You know, at lot of people are saying this and it’s because it is true, there was no life or death leave warnings given. I was a student at the University of New Orleans, my best friend went to Xavier and I knew of two young freshmen that were going to start Xavier Fall 2005. We were not necessarily clueless to the fact that there was a hurricane, but the extent to how powerful it was. Since living in New Orleans for a couple of years, I had grown use to the road trips taken because of storms that were supposed to hit. Katrina seemed to be a repeat. I did not even know about the storm until I was a work on Saturday and some people asked if I was going to leave and I didn\\\'t know why. So I and the other young ladies started watching the news, and then the phone calls started, grandmothers, mothers, family telling us to leave. So we packed enough belongings and thought we were going to be back by Labor Day, at the most. Even when I checked out the freshmen from Xavier, we asked the administration when they were to be back on campus they told us Wednesday. We went out Saturday night to Chili\\\'s and walked down Bourbon Street, not knowing that it was never going to be the same. You could feel it changing at that moment, when you walked by various bars and clubs and saw them being covering with wood. We woke up earlier Sunday morning and called another girl from our hometown to see if she had left, yet by that time most of the cell carriers’ networks were not functioning correctly. So we departed the city formerly known as New Orleans, we couldn\\\'t find food until we got to Gulfport. And it took us hours to get it; we then got back on the road. We finally made it safely to Alabama to wait to see if Katrina was really going to hit NO. While waiting, we found out horrific news that one of friends was still stuck on campus at Xavier. And after the seeing the devastation and turmoil that occurred we feared the worst. Yet, she did manage to come out with her life, and we are thankful. And we are also sad that so many others have passed. Looking back a year later, the city is still in ruins and shambles. I would have loved to come back, but where was I to go or stay, the levee actually broke on my street and if I would have stayed, I probably would have been rescued off my roof, like my neighbor. It is my hope and my dream that New Orleans will be restored, the history, culture, music, food and all that the city entails. I had my share of good and bad times here and I don’t think I would trade it. We are all still continuing our education and I will be graduating this December. Hopefully one day we can strongly move forward from this with a stronger New Orleans and say: Laissez les bons temps rouler!