portable radio when I heard a news bite of a man crying those words –
that’s when it hit me the hardest,” continued Vance. He explained that he was
holding on to his guitar and just began to strum.
“Music has always been an outlet for me to express my deepest feelings.
Often things I can’t say in conversation, I can say in a song,” he added. “All I
could think of was the relationship between that man and that woman. I knew
that they never dreamed that they would part that way.”
The horror of the situation and the grief expressed by an unknown man
was the genesis for Vance’s song. He explained that somehow that moment
captured on an audio news bite seemed to sum it up for him - no one meant to
be left that way.
The song has an eerie tone of a lost love, which seems odd for a devastating
category five storm. When asked why he chose this venue Vance explained.
“ I chose to make it like a love-loss song for several reasons - mainly to
relate to others. Even if someone hasn’t experienced the destruction of a
hurricane, many can relate to a devastating relationship ending in loss. And –
for me – it is a love loss. New Orleansis part of the heart and soul of Louisiana. Even with all of its faults, the rich heritage and warmth of the
culture, music, and people are a large part of the soul of Louisiana.”
When asked about the refrain containing the reference to “Old Man Nash,”
Vance replied. “When I sang it to my dad the first time on the porch that
night, that line was just when “the old man talks, you’d better listen. Somehow
my dad heard the word “Nash” in there and he got excited because he grew u
listening to reporter Nash Roberts guiding him through many past hurricanes.
I don’t remember Nash, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters about a
song is that it connects with someone. If the word “Nash” connects for my
parents and their parents’ generation – that is a success. For those who do not
remember Nash, the name is faceless and unnecessary. For me the character
is the universal old man you always hear talking about the past. He’s the old
guy telling me how he remembered Betsy, or Camille or war stories. . . thos
guys that I seem to often tune out. Maybe they are old and repeat
themselves. But maybe they are wise and that wisdom is more than intuition.
Maybe we should stop and listen to them,” he explained.
The second stanza of the song sets the scene of a man tired and hurt staring
at himself in a broken mirror and not recognizing his own image. The image of
a black and white movie is used to convey his regrets. When asked about that
particular imagery Vance explained his choice of words.
“ Well, in the first few days, there was a dreamlike quality to life. The
situation truly was unbelievable. Dreams are in black and white, and also
when I think of the past – I am reminded of old black and white movies. At
night, there wasn’t much to do but think about the past. I was thankful that
my family and myself were safe, but I thought about all of the things that I had
done that I regretted and how quickly the world could change. It is sort of like
those lines about your life flashing before you in your final moments. Even
though it thankfully wasn’t my final moment – I had the luxury of time to
reflect on things in my past,” he said.
The third stanza reflects a state of confusion. One line refers to confusing
sweat for tears, and also the feeling of being on a merry-go-round. When
asked about this imagery Vance explained that he was thinking of all of the
people that were caught up in the drama of the aftermath. He knew that they
didn’t have time to cry. They had to work – nonstop for days. The quality of
delirium that sets in when one is overworked and overwhelmed is reflected in
this stanza. Vance, whose day job is working maintenance at the Tangipahoa
Parish School Board, said he was back on the job the Wednesday after the
storm.
“It was good to be able to be working. What we saw was nothing
compared to New Orleans, but we were out there, clearing roads to get to
schools. We had to work to clean out the freezers and get the schools ready
for re-opening. The loss and waste were depressing, but it felt good to be
contributing to the clean-up.”
When asked if he thought there were some silver lining to this storm -
whether or not he could see some overarching good coming from the
devastation, Vance had a somber response.
“I really wish I could say yeah, but I don’t see it that way. It is a shame.
You’d think something of this magnitude would unite everyone for a long, long
time. But instead of unity, I see more division. I see more racism. I see more
division between those who have and those who have not. I see division
between political parties . . . and within parties. The hardest thing for us to
rebuild is going to be our trust - our trust in one another, in our leaders, our
politics and ourselves.
Vance was asked if he had learned anything personally from his experiences
with the storm. He replied, “I guess if I could think of one thing that this
storm has taught me it is the value of being prepared.”

Author’s Note: I must say that it felt a bit awkward writing an interview of my
own son. But I must also say that I learned a great deal about the song and my
son from this brief interview. At first, in response to SLWP’s call for Katrina
stories, I was going to just encourage Will to submit his song. I thought it
would just be an interesting addition to the mix for the audio. As a mother, a
supporter, a critic, a teacher and a journalist, I felt the need to re-listen to the
song more objectively. It was through the distancing of the song and the
writer that I grew closer to understanding both the song and my son. I am
thankful for this unique opportunity.
Lynne Vance

Comfort and Joy by Megan Hunt Pourciau
After the hurricane, after about a week of no electricity and meals cooked on the barbecue pit and sleepless nights spent swatting mosquitoes as we slept on the porch, my family finally managed to find a battery operated CD player. We missed playing music while we ate dinner. It is a family ritual–that once the cooking begins, the television is turned off and we open a bottle of wine and play music. Sometimes we dance. We play soulful music like Billie Holiday, Randy Newman, and Aaron Neville. Music that often speaks of our culture.

