This was truly something that I still have trouble grasping the magnitude of what actually happened in the aftermath of the hurricane. I still remember the smells of pitching trash and filth out of our house, our refrigerator full of maggots,grown men running from our house, vomiting after having smelt the horrid stench within.... \r\n\r\nOr what about the pile of garbage that was a couple of stories high on West End Blvd. that I drove past for weeks. Seeing my mother break down in tears, wondering if my uncle was alive. Standing at the back of a Books-A-Million in Monroe, LA, watching as the levees failed and seeing the flood waters wash away the life that we knew. Staying with friends out in the middle of the forest in Northern Louisiana to sleeping on the floor of a church where we were able to reunite with family members.\r\n\r\nTraffic, traffic, and more traffic...and then driving stick shift through the traffic. Losing friends, lively hood and then rebuilding. Finally after 4 years of working on our house ourselves, it was finished in 2009.\r\n\r\nNo electricity in Metairie during Rita. But the Lemon poppy seed pound cake in the MRE packages sure are delicious. In fact, i cant even remember how many different kinds of MREs we had in our collection. \r\n\r\nPeople reaching out to one another..strangers..guardian angels...community..seeing the scars that still remain on this city. Now I know how to hang drywall!!!\r\n\r\nThank you to all of the many people who helped us and others with piecing our lives back together.