As Hurricane Katrina barreled toward their New Orleans home Saturday, my parents packed some clothes, a photo album and a fire safe with important papers and photos of my late brother. I bought the safe for them 10 or 12 years ago after he was killed in a random carjacking. They rode out the storm in my grandmother\'s Central Louisiana home.\r\n\r\nHopefully, by Labor Day, they will know whether their home still stands. My mother flip-flops daily on the answer to that question.\r\n\r\n\"I think my house is okay,\" she said Monday.\r\n\r\nThen, the 17th Street Canal levee failed and the East Bank took on another nine to 15 feet of water.\r\n\r\n\"There went my little house,\" she said Tuesday.\r\n\r\n\"I heard our street was dry,\" she said Wednesday.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, my father doesn\'t bother wondering whether their house survived Katrina\'s wrath. The rest of the city has been wiped out. The Gulf Coast has been leveled. \"You\'ve heard \'No man is an island,\' right,\" he asked. \"I can\'t be an island.\"\r\n\r\nStill, they are the lucky ones.\r\n\r\n\"I know I should just be grateful I have a roof over my head, air conditioning and food to eat,\" said Mom.\r\n\r\nYes. Shell-shocked citizens wander aimlessly through chest-deep water. Refugees are surrounded by death, both in the lifeless bodies littered among them and the looming threat of a similar fate. The city has spiraled into a Lord-of-the-Flies-like state of savagery and lawlessness. On the Mississippi coast, a man fatally shot his sister over a jug of water.\r\n\r\nMy mother loved her home in New Orleans so much persuading her to leave even for a short vacation was nearly impossible. I am forever thankful that she did not hesitate to leave when Katrina set her sights on the coast. Our world is simple now... a few papers, a photo album, some clothes, a roof over their heads, air conditioning and food to eat ? they are the lucky ones.\r\n\r\n-- Leigh Anne Gullett \r\n\r\noriginally collected by University of Texas, San Antonio\r\nhttp://www.utsa.edu/today/hurricane/ShareKatrinaStories.htm