First Post Since Katrina

I should write a book about what has happened in my life since Katrina hit New Orleans, but I have seen several subpar editions already and do not currently want to contribute to that mess, so I will write in my blog that no one but me reads. I told Lisa when she moved here with me that we were in a bowl here in New Orleans and if we ever got hit by a hurricane head on, it would be devastating and could make New Orleans part of the gulf. I assured her when she gave me worried looks that we had never been hit like that, we always got lucky at the last minute. Betsy had done some damage, Camille, too, but nothing had destroyed New Orleans. We were a lucky city.

I remember so many things vividly about the days leading up to Katrina. We lived in a half shotgun in Mid City. It was small and cute and I loved walking to the coffee shop on the corner to get a Sunday paper. Winn Dixie was a block away and groceries were easy to come by. The snowball stand up the street was always busy, but I would brave the long line to get Lisa a black cherry snowball and an order of nachos with extra cheese. Down the street was the restaurant with the Spimato Cheesecake that was heaven on earth. There was a bakery next door that had the best cannoli and ice cream. The tamale shop was down the street with the best tameles in the city. City Park was only a short walk away and I longed for the days that Holly would get her last shots and I could take her to the park. It was a simple life, but a good one. I had the woman I loved, a decent job, an affordable apartment with nice things, and my cute and ornery puppy. I had it all.

It all comes back to me in flashes. Lisa came back from Arkansas the week before the storm and I picked her up from the airport. The dog was still a tiny puppy trapped behind her baby gate in the kitchen. I was still enjoying my job and making progress towards profits. Then one Wednesday we start to notice the tropical storm heading for Pensacola. My company makes us have conference calls about hurricanes since we are a gulf coast company. We had the first one Wednesday afternoon and I volunteered us to be the call center everyone forwards their phones to in case of emergency. We made plans to have them do this as early as Saturday if necessary. I remember saying clearly, "This one is definitely not coming here," and wishing Cyndi good luck in Pensacola as they got some damage last year from Ivan. My boss said I should never make definitive comments about where a hurricane may end up, but I was supremely confident we would be spared again. We made plans to talk again the next day. By Thursday the hurricane had turned towards Mobile and seemed to be making a beeline in the same general direction that Ivan had headed the year before. I remember telling Lisa that Katrina was a bitchy name, since the only Katrina I ever knew in real life was a girl that worked with me at a previous job. She was one of those individuals that takes pride in how much damage they can cause. I joked that if the hurricane was anything like the girl, we were all in a lot of trouble.

As the day went on Friday, we all noticed the shifting of the hurricane towards the west. We had another conference call Friday afternoon and it was assumed that Mobile would get the worst of the storm and we would not be able to be the crisis center. They decided to make it either Jackson or Birmingham depending on the storm track. I was told I needed to prepare for the possibility that I might get hit. This gave me a good laugh as our server (the company's entire server) was located in New Orleans. I asked if they wanted me to evacuate it to either Jackson or Mobile and was told no. I talked to Lisa at her job on Friday evening and she and another girl were not really too worried that we might get hit as the predictions kept showing somewhere between Gulfport and Mobile. This would put us on the west side of the storm, the safe side.... At 10pm when the National Hurricane Center gave their latest predictions, I began to get worried. The storm seemed to continue its western shift, placing the track more in the Bay St Louis area. This was too close for comfort. I talked to Lisa extensively about if it shifted again I wanted her out of town. "Head to my mother's house, it is only a 5 hour drive." She was supposed to close on Saturday and I had to batten down the hatches at work. My drivers fled on Saturday along with most of my office staff. I had to call all the scheduled customers and let them know we were unable to service them as I had no drivers. We had to go pick up the wheel from the show wheel of fortune from the convention center and get it to the airport to get it out of town ahead of the storm. We managed this and I headed to the Home Depot in Laplace to get supplies. I bought several flashlights, plastic sheeting, gas cans, bottled water, a weather radio, batteries, and some cokes. I filled up as many of the gas cans as I could considering gas was already being rationed and gas stations were running out of gas. I had one of the assistant managers that was coming back from the VA in Gulfport stop and pick up another 20 gas cans and fill them. We then had 40 5 gallon cans of gas. We had bought a generator and had recently tested it when we had a black out in the Industrial park we are in. All cars were filled with gas and brought inside. The president of the company had left her new car in St Rose, so we brought it inside also. We backed the box trucks up to the dock doors, and moved the 18 wheeler to a dock door in the middle of some trucks. I was hoping the wind would not flip the trailer. We covered all the electronics parts, picked the computers off the floor, and placed flashlights in various locations around the office. Sara, one of my employees helped with this as well as Chris, the assistant manager. People were starting to panic, and I was trying to keep them calm. We were going to be spared and all this effort was for nothing.

Lisa was released early as Starbucks decided to close the stores early in preparation for the storm. The storm track was still heading for MS and it was a level 3 prediction, so I was not leaving, but I wanted Lisa and the dog to go. I did laundry at the office while we were there on Saturday and managed to have a basket of clean clothes in the jeep. I had another load of whites that I had left in the washer and a load I had left in the dryer and intended to get that evening. Our night dispatcher was freaking out and wanted to evacuate early. Sara had volunteered to go in early and ride out the storm at the office, but she was unsure if she could get to the office if they closed the roads since she lives in Vacherie. I knew if she couldn't get there I would have to go. Lisa and I argued about this. She wanted me to leave with her and didn't want me to leave her alone. I told her that I had to go if Sara couldn't make it in and I couldn't evacuate to Arkansas. I had heard the comments when other managers left the offices and what happened to their careers.
We had another conference call that evening to make sure New Orleans and Mobile were prepared for the storm. Pensacola sent me another 10 cans of gas and their generator. I offered once again to get the server to another site to prevent something happening to it and was told not to. Two of our major bank customers had us make some emergency runs to gather their proof work and I had a guy going to Mobile and he could have easily taken it to them. They did have me send him to the corporate office to pick up a lock bag with $2000 in it since I would more than likely need cash after the storm. A lot of rhetoric was spoken and I was told specifically to have someone at the office during the storm. I didn't have to go myself, I could stay at my home, but someone had to be there. I told them Sara and another employee Herb were planning on being there. I had another employee Don that wanted to stay there since his house was old and he was afraid it would collapse.

More to come.....