Will My Home Still Be There?

Considering that I live only 20 miles from the city of New Orleans and off of a branch of the Mississippi River, I know what it’s like to come home to a place that looks completely different than the way you left it. Though my father and I did remain at our home during hurricane Katrina, it was still a shock to look outside after the storm had passed and not be able to even begin counting the number of trees that had fallen in our yard. Every power line in my neighborhood had fallen. There was no hope for electricity for at least 2 weeks. My mother and sister evacuated to Colorado with my grandparents while my father and I chose to stay home. We had no clue what we were in for.

We lived in my house for 2 weeks with no power and no way to get out unless we wanted to swim through the highly polluted waters. Luckily my house was raised high enough off the ground that no water had raised into the house. Military boats drove right up to our front porch to bring us MRE’s and water. After the water went down, all the people in my neighborhood made their way out to what we thought was the street. There was no way out. Every man who had a chain saw began sawing away at the tress that were blocking the street, after 3 hours the men only managed to clear out 1 block. But they kept going; they would do whatever it took to get out. They stayed up all night and the next day met paths with the city workmen. Then finally work was begun on the power lines. This seemed like a never ending process, but everyone’s power came back day by day.

When I learned that there was another hurricane headed for New Orleans, I panicked. No one was at my house. My parents had gone out of town for the Labor Day holiday and my sister was in Baton Rouge. I did not know what to expect. But once I learned that Gustav was being handled with much more organization than Katrina, my nerves settled somewhat. My parents had no way of getting home and my sister was already half way to Tennessee. Who was going to watch our house? All the cell phone lines were busy but finally my dad got in touch with a neighbor who agreed to keep watch over our home as best as he could. As of right now, my house is fine. We had 2 trees down in the front yard and the river rose up to about 4 feet under my house. I have prayed everyday for that and I thank God that my home is ok.