While hurricane Katrina was a horrible ordeal, there were a number of good outcomes for my family. First of all we evacuated on the saturday before the hurricane hit to my aun\'ts house in Conroe,Tx. When I say we I mean myself, my husband, son, daughter, my mother, sister, brother, my grandmother and an aunt that lives with my grandmother. My dad stayed behind to monitor the laundry mat and apartments they own as well our home. We all begged him to come but he assured us he was fine and sent us to safety. As we were almost in Conroe we recieved a call from my dad saying the city of Gretna police and our local fire department came through our neighborhood with sirens and loudspeakers telling everyone to get out. So he decided it was serious enough to leave. At my aunt\'s house we were joined by some other members of our extended family, all counted there were 21 people in that one house. We all were glued to the television for the next few days. When we learned it would be a while before we could go home, my dad decided to rent a house closer to home incase we had a lot of damage so the commute to repair or rebuild wouldn\'t be as long. My cousin who lives in Laffayette found a house for rent two doors down from her and reserved it for us. My Grandmother and the aunt who lives with her stayed in Conroe because we didn\'t know the situation of the house we were going to or the level of damage our homes had sustained. There were eight of us living in a three bedroom house for a month but it wasn\'t that bad, we\'re always together anyway. As soon as Jefferson Parish gave the all clear to return to check out homes we loaded up my dad, my husband and my brother and said a prayer for their safety and what they would return to. We were very happy to hear that despite the flooding through most of our neighborhood, our homes were fine. Some lost shingles and a broken window were the extent of the damage to our homes and a dented swimming pool and fallen fig tree were the only other significant losses for us. My neighbors weren\'t as lucky, there was a lot of cosmetic damage to the house on the right but the house on the left flooded and had a hundred foot tall pecan tree fall on it. That tree hit two houses and the car that was parked between them. When the next morning came, our men ventured out to view damage to the homes of our relatives, my parents\' apartments and their newly bought laundry mat in Belle Chasse. Plaquemine\'s parish was still closed to non-residents at that time so my dad was still not sure if their laundry mat, which had not even been insured yet, was still standing. The were able to get to the apartments and had basically good new there. One roof was damaged but not badly. Most of our relatives had little to no damage. But when they pulled up at my grandmother\'s house they almost cried. Although she did not flood, most of her roof was lying on the ground next to her house. Whole pieces of plywood, shingles still attatched looked as if they had been taken off with a crow bar. The rain had soaked through most of her two story home. Miraculously, almost all of her pictures were spared, even the ones hanging on the walls were not touched. We knew then it would be a while before my grandma could return home. We relayed the message to Texas and my aunt began preparing for the long haul. She made doctors appointments so that my grandma could get refills for her many medications and that\'s when we first realized that maybe it was a blessing that my grandma could not yet return. The doctors in Texas found blockages in my grandma\'s heart that were never found by her own doctors here. She was told she might have a heart attack within the month. they scheduled apointments and she had a procedure that cleared the blockages. she is doing well now. That was the first and most important blessing that came from Katrina. The second was that my parents laundry mat was untouched. The laundry mat was barely operating when they bought it and they had planned to make it popular again. Well, with so many people in lower plaquemines having their homes destroyed, There were a lot of people living in trailers with no way to wash their clothes. the laundrymat reopened as soon as there was water, gas and electricity on. It has been a steady flow of customers 24 hours a day since then. And the third blessing was something I never though about but it seemed perfect when it happened. My neighbor of 25 years who had the tree fall on her house decided to move in with her daughter. they offered to sell us the house as is. We looked through the house and despite the tree falling on it and the flooding there was little damage. She had no carpet in her house and the flooding didn\'t go past the base boards. the tree barely broke through the roof and not much water got in at all. We decided it was perfect. We now own that home and my grandmother is staying there until her home is rebuilt. She had to tear down her house but she is having one built that will be better suited for her in her wheel chair. So all-in-all while it was an inconvienence to us and so much worse for so many others, Katrina brought with it unexpected good fortune for my family.