Chronicles of a Katrina evacuee

Saturday August 27, 2005

• 2pm - It has become apparent that our greatest fears are finally coming to frution. As hurricane Katrina refuses to alter her course, my family and I have made the decision to leave our home and travel west to Houston, TX.
• 4pm - As we make our final preparations to evacuate, It is announced that I-10 will begin its contra-flow measure to increase the traffic flow in our mass exodus. With all the confusion surrounding the different evacuation routes, we quickly found our selves on the wrong side of interstate 10 and are forced to merge onto I-55 heading north. As the state and local police organized road blocks at all east and west bound exits it is clear that our plans of reaching Houston by 10pm are very unlikely.
• 6pm - After waiting in traffic for two hours and being detoured 45 miles in the wrong direction we are final able to exit I-55 in Amite, LA and continue our original journey west.

Sunday August 28, 2005

• 1am - We arrive at my mother's house exhausted, anxious and thankful!
• 9am - Glued to the weather channel most of the night we finally wake up from a short nap only to check the status of hurricane Katrina once more before we head off to church to worship God with our family.
• 10am - As happy as we were to be with family and to sit in GOD's house, it was very hard to concentrate on the message that was being preached. Every song that we sang and every word that was uttered seemed to only remind us of the difficult days that lie ahead for our family. Even with all the distractions I left church refreshed and with a renewed spirit, believing with out a shadow of doubt that GOD was definitely in control of our lives.

Monday August 29, 2005

• 7am - Not able to sleep much of the night, I woke up around 7am to check the status of Hurricane Katrina. The eye of the hurricane was directly south west of New Orleans and with hurricane force winds extending 100 miles from the center, it was obvious that the city was feeling the initial effects of a category 4 storm. Our only hope was that the eye would take a more north east hardly approach and allow New Orleans to circumvent a direct hit.
• 8am - After several attempts I finally reached a close friend that had weathered the storm in a parking garage. How does it look I asked. "There are only two words to describe what has happened here he said, total destruction!" As our conversation continued he described a vivid picture of the damage that the city had substained. Trees were down every where, power poles were snapped like tooth picks, debris filled every street and no house was left untouched.
• 11am - The first live pictures were coming in from New Orleans and although there was severe wind damage it seemed that we had fared fairly well. Every report on every channel reiterated the same theme "We missed the big one!"
• 6pm - Reports start coming in that there were two breeches found in the levee and the city would soon fill up with water like a bowl.