Katrina-10th Anniversary Thoughts Before, During & After

[mgc]

I knew we were in for it when Katrina kept moving WSW while moving through the Everglades. As every hour progressed Katrina moved even more outside the cone. I remember being up  early Sunday morning when the hurricane started to rapidly intensify. Up to cat-4 with the next special advisory. Got woke up early Sunday morning by my mother-in-law screaming "its a Cat-5 you gotta go."  What could be worst?   Getting woke up by the smoke detector.  We had discussed the possibility of evacuating Saturday evening but put that off.  Sunday morning that all changed.  We packed up all the important stuff and were out the door by noon.   We were headed to Florida.  We decided to take highway 90 east along the Mississippi Coast.  There was no traffic.  Spouse told me to take a good look at everything as we drove along the highway cause it will likely be gone in 12 hours.  Sadly he was right.  We spent the next three days in Crestview Florida, glued to the TV, not believing what we saw.  Finally by Wednesday we could not stand it any more and had to get home to see if we had a house to return to.  I live south of the tracks in Pass Christian.  I remember crossing the tracks and seeing a house blocking the road ahead.  It kind of looked like the house that crushed the wicked witch.  We had to park and walk, ducking under uprooted trees.   To our surprise, our house was still in one piece with amazingly little damage.  My neighbor's home roof was in our backyard.  We decided to walk down to the beach after checking our home.  There was a debris pile 10-15 feet high that formed a wall running parallel to the beach.  A bulldozer must have cut a path though it along the street.  Everything south of the debris pile was gone save the slabs.  Over the next several days, we would drive down from my in laws house and clear debris in the yard.  By Friday, the stench of the bodies trapped in the debris started to become unbearable.  In about 3 1/2 weeks power was restored, we didn't get water for several months, when the trees were uprooted they ripped up the water and sewer lines.  We lived on bottled water till nearly Christmas.  Katrina is something I never want to experience again. 

[caneobsessor]

When I read the stories you all wrote, it is almost as though I did not actually experience Katrina, but just read about her or watched it on TV. I followed her course and worried about her as the rest of you did. I had great anxiety about my family and our homes and possessions. I evacuated, an arduous trip that included a smelly rodent (my grandson's gerbil or hamster, I forget.) We were out of our home for 3 weeks, but never without a place to sleep or food to eat. When we returned we found minor damage in the form of a neighbor's pecan tree in our back yard (a different angle to the fall would have taken out a corner of our house), our electric panel pulled off the house, a few damaged roof shingles and some lawn equipment that had been in water. We have always said we were inconvenienced for 3 weeks, but Katrina did not take a lot from us. If anything it gave to us a greater appreciation for what we have, a stronger sense of community as everyone pulled together to help others, an eternal gratitude that we did not lose jobs or a life. Then I read about others of you whose experiences were so devastating as to make me wonder if I could endure it. I am no longer in the New Orleans area, but still have children and grandchildren there, so I stay on this forum in order to warn them when it is time to get out and come to visit Mom in S. Carolina (far enough from the coast as to not be a problem with hurricanes.) And if my house ever floods, look for Noah and his ark, because I live on the top of a hill.

Thanks to all who posted on this thread and thanks Tim for starting it.

Camille

[roorufus]

I was pretty much ready to roll Friday night- van fueled up, camper ready, photos and memorabilia packed up as well. I couldn't reach my husband and when I did he got snippy about my "panic" - that storm was not coming. Saturday morning he has the realization that it is in fact on it's way. I made reservations at North Toledo Bend State Park that Wednesday (thanks to the forum people). BUT, my middle daughter had a sweet 16 party planned for Saturday night at her mom's house. At that point her mom said that she would be staying with her. By noon, she said they would cut the party short and she would be brought back to us in order to evacuate. We left at 11pm Saturday night, my husband in his truck with a load going to Dallas and me and the kids on the way to Toledo Bend. We rode 190 together as far as we could until he split off to go north and I went with the kids. I never drank coffee before that night, but drink it daily now.

I arrived at the state park at 6am and tried to set up the camper, slamming my hand in one of the jacks in the process. There was no cell phone service in the park and we had to drive about 2 miles to the top of a hill. My husband was on his way back from Dallas. We were able to get updates at the guard gate- they allowed us to use the computer there- and of course I went straight to the forums. I remember when she went up to a category 5 and telling my husband "there will be nothing left."

Monday, August 29th was my daughter's 16th birthday. I had purchased a small pair of diamond stud earrings for her and had planned a nice dinner out. But we weren't home. So once the storm passed and it seemed we "dodged a bullet", I called around Leesville looking for a place to have dinner. If you're ever in Leesville on a Monday, most places to eat are closed. So we find a sports bar/ grill place that agreed to let us bring a cake- in fact, they went to marble slab and got the cake for me (I had to pay for it- and that was fine, the fact that they put forth the effort was wonderful!). As we finished dinner and the cake arrived and she got her earrings, the news broke in on the TV showing the flooding and no one knew where the water was coming from. All we could do was stare with our mouths open. We were told in the following days that it would be 6-8 weeks before we could go home to SCP and schools would re-open.

We relocated to Sam Houston Jones in Moss Bluff (near Lake Charles) so my husband could run out of the terminal there. We enrolled the kids in school and lived in the camper (a pop up) for 2 weeks. We had an "adoptive family" with whom we still keep in touch and are very thankful for the people of that town who did all they could to help us when there was so much uncertainty about our future.

