All thoughout the week there were frequent announcements in the local and international news about a hurricane named Katrina coming toward New Orleans. My family from England and elsewhere abroad had seen it in the news. They feared the worst and called to check on me. It was the first week of school in August back from the summer holiday and I was pre- occupied in making sure the students got adjusted to their new environment. Besides, after work I had to attend classes at UNO. No one around me and in my convent appeared concerned about the threat of the hurricane, so on Friday night I asked one of the sisters if we were having a meeting to decide on what to do for the hurricane. She said she didn\'t thing so. Friday I kept checking the UNO website to see if classes would be concelled on Saturday, but they said they were still having the Saturday classes. Before I left for class that Saturaday, one of the sisters, the joniter and I put sand bags ,card board and tape around the house and the school. We worked endlessly.This was to help some what in protecting the building from possible attack from the hurricane.\r\n \r\n When we arrived on the campus Saturday midday, everyone from the class stood by the door talking about the news of the hurricane . After a few minutes of waiting the professor came to tell us that he was concelling clas. This was to give us time to get prepared for the hurricane. I was very upset, because I thought he could have used the email or Blackboard to send the message to us, instead of having us journeyed all the way for the news. I had also discovered that my local superior had gone home to her family\'s house in Opelouses that Saturday morning; leaving us with no instructions in case the hurricane struct the city. \r\n \r\nSaturday night about eight o\'clock she called to find out where each sister would be evacuating to. By then I was really feeling sick, suffer from Bronchitis so I told them I would stay home. A few of the other sisters said they too would stay at the convent. The Superior called back again. Only this time it was to tell us that the hurricane would be serious and she wants no one to stay in the convent. By then, everyone started making plans to go to their relatives and friends either in Houston or Duscon. All, but one who would be staying at the nursing home, because her elderly mother was there and she could not leave her. I had no blood relatives living in New Orleans. It was too late to get on a plane Saturday night. I tried to get a ticket to go by my sister in New York, but couldn\'t.\r\n \r\nFinally, one of the other elderly sister called one of her nieces in Baton Rouge and she said we could stay with her at her house. Luckily, I had filled up the car with gas on my way from Mass Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, August twenty ninth,we locked up the covent, took only a few pieces of clothing with us. I took all my documents with me. I dropped one sister off at the nursing home and the other sister and I headed for the highway. I left my house at a quater to six and I got into Baton Rouge at 1p.m. The journey was long and filled with long lines of traffic. It was very tiring, slow and sickening. When I got to Baton Rouge I was so sick from the tedious driving. I went to bed and did not get up until Tuesday morning, August 30. I didn\'t have anything to eat, because I was so sick and tired and could not stay awake. Tuesday morning I thought I could go back home, but someone had called to say it was on the news that New Orleans was under water. The levee had been broken. I can recaled the sences from the televison as I watched and saw the houses filling very quickly with muck and filth from the contaminated water. I almost fainted at the disaster and grave distruction that had befalled the city. I knew right there that any chances of me going home was hopeless. I quickly became depressed.\r\n \r\nI stayed in Baton Rouge for two weeks. I had no money, because we get our allowance on the first of each month and we were still in the month of August. This meant that we had to wait for the first of September to get the money. I kept thinking that the treasurer could have at least given us some money to help along the way, but not even a dime to spare. I met some ladies at a store when I took the elderly sister to get her medicine.These ladies took us shopping to get a pair of shoes, because all I had on my feet were a pair of sandals. I then moved to Lake Charles two weeks to stay with one of my friend\'s house. I lived there until almost the end of September. \r\n \r\nWhile I was there I tried to get food supplies from the Red Cross and and signed up to get help from FEMA. By then my sister had sent me some money to help me get some things I needed. After a few weeks I had to evacute from Lake Charles to Opelouses, because of Hurricane Rita. My brother died during that time and I had to go to the funeral in Jamaica. Then I had trouble coming back, because Wilma had caused heavy flooding and blockage to the roads and highways in Jamaica. After I returned from Jamaica I went to live in Alexadria, at which I moved once before settling down at my present address.\r\n \r\nIn Novenber I went to my see my house in New Orleans and everything on the first floor was flooded and destroyed. People had been sleeping upstairs and used all the towels, sheets and anything they could find. They slept on the sofers, beds and elsewhere. They also let their dogs messed up the chaple area. As I entered the door on that Saturday morning in November, I was greeted by an odor which permiated the building. It made it difficult for anyone to stay in the building for any length of time. There wasn\'t anything really to salvage, because the mould had already made it to the second floor. Documents were soaked and turned black from the water. Not only was the convent where I lived destroyed, the motherhouse where the elder and infirmed sisters resided, our nursing home, the high school, our pimary and pre-school, all gone. Leaving millions of dollars in repairs. \r\n \r\nMy whole life as a student at UNO was disrupted gravely by the hurricane. It is very difficult to be taking my classes on line,because most of the time there aren\'t any offered on the internet. I cannot live in New Orleans and I cannot go to another school now, because I am in my last thirty hours at the university. If i go somewhere else, I may loose my credits and scholarship. Until this point, I am still not sure what will happen to my life. At present,we are employed in the public school sysytem in Alexandria, because when we got here, all the Catholic schools already had their teachers for the school year and there was no place for us. \r\n \r\n One of the biggest psychological effect on my life was watching pictures on the televisions of the people left behind in New Orleans. Some of my own sisters who had to be rescued by helicaptor and the National Army Guide. There are also several law suits against the Sister of the Holy Family now in process at this time. This regard the Lafon Nursing Home on Chef Menteur Highway. Details of this case can be found at different website on the internet.\r\n \r\nWhile I am trying to put the pieces of my life together, I must remember that my life will never be the same again. But I wil continue to stand up with courage and face each day with the victory that I came out alive, for hundreds did not make it. Hundreds were caught in the midst of the and faced grave danger as they struggle and thread the high waters of Katrina