The first time we played a CD on the borrowed battery operated boom box, we played Randy Newman and his words were soulful, and to the bones sad, when he sang, Louisiana, they’re trying to wash us away. It was about the flood in the twenties, but it felt like he was telling the story about the hurricane. What he was singing was too much of the truth, so next we played Bing Crosby’s Christmas Album–the white one, the one with the picture of Bing on the cover wearing a Santa hat. His voice was soothing, the lyrics–hopeful–and every night for the next two weeks, beneath the glow of a Coleman flashlight and to the hum of the generator, we played Christmas music. In spite of Katrina and the uncertainty she brought to everyone in her path, we soaked in the music, in the stagnating heat of September in Louisiana, when life felt overwhelming.

The irony was that it had been many years since we’d even enjoyed listening to Christmas music. It only accentuated our growing cynicism about the Holidays and how they had come to be over commercialized and how it had made us stress out about all the wrong things–all the expendable, material things. Christmas music and its unadulterated hopefulness and cheer had set for us unattainable expectations. Life would never be as pure and perfect as the songs depicted. But in our most imperfect world and time–in the aftermath–our cynicism fell away. Instead, we were lifted up by what Bing Crosby promised–a white Christmas, and chestnuts roasting by the open fire, and comfort and joy.

Anticipation
by Lauren Moecklin
The hurricane came as a shock to my family, as well as to many other people. We live on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, and my parents felt that it was a safe enough place to be, and in fact, had some of my dad’s family join us for the hurricane so that they, too, would be safe. Surprisingly, my parents had conversed about maybe evacuating, but that was soon a “not a chance.” So, Sunday night, my cousins, my siblings, my family, and I all stayed up as late as we all possibly could, watching television and chatting on the internet, knowing it would soon be snatched from us due to loss of power. It was about midnight or a little later that night and my cousin and I just could not bear being up any longer. So, Molly and I made our way over to my room. At first, it was rather difficult to fall asleep, even though we had been so tired, but after our hour-long talk about random things that popped into our minds had ended, we gave into our insomnia and fell asleep. Watching the storm was not what I was dreadfully anticipating; it was its aftermath.
I am a very sound sleeper; I can even sleep through a hurricane. Well, I used to say that but not this time. At about six thirty Monday morning, I awoke to a loud “boom!” I ran to the front of my house to see trees whistling around and around, so fast that everything appeared to be a foggy white color. The hurricane had begun. I did not know what to do. I ran back to my room, woke up Molly, grabbed my digital camera, and rushed back to the front of my house. I began snapping pictures through the windows. My heart was beating fast, my palms sweaty, I was absolutely amazed. This was indeed the craziest thing I had ever experienced. I never believed my hometown would be violently hit by a hurricane, a category five hurricane at that.

I could not stop thinking about our house and if parts of my roof were flying around the city. The trees in front my house were rapidly losing leaves and branches, and playing merry-go-round, and bits and pieces of the trees were quickly dispersed into the streets, along with much of the water. It was incredible, unbelievable, and scary to see. I did not know if I should laugh or cry. It was so amazing to see what Mother Nature can do, but also scary because I knew the second I walked outside to see the damage, my heart would break apart, and feel so bad for the poor people who lost everything.

I then began to think about my grandmother’s house in Chalmette, Louisiana, my uncle’s house in Waveland, Mississippi, and my aunt’s house in Mandeville, Louisiana. Thoughts of confusion and worry were flooding my thought process. I desperately wanted to wake up from this horrible dream, but could not. This was no dream.

I could not wait to leave my house and go search for damage. Around six thirty p.m. on Monday, my brother, mom, sister, cousin, and I all went on a bike ride around my neighborhood. Wow! There is no better word to explain what we saw. For only one day before, the city was a beautiful place, flourishing with people, businesses, and homes. The next, it was a horrible sight to see: file cabinets in the streets, parks looking like jungles. It was so sad and heartbreaking. To say the least, I could not believe my eyes. Horrible, absolutely horrible! Fifteen and twenty-foot trees, snapped in half like toothpicks.

My poor hometown, ripped to pieces in the matter of twelve hours. It was so naked, so unwelcoming. I miss everything that used to be. I think it proves how much we took advantage of things or at least how much I did anyway. I never appreciated that beautiful park filled with lovely trees, until I saw it as a jungle instead. It will take years to rebuild our city into what we used to have. What a disaster!


