My husband refused to leave for this storm. as he had done for every other one that has come our way. He has a friend that refused to leave and he was not leaving him there alone. Also if you do leave, whatever is left standing the looters will take. He stood on the porch of our house in Empire, (Plaquemines Parish) and watched as the entire neighborhood blew apart from the winds, ours was a big sturdy house and he felt safe there as he believed it would stand the wind, afterall it had stood 70 years. But then the 2 trailers behind us came flying down the lane and crashed into the end of the house caving it in. The roof came off in that part and that begun to let the wind and water in. He walked back to the levee about 4:15 am to see how high the water was in the river and saw that it was at the levee top. He returned to the house to tell his friend they was in trouble and needed to find higher ground. He put the dog in the truck and they headed to the marina across the street to get on the back levee by the bay, the road was blocked by a roof off of one of the houses, they had to turn around and find another route. As they came out of the service lane he said he noticed that our house was gone, as if it disappeared from the face of the earth. They traveled along the road to the dirt road by the civic center where they cut through to the levee. He said he tried to tell his friend that they needed to get atop the high rise bridge, (the one where you saw the big blue and yellow boats on the road) the sides are over 6 feet tall and would block the wind off them. But the friend would not go, he wanted to get to a barge tied up in the canal. Just before they made it to the barge the truck was overtaken by water that came over the bulkheads on the bay side. They swan from the truck to the barge. He helped the friend get up on the barge and he tried to lift the dog up but she was too heavy. His clothing was so soaked he could not pull himself up, so he looked around and saw a roof off one of the camps sticking up in the water, he swan to that and held on for 16 hours. \r\nWhen the storm was over they tried to get to his cousin\'s son\'s boat tied in the canal by the drawbridge. He said one place the current was so strong he told the friend to wait to see if he could get through it and then he would come back to help him. He says just about halp way through the current he heard the friend yelling i\'m not gonna make it and as he looked back he seen the friend go under. He swam back and finally found the friend pulled him to a high spot on the levee where the oyster dock was, and continued to the boat. (If you have seen the video by Kent Frelich then that is the boat he is talking about. He said you could nearl walk on the water from the debris that was in the canal. But he did say if it had not been for his dog pulling him along he would of never made it, he was so worn out. I was told he drowned and I left Baton Rouge and came to Ohio, a week later they called me that he was found on the boat and to come get him, his arms and hands, his feet was so cut up where he had to walk across the debris and holding his arms up to sheild his head and face.\r\nWe could not bring the dog back at the time so left it with friends who i understand sold it or gave it away almost as soon as we left. We was to go back and get it soon as we found a place. (Good friends, I paid their $210. electric bill that was for disconnect 2 days after we left) (honey if it had been me I would of slept with that dog, making sure that I had it when they returned, but that is me). My husband will never be the same this is 2 years in a row that we have lost our home to a hurricane, (lost the trailer to Hurricane Ivan in 2004, tornade blew it apart. Husband was in it when tornado hit it. He now has lost everything he owned (his deer head that was on the wall he had had since he was young, all his personal possessions, his friend, he grew up with and a sister, 2 days after the storm, and his dog. I don\'t think he will ever be the same. Now we are in Ohio and he is like a fish out of water, all his family and friends are in Louisiana and that is all he knows, he states every day that he wants to go home, but there is no home. And after 5 months we have not been paid from FEMA for our personal loses as they left our paper work lay 66 days with out entering it into the system, now having to go through appeal to get what is owed us and who knows how long that will take. We never even got to go back to see what was left because we live on a fixed income and it takes all we have every month to pay the bills, we have 2 extra ones here (gas and water) that we didn\'t have down there, we spend all month with nothing to live on after we pay the bills and they come in faster than we can pay them. This has been a nightmare that does not end. Only hope that we never have to go back to that horrible place, fr another one to take our lives from us.