Sunday before Katrina

I was sitting on my porch chain smoking when my cell phone rang. It was my mother completely panicking. Apparently she had heard me last night when I called her, but she wasn't listening. She turned on the Weather Channel and saw how big and scary Katrina was and that it was headed right for me. She wanted me to get in the car and head for her house. I told her that I couldn't go because I had a job to do and this was my job. She made me promise that I would not be in the city when it hit and I told her worse case scenerio I would drive up to the North Shore (30 miles away) and ride it out in the Jeep. She wasn't satisfied, but she knows how stubborn I am and if I said I was not leaving, then I wasn't going anywhere. She told me she loved me and hung up. I went inside and packed a bag so I could go to the office and hang out there. My phone rang again, this time it was the owner of the company. He sounded worried. He told me he wanted everyone out of the office and wanted us to clear out of town. He told me I could come to his house or to Charles's house in Baton Rouge. Considering I haven't had the best relationship with either of them at the moment, I decided to call Kevin in Baton Rouge and see if I could stay with him. I called and asked him if I could ride out the storm at his house. He said sure and I told him I would call when I got closer for directions. I put a couple of items up on the counter and bed in case some water got inside. Then I grabbed the laundry I had done the previous day, a couple of books, my new Nike Shox Lisa had bought me, and my gun. Then I headed towards the office. I called Sara on the way and told her to send Ron and Herb home as Rob was closing the office. She and I finished locking up the office. I put my hard drive in the jeep along with $2000 cash that I had been sent. We put all other computers up on the desks. This was yet another time I thought why did we put our server in New Orleans? I was supposed to meet Vic, the ASM, there and he showed up right when I was setting the alarm. He moved the 18 wheeler for us and then asked if he could borrow a van to help evacuate some old people. I told him fine and we all headed out together. Sara took a radio so I could talk to her since she lives in Vacherie.

I had no radio in my jeep as it had been stolen shortly before this so I had borrowed a weather radio from the office so I could listen to the news. It was full of panicking people, including all the politicians. Ray Nagin was telling people if they stayed they'd better have an ax to cut themselves out of their attic so they wouldn't drown. He declared a mandatory evacuation and was begging people to leave. People were going to the Superdome in droves and he was calling it the "Shelter of Last Resort." Aaron Broussard was telling people to get out. Sheriff Harry Lee was telling people that he wanted them to leave so that his deputies wouldn't have to collect their dead bodies later. It was all so crazy and dramatic.

I thought I was being smart and leaving on River Rd - so was everyone else. I sat in traffic for 2 hours and only moved 20 miles. After that, traffic opened up and I travelled 30 miles in 30 minutes. Then in Gonzales it stopped again. We had another conference call with work. I finally made it to Baton Rouge. I was still on the conference call and starving, so I went to Arby's. Apparently I gave everyone a good laugh when I forgot to hit mute while I was ordering. Everyone was wishing each other luck and then we made arrangements to talk again later on that night. I got directions to Kevin's house and showed up around 6pm.

I remember watching TV with Kevin and his daughter while his wife was at work, helping prepare her nursing home for the storm. I talked to Lisa a few times, and my mom once. I downloaded Texas hold'em and played that on my phone for some time. We joked about the Hurricane and how I was going to go home to dead bodies floating in my house since I lived right by the cemetary. This did seem funny at the time before we knew what Katrina was going to do to us. Kevin asked what Lisa would do if there was a corpse on the toilet. To this day I am still not sure.....