Christopher Inn is a low cost housing unit for senior citizens run by Catholic Charities. The Friday before the hurricane the staff turned off the gas, advised the residents to evacuate then left. About 50 residents were left who had no relatives or transportation. The building is 9 stories high and is located in the Marigny Triangle, so the residents left were confident that we would be safe. There were many on oxygen, on dialysis and in wheel chairs. For days things were OK. People were taking care of each other, sharing water and food. On day 3 things started going downhill. The smell and heat were getting to us. Some had portable radios and stories of the chaos that was happening circulated through the building. We heard of the troubles at the Rivergate & Superdome. Both were within walking distance but most residents were scared and decided to stay put where they had food, water and shelter. Some residents who were able to, left the building to search for food at the local Rouses grocery store and Walgreen\'s, which had been broken into.\r\n We could sit on the balcony and watch roving gangs headed toward Canal Street and returning with merchandise in shopping carts. One funny incident was when we discovered a huge stack of sneakers behind our building. When we went through them we discovered that they were all for the left foot. One not so funny incident was when a gang of about 10 youths entered the 1st floor of the building and tried to removed a large screen TV, which was bolted down and they were unable to removed it.\r\n The building divided itself into three groups. There was one group who gathered on the balcony and did nothing but drink beer and liquor for 5 days. The other group met and kept each other company and visited the residents who were unable to leave their apartments. The third group just stayed in their locked apartments. White sheets were hoisted on the roof and windows. The days were spent helping each other and just talking, the worst time was at night when you could hear people crying for help.\r\n On day 4 the first ray of hope appeared when we spotted some of the National Guard on Frenchman street. Some of us ran out of the building to greet them, but when they saw us they raised their guns. Told us they could not help us. People were getting more upset and angry that no one came to help. We knew already that one person had already died.\r\n Finally on Friday we spotted a small van with two New Orleans Policemen appear in front of our building. They ordered us to get as many people as we could downstairs so we could be driven to awaiting buses. As we got on the Van the police had rifles and drove us down Decatur Street and dropped us off at Harrahs on Canal Street. They told us to keep together as they went back for more residents. We stayed there for about 3 hours. Then we were driven by the van to the Convention Center where we boarded a bus. The driver said he really didn\'t know where we were headed until we left the city. We drove through a destroyed city filled with desperate people begging to get on the bus, across the Mississippi River Bridge and on to Dallas and for many a new life.\r\n