Keri Lanclos
English 101, Southeastern Louisiana University
November 29, 2005

Katrina!

Wind, water, and more water, soon it was all there.
It began to be so much, no one could bear.

Katrina
Katrina

How could this happen to New Orleans, a city so unique?
Everyone blamed everyone for being so weak


It was something that destroyed everything we loved
Everyone screamed as they asked for help from above.

Katrina
Katrina


Help came so slow and many homes were lost
Now, the city is just beginning to pay the cost!


Days, weeks, and months began to pass,
Everything just happened so darn fast

Katrina
Katrina

When I began thinking of what to write about, I thought of
something that everyone would have heard about; Hurricane Katrina. As I
brainstormed more and more, I got a lot of ideas from my journal. I had
written an entry on the Hurricane, which contained a lot of my thoughts
of the storm. I decided to make it short and to the point.


I did this, because I didn't want to bore the person listening. In the
lyrics, I described what basically happened to the city of New Orleans
in the wake of Katrina. I also wanted to describe the devastation that is being felt in the aftermath. I wanted someone who had not heard about the storm's damage, to be able to capture an image of what it was like, by just reading a few words. If I was to hear this on the radio, or played by a musician it would definitely be a slow song. I could never see something so devastating, being played so happily. The mood of this song would be sad. If the lyrics would be sang, I would emphasize the Katrina, Katrina part because that is what the song is about.


When someone writes lyrics to a song, I feel that the words should
matter to them the most. The words to me, is how a lot of people tend
to judge the song. Not only are the words a big issue, but the rhythm is
also something I think song writers should look at. If a song has happy and
joyful words, you wouldn't want a slow, boring rhythm. Usually a person
can predict the mood of a song by just reading the words. If I was to read
song lyrics about someone dying, I would automatically be prepared for a
slow song. If I was to read lyrics about holidays or friends, I would be
prepared for a fast, up beat song.


-----------------------------------
Sarah Hinrichs
English 101, Southeastern Louisiana University
1 December 2005

Our World is Changing

Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us
Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us

The flood waters pour out devastation
The sun shines hope
Unexpected waters, unexpected wind
What will tomorrow bring us?
What will God send?

Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us
Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us

The sites all over the news
Gives everyone the blues
Watching our family and friends struggle,
While watching our home city die
There's not much hope we will rebuild,
But we will put up a fight
With all our might

Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us
Right here, right now
Our world is always changing around us

All the soldiers and workers on there way
To yet again save the day
All we need is hope faith and love
With the power from above
And our city will be back again
Right here, right now

Right here, right now
Our world is now changing for the better
Right here, right now
Our world is now changing for the better



Our World is Changing
Is our world changing? The answer to that question is yes. The
world never stops it is always turning, changing, and discovering new
things. People are constantly having new experiences everyday whether
those experiences are good or bad. I have gone through a few traumatic
experiences: broken arm which yielded my tennis career, serious car
accident that had everything in my life on pause, and my home was
damaged by hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina has not only affected my
family's lives, but everyone's lives that live in the cultural city of New
Orleans. The song, "Our World is Changing", I wrote was written about all
the devastating events and experiences our city of New Orleans has gone
through. The city was damaged by an unexpected category five
hurricane.


Many residents of New Orleans stayed in town to ride out the hurricane
thinking it was not going to be that bad. In result, these people were
found dead or stranded in their homes or on roofs in the heart of the continuous rising waters. All of the residents of New Orleans, including myself, are currently displaced and working on rebuilding their homes and lives. The outcome of this event was awfully upsetting, but the city of New Orleans and our country are helping to rebuild our remarkablecity back and better than before.


When writing this song, I thought "Our World is Changing" should be
played at a slow alternative melody by a musician. The chorus "Right
here, right now our world is always changing around us; Right here,
right now our world is always changing around us" should be sung louder than
the other stanzas emphasizing this part making it the focus point of the
song. The last stanza the chorus is changed to "Right here, right now our
world is now changing for the better; Right here, right now our world is now
changing for the better" should be sung more loudly than the other
stanzas also being set as a focus point.


This song summarizes the devastation of New Orleans and other
neighboring states who have been effect exceptionally well. There were
songs written about the numerous about of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
terrorist, 9-11, Columbine shooting, along with a countless amount of
other traumatic events that have affected our country. This event did not
only affect one city, New Orleans, but all of the southern states and the
country. New Orleans is a big port for the United States and is also
made up of a never ending cultural background. It was time for this
horrible event of hurricane Katrina to be expressed and heard about in song.