With eight cats, and only one driver, we did not have enough space in our vehicle to safely transport everyone out. We prepared by filling all the empty gallon jugs we could find, and buying as many batteries for lamps and two portable TV\'s. By Sunday afternoon, we were trying to find out who was going where, if at all. My sister stayed in Terrytown, and we stayed in Oakville. The storm birds arrived shortly after 1:30 p.m., and were extremely plentiful by late afternoon. \r\n Our most exposed windows were boarded, and we determined that things inside should be moved away from a couple large ones anyway(cats in cages). The rains did not begin until after 7 pm. Our electricity went out at about 9:30 pm. We didn\'t have any large trees near the house, but some lined our electric line. Whether the powere failed due to the trees falling on the line, or the system failed first, I am unclear. Some burn marks were found on a tree that was trimmed away afterwards, but it didn\'t seem to be the blow to stretch the cable as two trees fell to the ground over it. \r\n The roaring wind was coming from the northeast to east-northeast when the rain began, and seemed to be hurricane force about or just before the power failed. All night the wind continued, slowly shifting to north and almost north-northwest by daylight. We determined the time by two clocks, one a captain\'s clock, which chimed the half-hour, and another battery-operated one that corrected itself with the National Clock periodically. \r\n Our lot faces the river, and during the day on Sunday, a ship anchored directly in front of our home. As daylight was approaching, 5 to 5:30am, we looked towards the river, to see the ship facing downriver, and much higher than the previous evening. The ship was trying to pull anchor, then, since they were gone before 6 am. It was the \'An Le.\' After that, we had a full view of the river, empty of traffic and fuller than we had ever seen it, splashing over the levee top, and quite a few logs laying on our side, caught as the initial wave coming over slowed down. The water only splashed over until about 8 am, when for an hour, it was a steady pour, filling our yard with about three feet of flowing water, from an average of six inches before that point. The house is on a \'hill\' between three and four feet above the average yard level. The water level peaked at the thresholds.\r\n When the water level began rising quickly, my mother yelled, \"newspapers!\" We had a box saved to give to the local animal shelter. We placed some by each doorway to absorb water should it rise high enough. The next frantic steps were to clean all the bookshelves of anything on the bottom shelf. As the water level was starting to recede, we noticed that many of the shingles were coming off. We had a metal roof, and the wind gusts seemed to plough through the interlocking shingles, flying off in pairs and rows. The side they were falling onto was the lee side, so she quickly was scrambling to gather them up to prevent other damage from them, possibly to windows. \r\n Another phrase my mother exclaimed was, \"They told me I didn\'t need flood insurance!\" as the yard was filling up well above the heavy rain level. As the wind became westerly and then southerly, the rains slowed down, although it seemed that even in the southerly wind, full gale to hurricane force gusts predominated. By early afternoon, we were trying to assess what primary damage we had. During the last rains, we had a pour into the house from a leak, that I still don\'t know where it penetrated the roof itself. \r\n Besides no electricity, phones, both land line and cell phone were out, and the public water. We worked on emptying the freezer and refrigerator next. Since we had an ice-maker, we had saved extra ice all summer, and had more than three 48 quart ice chests. This helped greatly on keeping the frozen food for a few days. We had a camping stove, using small propane cans, so we could boil water(for shrimp or eggs) or grill some of the meats. The tap water was used to flush toilets. Our septic system is independent of the public sewer in the area, so didn\'t back up. Tuesday, we received two visits from local deputies. Both found we were okay, and had what seemed like enough provisions to manage. The local water was restored by Wednesday. \r\n To leave, I had to remove a log from our driveway. Thursday, I went to the local shelter, where the deputies and \"essential\" parish employees were staying, and traded some bulk meats(two hams) for a bag of ice. The next day, National Guard from New Mexico arrived, and were trying to find who was still here, to let us know where MRE\'s and ice were available.