Many people remember how they felt on that day. I do because I was in the middle of it. I was not in New Orleans however; but in a small town most people haven\'t even heard of and if they saw the name, they probably wouldn\'t know how to pronounce it. Gautier, Mississippi (pronounced \'go-chay\') is about fifteen minutes from Biloxi, Mississippi which is right on the Gulf of Mexico. \r\n\r\nMy family and I lived about a mile from the water in Gautier. When the storm was headed our way, we didn\'t have the money to leave and I was eight months pregnant with our youngest son. Knowing the risks of me traveling at that time, we decided to stay at my mother\'s house about fifteen miles inland. We packed up all the things that we considered special: our pictures, clothes, food, water, and anything else we could think of that we would need. I called my Grandmother, she lived in D\'iberville, (pronounced \'Dee-I -bur-Ville\') another small town just a few miles north of Biloxi. She packed what she could including oxygen and all kinds of medicines, then we picked her up and went to my mother\'s house. \r\n\r\nThe whole family was there when Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29, 2005. First the wind came and I was thinking, \"No big deal.\" Around four in the morning the power went out and my three year old son Jordan was scared to death and screaming for me and my husband Chris. We started hearing tornadoes hovering over the house. My mother said, \"Ok, this it\'s getting bad now.\" I replied, \"I am starting to have contractions.\" She started to get concerned for me and her grandson. The contractions were two minutes apart when the eye of the storm came inland. I was thinking and praying to myself, \"God please don\'t let this baby come yet. He is too early and we can\'t get to a hospital, and I don\'t want to lose another child. Please God don\'t let this baby come yet!\" \r\n\r\n Daylight came and I was still having contractions. The storm was still going full force! I was walking through the kitchen to go outside to get some fresh air when I saw my brother standing in the family room. He yelled at me, \"Lynn, go get Dad, this wall is about to go!\" I yelled to dad, \"You need to get in here! The wall is fixing to go!\" Dad who is a carpenter, came in with his hammer and nails with a few pieces of wood with Chris and nailed up the boards and I was holding the light when Chris yelled at me, \"Lynn, you need to get out of here! It\'s too dangerous for you and the baby to be in here.\" I yelled back, \"Then how are you going to see?\" I decided to stay, spite the risks of the wall coming in on us. \r\n\r\n Shortly after that, my dad got a phone call from his friend Donnie Wayne, while he was trapped in a truck across town. The water started rising into the truck and he was starting to float away. Chris and my dad went out in my car to try to help Donnie. The wind was so powerful that it turned the car around three times. They returned to the house to get a chainsaw to cut trees that were laying in the road. The wind ripped apart a storage building while they were out in the middle of the storm trying to cut the trees. Chris felt the risk of being ripped apart by flying debris was not worth losing his life over. They returned back home and stayed for a while. We all said a prayer for our friend Donnie Wayne. Finally, the brunt of the storm was over. What was left of the hurricane was mostly wind and rain. First came total silence. No breeze, no rain, nothing! Then we heard generators in the distance. I was thinking to myself, \"We are not alone after all! Someone else was alive!\" Worried about our family and friends that lived near by, we went to check on them. and we found Donnie Wayne walking down the street. Thank heaven he was alive! We helped him into the car and drove to finish looking for our other family and friends. They were alive also! We drove back to my mother\'s house to surprise everyone that we found Donnie Wayne!\r\n\r\n All the stores were boarded up and we ran out of food, ice, and water so we loaded up to go to the mall where the National Guard was handing out supplies. We had to drive to Mobile, Alabama to get gas which was about forty-five minutes away, Chris and I was not familiar with Mobile, so Donnie rode with us to help us find our way. We waited in line for about four hours , only to find out there was a limit on the amount of gas we could get. We had no power for about a month and a half. In the middle of August the temperature was around 100 degrees plus added humidity made it twice as hot as it usually is. Having no power to cook, cool yourself off, or even get a cold glass of water seemed impossible to deal with. All we had to eat were MRE\'s (meals ready to eat)...we had a \'redneck\' barbeque every day of the week! \r\n\r\n The water was contaminated, which made washing clothes in it hard and even after washing them they were still unclean. Chris, my dad, my brothers, my mother and Donnie slept in the garage on the floor while Jordan, my grand- mother and myself slept in the house. Jordan and I had to sleep on a foam mattress while Chris and the rest slept on the floor. It made me feel guilty because I was sleeping in the \'lap of luxury\' at that time. I asked my brother if we could borrow his futon mattress so we didn\'t have to sleep on the foam mattress, he didn\'t speak a word, but walked into his room, got the mattress and laid it gently on the floor. The sewage started to run onto the streets.\r\n\r\n People were killing people over supplies. Our house was in the \"hood\" where it was mostly criminals and thieves. The Army National Guard was riding around on four-wheelers carrying M16\'s on their shoulders looking for looters. Chris decided to leave me and Jordan at my mother\'s house while he went to stay at our house to protect our things because looters were getting so bad. He slept on the couch with his nine millimeter loaded and our rottweiller, Shadow, laying next to him. He found out that people were siphoning gas out of cars and trucks. So he found an old gas can with a little bit of gas in it, added water to it and placed it on the back of his truck. The next day, we saw a car broken down a couple houses down from us. Apparently they took the water thinking it was gas! \r\n\r\n My ex-boyfriend Devonn, Jordan\'s father, came to my mother\'s house. He said to me, \"My dad is driving from Texas to bring us food, supplies and gas. Can I take Jordan with me?\" I told him, \"YES! Please get him out of here. It\'s getting too bad for him to be here.\" Lonnie, Devonn\'s dad, was an angel to help us. He brought everything that we could possible need. He filled my car up with gas. I thanked him for everything, and I loaded up all of Jordan\'s things, kissed him good-bye and prayed that he would be alright. \r\n\r\n After about six weeks with out power it was finally turned back on! I was nine months pregnant by that time, and Chris was in Texas with Jordan. My ex-boyfriend\'s family got him a job there. Six weeks passed by and I couldn\'t handle being away from Chris and Jordan any longer. Having to tell your son and husband \'good-bye\' at the end of every day on the phone was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. So I went to an OB-GYN, told him the situation, and he said, \"Well you are only dilated to three centimeters and I think you can make it to Texas.\" I packed all the things I could carry with me in my car and left Mississippi bound for Texas. I surprised Chris because he didn\'t think I would actually leave my mother\'s house. I got to see Jordan every day but I couldn\'t bring him home with me while were staying in an RV. After about a month of living in an RV we finally found a house and Jordan could come home with me! At last, Dakoda Austin Jensen was born on October 24, 2005, in Longview, Texas weighing 5lb 4 oz and 16 inches long! We moved from Texas a few months after that. \r\n\r\nAfter living through the worst natural disaster in American history I often think about how the storm came in and how we as a family overcame such a tragedy. Looking outside at the trees and the beautiful country in our new home of Missouri, I think about what I miss most about Mississippi: I miss how beautiful it was before Hurricane Katrina. I will always remember how the storm changed my life and my family forever. The only thing that comes to mind when I think about the fight for survival against the power of Mother Nature is: Life is precious. Material things can be replaced. Lives cannot!\r\n