It is difficult to find a place to begin this tale so for all greater convenience we shall brush over the days prior to the storm. I was employed at nice little establishment on St. Charles avenue called Al Copeland\'s Cheesecake Bistro. I was working the day shifts mostly and going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As hurricane Katrina was developing and brushing across the tip of Florida there was a heck of a buzz around the whole place. For those of you who are not familiar with the restaurant, it is located on the ground floor and a hotel, under the same ownership, is what presides on the several floors above. Our location is just below Tulane and Loyal Universities. Being that it was the beginning of the school year we were busy, as was the hotel. Everyone, staff and customer alike were chatting idly about where it was going to go. As the days progressed and business continued to boom it was apparent to many, and advised by the great Bob Breck, that this could be really ugly. The hostess came and got me and said my wife was on line one and wanted to talk to me right away. I answered the phone for last time at that particular job.\r\n\r\nMy wife and I discussed what we were going to do. We made a list of all our options while also comparing all possible scenarios of what could happen if the storm hit. The previous year was also an active hurricane season so we had already put several of our possibilities to the test. Evacuating for hurricane Ivan ended up costing us about six hundred dollars in the long run. \r\n\r\nMy wife and I are both in our late twenties (I am not allowed to elaborate any further on the exact numbers due potential hazards to my health), work full time and going to school full time. We were married just last April and were not exactly established in life. We had a very small savings that we had just started up, and were planning to study aboard next year through the foreign exchange program at UNO. I, as I mentioned, was a waiter, and my wife worked for a department store. After barely making our bills every month we were not exactly in a position to spend another six hundred dollars for evacuating from Katrina. One of our saving graces is the storm came at the end of the month and we had not yet paid rent ($507.00) so we still had that on hand. A very dear friend of ours lived in the Quarter and was in her mid 50\'s with no kids or husband. She worked as a manager at a French Quarter hotel. She called to let us know we had reservations in Dallas and to pick her at her apartment when she got off work at midnight. \r\n\r\nIt was the Saturday before the storm and my wife and I had our \"hurricane gear #2\" all in line. We kept two sets; one set for staying: batteries, radio, flashlight, food, water, etc. and the second set for leaving: cloths for three days each, one set of cold weather cloths each, all medications and pills, toiletries and other hygienic stuff, some copies of each utility bill, a copy of our lease, our most recent bank statement, birth and marriage certificates, full book of checks, our wedding pictures, and last but not least our brand-new text books. Car packed and loaded we headed for the Quarter to gather our \"person of elderly concern\" as Mayor Nagin put it. After picking her up we telephoned another friend who was coincidentally getting on the I-10 east at the same time. The contra-flow was up and running and we met our other evacuating friend on the over pass and caravanned with them for a while. There are two interesting things to note about the drive. The first is the fuel stop we made about half way there. A relatively small service station with a Subway restaurant attached. Needless to say the place was PACKED. There was a make shift parking lot off to one side and people were milling about stretching their legs and walking their dogs. The second interesting point is the time it took us to get to Dallas. Roughly about ten hours, as compared to our previous evacuation to the same place last year which took about 23 hours.\r\n\r\nWe stayed in Dallas for two weeks getting in touch with as many friends and family as we could. My brother had decided to try to whether the storm and stayed, a choice he very soon came to regret. He and several friends held up for a few days at an uptown restaurant with permission from the owner to eat and drink all they needed and wanted. It soon became apparent to them all the this solution was only temporary and they had to find a way out of town. Long story short, they acquired a VW bus and loaded seven people and four dogs up and headed out. They had a connection somewhere outside of Baton Rogue and stopped there for their first real shower and safe place to sleep in seven days. The next morning they continued on and arrived in Dallas. My brother stayed with us and the rest continued on to Iowa where one of them had family. We gathered our thoughts and ideas for another week in Dallas thankful as all get out to have my brother safe. The entire time we were glued to the news and were completely at a loss as to what to do and how things would pan out. \r\n\r\nMy wife, my brother, and I all decided to head to our home state of Ohio. Our \"friend of elderly concern\" found a job in Colorado paying her almost 20 thousand dollars a year more and had better benefits. After about three weeks in Ohio my brother returned to New Orleans with the notion that his job was paying him more and things were going to be better for a cook in the now busy Quarter. His notions were very quickly dispelled and replaced with the reality of things as they were. His apartment up town still had no power, no phone service, and no hot water. He was working more than 15 hours a day and only making about $100 a day. \r\n\r\nHe is now looking into entering Culinary school, my wife and I are still in a hotel and will soon be moving into the upstairs of my grandparents until January when we leave for Australia.