Katrina - Four Years Later (Part 2)

Mark was called to work in Virginia as soon as he could get there. My company hadn't made a determination yet, but it was time to give our friends their home back. With the Labor Day weekend only a few days away, my parents (through the amazing generosity of a friend with frequent flier miles) and I decided to meet at my sister's house in New Jersey. My niece was only 9 months old and would definitely be the distraction I needed. There was the additional benefit of being with family. Mark and I each took our waiting ticket from Frontier and decided to leave Denver on Wednesday morning.

To say that it was hard to leave Mark after all of this would be an understatement. So much uncertainty loomed over us. We didn't know what had happened to our homes, many of our friends, the pets, my car or our beloved city. We didn't even know when we would see each other again. I think I cried most of the way to New Jersey.

Most of our time spent with my sister consisted of trying to find out what was going on back in New Orleans. Looking at satellite maps from Google and trying to piece together bits of information led me to believe that my car might be toast, but my apartment would be okay. The apartment was 3 feet off the ground and 5 1/2 miles away from where the levees failed. I held out hope that all would be alright.

We couldn't find out much about my parents' house at all. They live on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain which meant they were likely spared the flooding that the city of New Orleans experienced. However, their home was surrounded by tall pine trees that could have snapped in Katrina's high winds.

While it wasn't a great idea to go exploring, my mom's brother had stayed behind during the storm and drove by their house on Saturday. The only message we got was "Drove by your house. Bad." Finally, a neighbor of my parents made it into the neighborhood and called us with the news. Four trees had fallen on their home and broke the roof beam. He was trying to put a tarp over it to stop further damage. Not the news we wanted but I can't tell you the value of just knowing what's going on. It's the not knowing that has the greatest chance of driving you bat-shit crazy.

Mom and Dad made preparations to fly back to Texas to pick up their car and the kitties. They had flown with my old girl, Magie, who was the most phenomenal traveling kitty ever. She never made a peep in the car and it turned out she was a fantastic airplane traveler as well. Not to mention, she soothed my soul and that was the best part.

Some friends in Humble, Texas - the same ones who gave my parents their airline miles - offered to host my parents and the herd of cats while they figured out what to do next. The Humble house would become a base camp for trips to get the house livable again. They decided to leave on Tuesday. My company set the New Orleans employees up in temporary housing in Houston so that we would have a place to stay and a job to go to.

I left Newark on Monday afternoon entirely unsure about my new life and armed with the only possessions I would have for another month. All I had fit in a 24" roll aboard suitcase.

Katrina - Four Years Later (Part 1)

On Friday August 26, 2005 Mark and I arrived at the Denver airport to visit our great friends who are also from New Orleans. As we picked up our luggage to load into the back of her car, B said to us, "Did you see that the hurricane has turned toward New Orleans?" And from there, our lives would never be the same.

Earlier that week I was traveling between Houston and New Orleans. As I headed home on Thursday to get ready for our long weekend in Denver, I sent Mark this text: "What's up with this Katrina chick?" She had formed on Tuesday 8/23 and made landfall in Florida on 8/25. His response was "Who's Katrina?"

We packed our bags and met at my house on Friday morning. A spur of the moment decision was made about who's car to leave at the house and who's to take to the airport. His car was in the back of mine in the driveway so we decided to leave it in the airport garage. At the time, it was such a small decision.

As was my usual procedure for short trips, my neighbor was going to check on the two indoor and one outdoor cat each morning to make sure they had food and water. We dropped Mark's cat and dog off at the vet for their yearly shots. No big deal. After all, we would be back on Monday afternoon, right?

The television in the airport still had projections for Katrina pointed toward Apalachicola, Florida - about 400 miles to the east of New Orleans. Obviously, the storm took a jog to the west.

While in Denver we tried to proceed with the plans we'd already made. We relaxed on Friday night and had plans to take a train up to Winter Park on Saturday for a day in the mountains. Mandatory evacuations began to spring up for parishes all over the greater New Orleans area. I started to panic. I was stuck on a train heading through rock tunnels and up a beautiful mountain with limited cell phone service. I was totally ignoring the majesty of it all and instead spent the whole time trying to find someone to pick up my kitties and take them to safety.

Winter Park was beautiful but it's beauty was marred by the stress of the events happening far away from me. I had the thought of going home to get my kitties but Mark convinced me that was insane. I knew it was, but I felt the need to do something, anything. I got sick in the train's bathroom as I tried to come to grips with what was about to happen.

My Mom - the greatest woman who ever lived - drove into the city as everyone else was leaving and found all three cats and packed them up to take with her and my Dad on their evacuation. We couldn't reach the vet to find out about Mark's pets.

Saturday night the four of us sat glued to the television as we watched the mayor of New Orleans call for a voluntary evacuation. He urged people to leave but wasn't sure if he could call for a mandatory evacuation. Katrina got stronger. On Sunday she became a category 5 storm. We called the airlines and canceled our flights. We didn't know where we would go or when so we simply suspended our tickets. Frontier Airlines was incredibly understanding and helpful. Thank God for companies like them or I may have lost my mind really early on.

At 6 a.m. Katrina made landfall in Buras, Louisiana and caused major wind damage and flooding. St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parishes were hit hard from the water pushed up from the Gulf of Mexico. Monday afternoon the levees broke and so did our spirit.

I was luckier than many in that I didn't lose any loved ones and I didn't have to deal with deciding what to do. I was already away from home so all of the normal stresses surrounding a hurricane evacuation were a non-issue. I didn't prepare my home or move my car. I didn't gather important paperwork and pictures or move trash cans or make sure that I had battened down the hatches. I just left for a three day trip. The New Orleans that I passed through on Friday on my way to the airport was gone.

We all were glued to the television for hours at a time. We didn't know the fate of our homes or, in Mark's case, the pets. Since cell phone service to anyone with a 504 area code was non-existent we managed to keep in touch with my parents by text message and found them a hotel on the Internet. They had been stopping at every exit since Shreveport to check for openings. There weren't any. We sent them directions to the room we booked them in Arlington, Texas via text. It took them 17 hours in the car with 5 cats to get there, but they made it. Our little Denver support group finally headed out for dinner to pull ourselves away. Many beers later (for everyone but my friend who was pregnant - even harder for her) we headed back to their home for our last day of commiserating.

Since I didn't find the need for work clothes or dress shoes on a hiking trip, C and B made arrangements for us to use one of their cars for the day and Mark and I headed to the mall to get just a few outfits to wear when we reported to work. My job had an alternate location in Houston and Mark's was looking for him to head to Reston, Virginia. End of season sales are wonderful things, so for only $200 I got one pair of pants, three dress shirts and a pair of shoes.

I was impossible to be ready for what would come next.