Katrina Story\r\n In August of 2005, the city of New Orleans and it\'s surrounding areas was about to be changed for the rest of most of our lives. Here is my story, although not nearly as devastating as others.\r\n My family and I watched the news all day and night on Friday and Saturday watching for any changes with the storm. I carried on with my normal schedule as I went to work all day both days. Me and my dad wanted to stay and ride out the storm because we didn\'t think it was going to hit us like it did, but as the time rolled by and the phone calls from family members kept coming every little while and the weather channel reports kept getting worse. So my dad and I gave in and unwillingly left with my family mainly because my mom wanted to go. We packed up all of our belongings and put other things that were too big or weren\'t that important up high on beds or in closets just in case. We then left early Sunday morning. \r\n With everyone going north or west, we knew the traffic would be hell and we really had no where to go those ways so we went east. Yeah I know, \"You are crazy.\" I heard that from everyone. We went to Destin Florida for four days and then to Fort Walton Beach Florida for the next month. On the way to Florida we knew that the interstate would be insanely full of traffic, so we went causeway. Boy, was that a horrible move. How long does it take you to get across the causeway on a slow day? 45 minutes? Try almost 4 and a half hours from south shore to north shore. I was alone and bored, I think I went through every cd that I owned. As we got off the causeway and onto I-12 the outskirts of the weather was hitting us and plenty of wind and rain was in the forecast for what I didn\'t know was going to be a 12 hour drive to a 4 hour drive location. We got a good ways on I-12 and it looked like a mini hurricane was coming towards our pod of 4 cars going down the interstate. A minute or so later a small tornado caught my truck and spun me around going fifty mph! I was scared and I felt as though I was getting lifted up by a giant and I was a little snow globe and he was shaking me. Then all of a sudden I dropped and there was no damage to me or my truck. I caught up with my family and they had no idea what had happened because they could not see because of the rain and debris. After being all shaken up I shook it off because I definitely did not want to get stuck in it again so I hauled on and proceeded to our destination which was still 8 hours away.\r\n The ride to the emerald coast was a very rainy one and so was the next two days. We arrived to our destination which was Club Destin Resort and my family, two dogs, and the rest of us all got rooms and stayed in during the night. We awoke early Monday morning to howling winds and the roof making noise. It was amazing how we got that much wind, rain, and water surge 250 miles away from New Orleans. I couldn\'t take anymore of the television and staying inside so about mid morning I got my two cousins and went outside. Boy, I sure am glad that I weigh more then 150 pounds because my cousin didn\'t and he was literally getting blown around everywhere. It was funny in a weird way. We made our way out to the beach where I believe 12-15 foot waves were crashing the shore. Well, not the shore because the new shore was pretty much at the base of the beach front hotels and condos. I could not believe what I was experiencing first hand. It was crazy to see the once crystal, emerald green waters be murky, 15 feet tall, and full of debris. \r\n The time went by and the storm ended and we stayed there for four days and then we watched the news when we regained power. To our surprise, we saw the devastation that had occurred and truly believed all of our homes and belongings were destroyed. So we decided, since we couldn\'t drive back in to go home to stay there, but that place was too expensive so we went to this place called the Sandman. These people were super, they were willing to let us stay there for a month and only pay the dues for a week!! Where in all of Florida can you stay in a 2 bedroom condo for a month for 1200 bucks? Everyone in Florida was very nice and hospitable to anyone from New Orleans. It really meant a lot to us and I\'m sure many others. To go a step further, the famous restaurant, Fudpuckers, allowed anyone with a Louisiana id to get 50% off their bill, no limit to how much, how many people or how many times you went. To go even further, they have a local fishing pier right there and usually it costs somewhere around 7 bucks to go fish off of it plus your bait and ice. Let me tell you, I am a fishing fool and I fished 20 days out of the next 30 and I didn\'t pay a dime, they even gave me drinks, sandwiches, and beer. It was crazy but very awesome to have people willing to do this for perfect strangers.\r\n As the month turned away we decided that we were all dark enough from the sun, and water logged, and had sand in every crevices on our bodies. So we made our way back to our newly dreamt nightmare. We stopped at my late grandmother\'s house, which was in the process of getting sold, only to find the cars ruined and 2 feet of water got into the house. Not a total devastation but enough to where it hurts. We left there and came to our house. We have kind of a heavily wooded area, a lot of trees, in our neighborhood and they were everywhere. We saw houses already being gutted on our street so this made us worried. We arrived to our house to see nothing in the front. We walked inside and nothing!!! We were spared! All that got in the house was about 4 inches of water in the garage which is about 6 inches lower then the house. We were inches from having a mess. We then went the back yard where we had a nice shed and a big above ground pool. Well we were right the pool was gone! A tree fell on it and it collapsed and the shed was destroyed. Besides this, we made out quite well thank the lord. \r\n All I have to say in conclusion is that my heart goes out those who got flooded or worse. I am truly sorry. And for those of you who have had loved ones die in this tragedy, I send my love and prayers out to you all. All I can do is thank God that we were spared and kept my family and myself out of harms way.