What had originally started out as a fun get-away trip turned into a run for my life. My friend and I went to New Orleans for her birthday, which we had planned long in advance without any idea that days later the city we had so much fun in would be leveled. We arrived at the airport on Friday morning and went site seeing and all the fun stuff that there is to do in New Orleans like the Aquarium and shopping and such. Later on that day we started receiving news that the Hurricane was turning toward New Orleans and that a voluntary evacuation would be in order. That is when people started to leave, or at least the ones that thought it would be very serious. We didn\'t really think anything of it, because the locals were so calm and complacent about the whole matter so we went about our business. \r\n\r\nThe next morning we woke up and there was a message on our door saying that the Mayor of New Orleans had issued a mandatory evacuation for the city and everyone was being asked to leave the hotel and city. That is when we both started to get worried and my friend went down to the lobby to check on shuttle information to the airport. I joined her later and found people running around trying to get shuttles, rent-a-cars and any other way they could to get out before the hurricane came. \r\n\r\nWe decided to escape all of that and went to the mall to try and find rain coats and such just in case we did not make it out of there. When we got to the mall it was about to close and almost all but the little stands were open. We walked past Harrah\'s casino on the way, which was going to be open rain or shine according to the workers outside. \r\n\r\nOn our way back we stopped at another mall, The Shops on Canal Street, but there were only 2 stores open with all of about 7 people in the whole mall in there. Finally we came back to the hotel and tried to start asking people how they were getting home and if we could ride with them. This couple from Maryland was nice enough to let us get a seat in their rent a car which they had since the beginning of their trip, so we agreed to meet them the next morning before 5. Meanwhile we were still stuck with how we were going to get out of the city since we only had a ride to the rent a car place. \r\n\r\nWe went upstairs for some free appetizers and started looking on the computer for numbers of rent a car places and flights that were leaving New Orleans. We were just looking for something anywhere out of there but preferably Texas. There were many people trying to get on that one computer so after we were done we met these Australian people who were their on their honeymoon. They basically didn�t know their way around so we agreed to split the cost of the car with them and hitch a ride back to Houston were we were to catch the connecting flight on home. We agreed to meet them at the rent a car place early morning. \r\n\r\nSo we had our ride and in the meanwhile we helped these Israeli people try and get a ride as well out and unfortunately to this day we haven\'t heard anything from them. We met this New York couple who we have still remained friends with and they managed to get a rent a car as well.\r\n\r\nThat night we went to Bourbon street and the scene was just like always, crazy. Everyone was just carrying on their almost normal lives, while some were boarding up their businesses and preparing for the storm. We got home pretty late and had to wake up literally under 2 hours later and so we gathered out stuff and went down to meet the Maryland couple in the lobby. We met with them and we were off to the airport. It took us over 1 and a half to get to the airport, which 2 days earlier only took about 15 minutes. We met with the Aussies, after so much traffic and people stranded on the side of the road that ran out of gas. That is what started or over 14 hour drive back to San Antonio Texas. \r\n\r\nBasically in our lives today we take a lot for granted. This is a true story of how God blessed our lives and we were able to put our faith into the situation and put total trust in strangers to help us survive. These people waited over 2 hours at the rent a car place for us due to traffic and that just shows the good will of people. Though we were not involved directly with the hurricane, we merely escaped with our lives. Looking at pictures today and hearing all the horrible things that are happening is so sad and that is why we should all do what we can to help our fellow Americans out. \r\n\r\nThe weekend of September 9, at the Alamodome the UTSA volleyball team is the host team and we are going to be putting on a donation drive to help out the relief effort. Anyone with an Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana ID gets in for free, and with a can good donation everyone else gets in for 25 dollars for the whole weekend of spectacular games. Please come donate and help UTSA in the cause. \r\n\r\n--Dave Burnett \r\n\r\noriginally collected by University of Texas, San Antonio \r\nhttp://www.utsa.edu/today/hurricane/ShareKatrinaStories.htm