My name is Stephen Long and my family is from Virginia, but we have a thing for New Orleans. My mom frequents there on business trips, my sister Amanda graduated from Tulane University and my brother Andrew graduated from Loyola University of New Orleans. \r\nI came to New Orleans by myself on August 26, 2005 as a freshman at Loyola University. I quickly met up with three friends I knew from my grade school in northern Virginia. They happened to be attracted to New Orleans as well. We got settled in and we quickly became reacquainted with a night out on the town. I felt this was going to be a good year. The next morning I was getting ready to shower when a Biever dorm hall mate announced that hurricane Katrina got much worse and a mandatory evacuation had been issued for the city. I ate breakfast and met up with my three good friends. We had to find a way out. So, we looked towards Houston. My friend Drew is from there. First, we looked at plane tickets. This instantly became impossible because the price of plane tickets out of New Orleans sky rocketed. No college student could afford close to a thousand dollar tickets. We immediately gave up on that idea and decided to try a train or a bus. I packed up a small backpack with a one change of clothes and a toothbrush. We arrived at the Greyhound and Amtrak station in New Orleans by cab. The weather was perfect. Our cab driver said he would never leave. We decided to split up in the two lines of Amtrak and Greyhound. After half an hour of waiting, the station was shut down. No more tickets were being sold and no more buses and trains were leaving. We all just sat down for a second trying to think of our next move. As I sat there I watched police officers chain up the station’s doors so no more people could get inside. I saw a crowd of people outside being held back with some waving purchased tickets and shouting. Some inside had already bought tickets as well and were attempting to negotiate. We decided to leave before the doors were completely chained shut. An officer told us that once we left, we could not come back. We said that was fine. I was confused by the situation though. If there was a mandatory evacuation ordered and the weather throughout the day was perfectly fine, why would private companies shut down the transportation or make it impossible to take? How could the city government allow this? It was a mandatory evacuation. \r\nLoyola University allowed students to find personal means of transportation out of the city or put them on lockdown in the dorms. My three friends and I caught an eight hour ride to Houston at 1:30 am. Drew’s girlfriend and her family were nice enough to drive 16 hours for us. Loyola University later took all the remaining students by bus to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. We watched Katrina on television. I have not been back to New Orleans since. \r\n