3 years ago today...

hurricane katrina hit New Orleans and, as many of you know, we were here during the storm and stuck at Memorial Medical Center until Sept 2.  I remember it being so hot inside the hospital after the generators failed.  And smelly.  But it's a smell that I could never describe and it's a smell that I can never forget.  It smelled like death.  Like dead bodies.  It was almost a sweet smell, but not sweet in a good way.  It made me want to throw up.  It was about 120 degrees inside the hospital, no electricity, no cold water, no food, no bathrooms, no help.  I spent most of my time outside with our dogs, sitting on the 3rd floor of the parking garage, taking pictures of the water all around us.  Across the street from us was a building that had been empty before the storm and the day after was quickly filling up with people who didn't evacuate and people who were carrying guns.  I vividly remember the morning we were told we were getting out of there, I was sitting with my dogs by the stairs of garage, reading my book when all of a sudden a state trooper came running up beside me with a rifle (i think) and he was pointing it across the street, at the newly occupied building, and was yelling, "PUT YOUR F*#@ING GUNS DOWN NOW!"  

But they didn't put their guns down, they fired their guns right at us and I grabbed my dogs and ran the hell away from the state trooper.  That was pretty scary and I was glad we got out that day.  I still remember the anticipation of waiting to get into the boat.  The ER ramp was made into a boat dock.  The glass was shattered and we were standing at the edge of where the glass was and people were waiting for their turn to get into a boat.  A man and his son Joshua, from Arkansas drove down to volunteer and we got into their boat for what seemed like a long ride down Napoleon Avenue to St. Charles Avenue.  It started to rain and I was sitting in that boat, holding Taylor and Walter and the rain felt so good on my face.  I hadn't showered in many days and I was sitting there wondering when I would be able to take a shower and where this shower would be??  I totally remember that.  I also remember watching the big houses on Napoleon Avenue as our little boat passed them by; houses I had driven past a thousand times and never really SAW.  They were big and beautiful and many of them were flooded.  It was sad.  I wondered where the owners were and imagined what it would be like for them when they came back to see their house and belongings flooded.

When we got to St. Charles Avenue, we saw the Rite Aid being looted.  And also the Copeland's across the street.  I have to admit, I did partake in some oatmeal cookies that were liberated from the Rite Aid.  I am not sure who gave them to me, but I heard they were from Rite-Aid and someone was sharing and who was I to say, "No thanks." to a lovely looking oatmeal cookie?

So we waited in a very long line for hours.  We were within walking distance of our house on Upperline and Andy decided to walk back to the house to get some cash we had left behind and I remember yelling at him while he was about a block away, "Can you bring back my Burberry purse, I left it on the fireplace."

Total silence right after I yelled that.  I felt like a total brat screaming about my Burberry purse while people stood there not knowing if they had a home to go to and not knowing where their families were.  But for some reason, I didn't care very much.  I just knew that damn Burberry purse was going to make me feel happy and I was afraid our house was going to be broken into and my purse would be stolen.  It's so silly to think of that now.