Disaster is not a strong enough word to describe the events that have occurred over the last few months. Nothing and no one could predict what was about to happen to our cities and our people. Catastrophes of such great proportion often take awhile before people can completely fathom what has happened. The events and outcomes of Hurricane Katrina are so unbelievable; I still don’t think that it has truly hit me. \r\n “The quiet before the storm”, is an overused cliché but a true one. Like a typical college student, I had so much going on that the news was the last thing on my mind. The Friday night before the storm, I had gone out for a friend’s birthday, knowing nothing of a hurricane. Later that evening, my boyfriend’s brother called to inform us that he and his wife were evacuating. Evacuating? For what? Turns out, there was a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. The next morning I tuned into the news to see this hurricane that they were calling “The Perfect Storm.” I could not believe that I was so out of touch with things not related to English Literature or Geology. Later that afternoon, I reluctantly headed to work in Lakeview. I got onto the Interstate heading towards the city and I had a flashback straight from the movie Independence Day. I was the only person heading towards the city! That night at work, I waited on Mayor Ray Nagin. Midway through his dinner he asked me when and where I was evacuating. I explained to him that I was going to my parent’s house in Mandeville tonight and that we planned on staying at my uncle’s in Springfield, a little town outside of Hammond. Turns out, this didn’t please him in the slightest. He told me that the closest that he wanted me to New Orleans was Shreveport. All right, now I was scared. So as planned, my family and I headed out to Springfield the next morning. Thinking I was going to have a typical “Hurricane Party Weekend,” I packed a few T-shirts and my toothbrush and put important things high off the ground. Little did I know, I wasn’t coming back for a while. \r\n As the Hurricane was hitting, we obviously lost cable and were clutching to the radio. WWL was a lifesaver! When the wind had slowed down and the trees finally stopped falling, the whole family scrambled around trying to get in touch with friends and other family members. Most of the calls were directed to my grandparent’s, who had evacuated from Mid-City to Folsom with my aunt and cousin. We were unable to reach them by any form of communication and we were worried sick. About three days after the storm hit, we saw their car come driving up the street. The wave of relief that came over the whole family was astonishing. We laughed, cried, hugged and hugged some more. It was great! Then reality, as it seems to always do, hit again. My grandfather had become ill only weeks before the storm and Katrina had taken her toll on him. We contacted several hospitals in the area but according to them he was not a “priority.” It is hard to imagine a time when an aneurysm, cancer and collapsed lungs is not a priority, but it happened. We were forced to evacuate my grandparents to South Carolina to stay with family. It was hard to let them go, but it was the only way that my Paw-Paw could get the treatment he needed. \r\n Meanwhile, their son, another one of my uncle’s, was stuck in Lakeview. He had decided to ride the storm out and watch it take over the city from his apartment. The walls of his living room came to life, with every strong gust of wind the walls would breathe in and out. The water began to rise and so did his neighbors, the rooftops of Lakeview were covered with it’s residents. When the hurricane passed , my uncle took it into his own hands to begin rescuing people. He “borrowed” a boat from his neighbor’s yard and began bringing people to higher ground. After the food in his refrigerator had run out, he handed out food from his evacuated neighbors’ homes, seeing how they were not using it at the moment. Many of the people he had saved were in need of medical attention and being a nurse, he was able to care for them. He found a pharmacy, cut the gates open with a saw and retrieved medicine, including insulin for his own Diabetes. During the course of his rescue efforts, he had stepped on a piece of windshield in the water. With his Diabetes, his body does not recover well from injury. The Friday after the storm, he woke up to the overwhelming stench of the city and an extremely infected foot. He decided it was time to leave. So yet again, he “commandeered” a motorboat and drove himself across Lake Pontchartrain to Madisonville, where he called his son in Baton Rouge to pick him up. At this point, my family and I had still not talked to him and had in fact put him on several “missing persons” lists. My uncle finally got in contact with us when he checked into a hospital in Baton Rouge for his foot. It was a blessing to know he was safe but now we had to tell him that his father was in the hospital in South Carolina. \r\n When Paw-Paw reached South Carolina, he immediately checked into the hospital. They got him set up in his room and began to give him medication for his pain, when his nurse came into the room and introduced herself. On the dry-erase board by his bed she wrote her name, Katrina. This is not a joke! My grandmother nearly passed out. The nurse soon remembered that because of the storm, everyone was going to call her Trina and she erased the board. Soon after my grandfather arrived he had a heart attack and was no longer stable on his own. This was my family’s key to drive up to South Carolina. \r\n I had returned to my parent’s house in Mandeville, where they had only fallen trees and a missing fence. I was unable to return to my apartment in Metairie at this time, so I was living with them. We were only there for a few days, when we heard the news of Paw-Paw and packed the car again, heading to South Carolina. My whole family is very close (Catholic Italian) and we could not imagine being apart at a time like this. Unfortunately, my uncle was still in the hospital bed with his foot and could not come with us. When my family and I arrived, the tears again flowed and there was yet more hugging. Paw-Paw was not awake at this time, yet we talked to him like normal. He was a man that enjoyed a good teasing so we picked on him, making fun of his hair and toenails trying get any type of response. It worked a few times but he was having to many bad days and even worse nights. He was fading fast, so the priest gave him his last rights and we told him goodbye. We stayed a short time after the priest had gone but decided that it would be best if we left for a while and let Paw-Paw rest. He had been struggling to stay awake because he knew that his whole family was there and he could hear our voices. My Dad decided to stay with his father a little while longer. When we all left the room, he knew that he could rest. And that’s exactly what he did. \r\n My grandmother, cousin and aunt have just recently come home from South Carolina. But the home they came back to is not quite the same. They live in a double, upstairs and downstairs, and the bottom floor saw about four foot of water from Bayou St. John. My uncle is out of the hospital and his foot is healing. I am now living with my parents and little sister in Mandeville. My apartment was one of the lucky ones and remained untouched by Katrina, but my job could not say the same. I am happy to be living with my family right now; in times like these they seem to be the best therapy. I truly do believe that the city will come back better and stronger, a little different but still unique. People are already returning and the skyline is once again lite up on Lake Pontchartrain. That is a good sight to see!