Friday, June 23, 2006

The Worst Natural Disaster in American History

Hurricane Katrina Remembered





A True Story:


"How Could This Happen in America? "

by Housewife4Palestine

I happened to went to New Orleans, Louisiana a month and half before Hurricane Katrina to marry, the husband I have now. Just so you know my first husband had died from a devastating illness in 2003.

We had just finished furnishing our apartment three days before the hurricane, with the plans to always live in this city.

Day’s before the hurricane hit their kept being news reports on television for mandatory evacuation, with the people I knew when we looked outside to the beautiful warm summer day it was to hard to believe this was going to happen. I often think back that maybe this is partly why so many people did not leave, while I know many of the poor couldn’t.

While many people may not know New Orleans has had areas that suffered from severe poverty, it had been like this for generations.

That Sunday before the hurricane hit the following Monday, I was getting to feel their must be some truth to what I was hearing, especially when I decided to walk up to the Pharmacy and saw many stores either closed or boarded up. That particular Pharmacy was closed, so I walked back home and called my husband at work and asked him if maybe his cousin and him couldn't come home early; I was getting worried by then.

By three in the afternoon the cousin brought my husband home. At three fifteen a family friend called and told us to run. I asked them if they was leaving and funny enough after they finished dinner.

We packed what we could in the car by three thirty, which included some clothing, food and what other things we could pack in a hurry we thought was necessary to survive. We were told we would be able to return to our homes in a couple of days.

Like so many in heavy traffic we attempted to leave New Orleans with the hope of making it to Texas, but with the way the Contra plan was arranged we was turned by the Police and ended up heading towards Mississippi.

What we did not know at the time, we would see the edge of hurricane Katrina; to survive we ended up driving over power lines, dodging tree’s and every so often would have to stop because of the heavy rain the next after noon.

We did stay a little time during the major hit at a Christian church because this woman was worried about us when she found us. Not knowing how bad everything was, we decided to try and go back to New Orleans and this was how we ended up in that horrible situation of the roads.

We tried three times to go into New Orleans and all three times was turned around by some kind of Police. One service station we were parked at, we started getting news.

Between being in a shelter in Houma, Louisiana which we couldn’t sleep on the cement floor because it made us hurt, sleeping in the car where we could and finally with the help of a Police woman, which to this day I still thank in my heart who found a cousin with a safe place of a Masjid( Mosque) in Alexandria, Louisiana. We finally found in a little time a safe place to live. We stayed there about two days because I was exhausted and feeling some ill.


When we was at the Masjid the cousin that we found thanks to the Police woman, to survive had to wade through water and dead bodies for four days to be able to get out of New Orleans. To get through the bodies he had to push them away from him and just keep pushing forward. I am sure he was thankful he sent his family ahead to safety. He was so saddened due not only the lost of his business and home but the whole nature of this tragedy that he did not wish to ever see New Orleans again, he was moving to Michigan; where he is at the time of this writing.

We did go back on Tuesday, to see our home and it was damaged by water and wind a total loss is what the FEMA people told us.

While Allah protected us through so many dangers, I have to think back of how many people worried about missing loved one’s that I hope turned up and all those who died; even the ones who bodies many never be found.

New Orleans in time can be rebuilt, but for many survivors’ it will be hard to rebuild lives.

One thing that must come to mind, it was thought originally when we were in Houma; that 18,000 people was expected to yet die from hunger and thirst because they were still trapped within New Orleans.

The estimate at this writing is 13,000 dead.

One thing that must never be forgotten is the many citizens, either through their businesses or just their kind charity helped many like us who were refugees; because without their kindness many more would have died. Or still be homeless. May Allah bless each and every one of them!

Many other parts of our story could have been written here, but because so much happened in such a short period of time; our story in this context would be to long.

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