We were lucky. So lucky! And while agree that it is time to move on, I occasionally reflect on how blessed my family was and how in the chaos we were able to help others- get supplies, get information, and get resources. It COULD'VE been us, but it wasn't, and for that I am eternally grateful.

But the biggest blessing was that my husband had picked up a load in Houston prior to landfall. It was supposed to deliver in Harvey, but he could not reach anyone. After about a week, they told him to bring it to Harvey. He stopped at home and made sure everything was secure and CLEANED OUT THE FRIDGE! I think ours was the only one that didn't end up in the landfill!

[SKYSUMMIT]

10 years ago at this time tonight, this was our latest forecast track. Katrina was still maintaining hurricane strength and actually looked like she was developing over the south Florida swamps. She was moving south of due west and this is the time that many of us started to realize, this hard right turn was just not going to happen.

[mrjamie]

One of the things I do not understand is why the media and politicians seems to be turning this into a celebration.

What I remember is when a lady contacted me on the WWL forums her family member was on a telephone pole in the Slidell area. This person road the storm out at the pink panther campground on old Spanish Trail. The water came up so fast the only place he could go was up on the pole. They wanted me to have someone on air send help. They kept him on the phone until the phone service went out. I have no idea if he was rescued or not.

This is just one of hundreds of messages that came in during the time of Katrina. Another thing I remember is having to teach people how to send text messages. When you think about the changes in social media in the last 10 years we have come a very far.

Before most of us left with the storm we spent hours helping people find hotels, routes out of areas, location of ATM machines and just being there for everyone. I have looked at a few of the stories online but most are turned off after a few minutes viewing. I did read the diary that mike hoss from WWLTV posted online on Sunday. The document is over 100 pages and well worth the time to read it.

I left early the morning the storm turned into a monster and drove to Florida, we were in front of the traffic. I think I came back on September 6 or 7. There were so many trees on the side of the road I passed up my street and had to turn around. Driving back from Florida we took the I 10 all the way back to St. Tammany Parish. I figured they would be too busy to stop us coming back that soon. On I 10 in Mississippi on the bridge before the Diamondhead exit I saw gas tank that floated from the Stennis airport and was on top of the bridge. It was about three quarters of the way up the bridge on the southside. From the Alabama state line until somewhere near the Slidell area The interstate was one lane and you had to dodge trees cars and anything else you could think in the way.

[DYLAN FEDERICO]

I stand by what I said in the other thread. What Bob said about Katrina missing us on August 25th, 2005 was common opinion around the area, including the National Hurricane Center as you will see in the video below:

[roorufus]

The cell phone struggle was real. We didn't text back then because it was 10 cents a text- but we realized that was the only way to get through and bit the bullet and prayed our bill wouldn't be too high. We had AT&T and my youngest girl had a phone on her dad's plan- NEXTEL! She was the only one who could get a call out. We had a rough idea where our family was and knew they were all safe. I could never imagine the people who were bused out and separated - how on earth did everyone get reunited?? Like the 4 month old baby- how do you track down the parents?

When we got home, we had a ton of trees down in our yard- and our black lab was so happy to finally be home she ran through the back yard, hopping over trees and ran into the shed! I'm not sure who was happier to be home. She also helped clean up the yard, pulling branches to the front yard with her mouth right beside my husband...

[Briella - Houma]

Aug 25, 2015 21:11:38 GMT -6 DYLAN FEDERICO said:

I stand by what I said in the other thread. What Bob said about Katrina missing us on August 25th, 2005 was common opinion around the area, including the National Hurricane Center as you will see in the video below:

I see your point, and apologize for my thoughts on Bob... we don't know him as well as you do, just kinda hard to get the bad taste out. But thanks for the video.

[MobileWeatherWatcher]

Here is a YouTube link to WKRG's special that aired Monday night.  Have to warn you, the segment that starts around the 16:00 mark of the video may be hard to watch:

[southernchelle]

K made that last minute wobble to the East right when she was coming up on SE LA.  What do y'all think would have happened if she just kept on that northern route & didn't make the wobble? I can't even imagine...

[SKYSUMMIT]

The next forecast track coming up for today, exactly 10 years ago, is the first forecast track that put southeast Louisiana in the cone, and is now forecasting a 130mph Katrina at landfall:

[thibodauxwx]

Attachment Deletedthey just posted a picture of the change the models did in 24 hours for Katrina,

[Windy]

Wanted to say that I have been a not so active member but avid follower of gulf coast weather since its inception. Zack and also you sky summit have informed and kept us "safe". I always knew before anyone at my work (a large hospital network in LA) what was happening with hurricanes. I would tell my co-workers to check gulfcoastwx for the best info.. Well
for some reason I was lulled (national weather outlets) into not checking the website in 2005 for Katrina.. On that Friday Aug 26, 2005 sometime during the AM I checked while at work and I was shocked! My co-workers just told me today that they remembered me trying to find reservations out of town and it made them nervous. So they started making their own plans.
Also I remember chatting with someone on the site about whether to stay or go. My husband was out at sea ( a deep sea captain) and telling me it would all be OK and I didn't need to leave. The feedback from everything was my deciding factor to evacuate. So thanks to everyone!

[mary]

Do we have the Katrina posts archived also? I would like to read them if we do....

[SKYSUMMIT]

Aug 27, 2015 7:17:34 GMT -6 mary said:

Do we have the Katrina posts archived also? I would like to read them if we do....

Hmmm...I cannot remember if we were on this forum platform or another. If we were on this one, they're in here somewhere. If we were not, then I don't think we can get them. I have the databases from the other platforms saved on another computer, but am not sure how I'd convert it to a readable format here.