Can a hurricane surivior share their story with me (Hurricance Rita & Katrina)?

Question

can you tell me what you did during the storm- what happened, where did you take shelter, and then what happened when you got out of you rshelter for the first time? how was it like seeing all the damage? can you also give details about the wind speed and all? thankss

Answer 1

I was in Denham Springs, LA which is to the north west of New Orleans. Katrina was worse for us. The winds changed a lot from 50 mph to 100 mph. When it passed we just kept inside our house away from the windows. We did not have a lot of damage - just a lot of trees down. Our electricity was out for a week. We stood in line for a generator for hours and hours and each time Home Depot would only get about 30 - there were lines of 300 or more people. We finally lucked up and got one. We were fortunate because we were able to keep sandwich meat and stuff like that cold and water. It was just very hot so we had to stay outside most of the time cleaning up debris and helping neighbors with there damage as well. A week after the hurricane I started working for Shaw - who was the company hired to clean up and repair roofs across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We had a tent set up outside and we took hundreds of applications and tried to hire mainly those from the New Orleans area that lost their homes. It was a good feeling to help those that wanted jobs and to get their lives back on track. But I have to admit there were pleanty of times that we went to the shelters and spent all day up there trying to put people to work making really good money and we would only get 1 or 2 applicants. The saddest part for me was when we went to New Orleans to hold a job fair and seeing all the damange and debris - nothing but Blue Tarped roofs as far as you can see. This was 2 months after the storm. The worst was passing by the houses and seeing the markings that were made showing the house had been searched and the deaths found in the houses. I could never explain in words how much my heart dropped to the floor. It was a sad sad thing.

Answer 2

we evacuated for rita and we drove for 12 hours to get away and the hurricane didint even hit anywhere close to our house

Answer 3

well i did not expirence it but i talked to about 50 kids who had, they said it was horrid!!! their school is PACKED!!!!! those 50 kids were all in the same class.