Hello, my name is Tye and I live in a very small part of Mississippi called Lumberton. At the time when Katrina hit, I was only 13 (I just turned 14 in November). Most people down here thought it was just going to be another one of those little hurricanes that would only lastr a few hours or so. My friends and I thought that we would only be out of school for a day or two. Turns out that we were all wrong. On the day before the hurricane hit, my family (my dad, Butch B., my granrdparents, Mike and Jenny B., my aunt, Babs K. and her three granskids, and my other aunt and uncle, Sandy and Chuck K., and finally my cousin and her husband, Leslie and Alan R., and his brother Ben R.) all had a family discussion and we decided to say to my aunt and uncle\'s house because everyon though that it was the safest place to be. For the reminder of the day, we all stocked up on food and water and batteries, getting basically everything we needed to ride out the storm. Towards the night, everyone went to sleep, waiting for the next morning. That night, I stayed up late and text message my best friend, Dylan B. til about one in the morning. Because of that, I didn\'t wake up until 9 the next morning. When I got woke up by my little cousin\'s watching Barney on the DVD player, I walke dinto the living room with the rest of my family and looked out of the window. It was already raining hard. About thirty minutes later, while everyone was watching TV to see what was happening, the power shut off. My dad immediatly got out a battery powered TV set and flipped on to the news. We all waited as it started to get hotter in the house. An hour passed and everyone was getting tense. Cellular service hadn\'t went out yet so we were still able to communicate with other family members. That is how we learned about the levees breaking in Louisiana. Not long after that, when we lost service for cell phones, Mike, Jenny, Sandy, Chuck, Alan, and Ben all stood on the back porch as shingles flew from the roof right in front of them. Sandy, Chuck and Alan went further into the back yard, only to run back inside when an oak tree was uprooted right beside them. One by one, every single tree in my uncle\'s yard fell to the ground. That is when my grandma said that she heard a train. We would find out later that a tornado or two hit across the street in a small forest type area, just a few feet away from us. I was left in charge of the kids who were only three at the time. I made them sit in the hallway and lay down on some pillows with a few toys. I walked out into the front yard with my dad and my aunt, Babs, and we were nearly picked up by the wind which caused us to go back inside. Finally, the eye had arrived. It was calm and cool outside. Butch, Chuck, Alan, Leslie, and Ben all walked about a half a mile or so to my grandparents house t see if there was any damage. Luckily, nothing was hurt, a tree didn\'t even fall down. They came back to the house just as Katrina powered up for round two of the beat down. We all rode it out and when it ended, me, my dad, and Alan rode in my dad\'s truck to our house and Chuck and Ben rode in another truck. A mile away, we coudl only go down the road just a little because of the trees that fell down. We had to walk the rest of the way, crawling through trees and power poles. After checking out the damage to our house, everyone went over to my grandparents, except Sandy and Chuck who stayed at their home. Everyone else loaded into the camper at my grandparents house and slept peacefully through the night. The next morning, everyone sat outside and inside, going back and forth. Me, Babs, and Jenny all played a game of Phase 10 while my dad and grandpaw cleaned the front yard a little. Chuck and Sandy then came over. I don\'t remember much of that day, but the next morning, I remember clearly. My dad and I drove back over to my aunt and uncle\'s house when we woke up to see if they got throught he night ok. And they did. That is when a local police officier, Chad, pulled into the driveway and gave us the bad news, It could be atleast two weeks before we got power again. My dad and I went back to my grandparents and my aunt had finally woken up. I walked in and told her, \"You can\'t be sleepin\' all mornin\', now!\" She answere back and said, \"Watch me.\" Then I said, \"For real. We gotta save the gas in the camper cause Chad said it could be two weeks before we get power again. When everyone heard the news, Mike B. went up to Hattiesburg which was about 25 miles away to see if he could get a generator, if not, Babs, her three grandkids and Jenny would go to Georgia where my aunt and uncle (Debe and Danny) lived. The next day, (Wednesday), during the afternoon, me and my aunt packed everything up and me, her, her three grandkids, and my grandma all went to Georgia to ride out the recovery. We stayed up there for atleast two weeks I believe until we got power in Lumberton. That is when we ventured back to out home. The worst was over now. I\'m not sure what happened in Lumberton when I left and I don\'t want to know. I do know this though, I never want to experience a hurricane this Katrine again.