My name is Crystal Bourgeois and my family and I decided to stay home for the storm. The main reason we chose to stay was because I have a handi-cap brother with Muscular Dystrophy and it is difficult to travel with him since we do not have a handi-cap accessible vehicle. We figured that the worst that could happen would be a power outage for a couple of days. Well, clearly we were wrong. Since my parents are divorced, we decided to stay at the house my brother was most comfortable in. So, we (which included my father, step-mother, and step-sister)went to stay with my mom and brother in her three bedroom apartment. Once Katrina hit, everything in the apartment and the neighborhood started to go wrong. Of course, we lost electricity - but we did not expect that part of the apartment\'s ceiling would cave in. We spent hours tearing down the rest of the ceiling and sweeping out the water that flowed from the second floor. We lived off of tuna fish for several days (by the way, \'til this day I still do not eat tuna fish). During the day it was really hot and miserable. But the nighttime was worse. Our neighbors began looting the Walgreens around the corner and would come to the apartments asking if anyone needed anything (they had filled baskets of drinks,food, and some things that were unnecessary). My mother would not take anything from them. We soon realized that my brother\'s electrical wheel-chair was almost out of battery life so we knew we had to leave asap. We eventually got on the road and found a motel in Alexandria, Louisiana. We then ended up going to Abbeville, Louisiana and had to leave because of Rita. Our next place of refuge was Tennessee because we had family friends that offered to take us in. My story may not be as horrific as others might be, but it was a time in my life that I will never forget.