We just moved into our new house, built strong from the ground up to be hurricane proof (including hurricane glass). We weren\'t quite ready to stay through its ultimate test and started to pack. However when we could not get my parents to budge from their Old Metairie home (which narrowly missed the flooding) we decided to stay anyway.\r\n\r\nThe storm here was very gusty. The winds would die down, then come back and hit you over and over again. Fences and trees were blown down. At times it felt as if the house was shaking slightly. We could see shingles flying off of the house. The street flooded in front of the house, but the nearby drainage canal never topped. We videotaped some of the storm.\r\n\r\nWe lost a few tiles from the roof and plenty from the patio, but the felt-paper stayed put, so we had no interior damage. Twice during the storm the upstairs casement windows rattled loose and swung open. Had we not been here to close them, we would be looking at a lot of damage.\r\n\r\nPower went out at midnight. The phones lasted through the storm, and worked with long-distance only after the storm. We managed to relay messages through my brother in Connecticut. We had plenty of supplies.\r\n\r\nAfter the second day, the phones went dead. With no power, no water and now no communication, w e decided it was not worth it to stay like that for weeks, so we packed up, crossed the Huey Long and left for Houston with virtually no traffic.\r\n\r\nWe came back Sept 18 and have been here since. We did not have enough damage to file a claim.