My husband and I stayed through Hurricane Katrina, and while I was getting scared the moments before the winds got strongest, it passed without drama, and our house fared very well, no shingles or anything else lost. We took a bike ride the following morning, when the sun was out and neighbors were sweeping up, until we noticed the same cars circling the same streets. Finally someone in his front yard said, \"The water\'s coming back.\" Those cars were trying to leave the neighborhood but were already trapped by outside streets filling with water. On our way biking back home, we could see streams of water creeping toward us. Within four hours, we had four feet of water, and yadda yadda yadda, less than 24 hours later, there were 8 feet of water in the neighborhood. Our plan was to use our inflatable dinghy (it came with our sailboat) if necessary, never really expecting to have to use it, but before the water got too high we inflated it so it would be ready to go. At 7am Wednesday morning, we loaded our two cats in a pet taxi, loaded them into the bow of the dinghy, and my husband rowed us four and a half hours down Airline Hwy., where we made our way to Lakeside Mall, where our car was parked. We drove to Thibodaux to my parents\' house.\r\nThe following Monday (Labor Day) we drove back to the city and brought our dinghy again to rescue my neighbor\'s dog. That next Wednesday we went back again to collect a few clothes and documents from our house. Both trips showed us the same amount of water - no change at all, and a dead man floating in the water around the corner wasn\'t picked up either. He was there all three times we passed in our boat. He was an older black man with salt and pepper hair, wearing overalls and a water bottle stuck in his pocket. He looked like he would\'ve been doing work of some kind on his house, or perhaps helping a neighbor. Maybe he had a heart attack, maybe he was electrocuted. I mention him and describe him to honor his memory; he was part of my experience and I hope to the gods that his family found out what happened to him.\r\nWhat my husband and I are facing now with the renovation of our house is not interesting or important. We don\'t have kids to worry about, we have the means and the ability to fix everything up, and we both have our jobs. The bigger issues of our government\'s failures and the public school system are the crucial stories that need to be followed.\r\nThanks for reading my story!