My wife and I are both in our seventies. When our daughter called on Friday saying she and her husband and son were leaving that afternoon for a hotel in Jackson, Miss where the family always stays we said we would wait a little longer to watch the progress of the storm and decide if we would leave. She said she would hold a room for us. I first gased up the car. The lines were already staring at the gas stations. As we had done the year before, I decided to wait and leave if needed in the early morining hours on Sunday. On Saturday we continued to monitor the progress of the storm on the TV and I picked up loose items in the yard and patio. My wife packed up treasured pictures to take with us. We had our little file of important papers ready to grap at a moments notice. Saturday afternoon I packed up the car with our dog\'s things as well as ours. We packed as usual for a three day stay before coming back home. When we left at four AM the streets were fairly empty. We crossed the causeway to catch I-12 and there the traffic became steady but it moved. We made it to Jackson in 3 hrs.\r\nSunday evening it bacame clear that New Orleans was in for a rough ride. Monday morning we thought along with everyone that we had missed the worse of it. Then came the reports of the leve breaks. We were horrified by what we saw on TV. It became clear we would not be able to return home to Terrytown anytime soon. We ended up being lucky the hotel we were stahying in had back up generators as Jackson ended up getting hit with the winds and loosing power. That made it difficult to get gas as the pumps were not working. After a week and not being sure about getting back home we decided to drive to my sister\'s home in Atlanta, Ga. When we got there she had her sister-in-law and husband from Meteraie there and we ended up later going up in the mountains to a relative\'s cabin. It would be three weeks before we found out it was safe to return home. With all the reports of looting and burning (the Oakwood shoping center not far from our home) we were unsure of what we would fine. Our street looked like it took some very strong winds but it was spared any flooding. We had a hole in our roof as a wind turbine blew off. Our fences were down and the patio cover was torn up but we were lucky the inside was fine. The power was back on but the refrigerator which our daughter had gotten to earlier and emptied still smelled aweful but with work we were able to save it. A neighbor came and got up on our roof and covered the hole before Rita came. It rained and blew for Rita but we were OK. We just felt so blessed compared to those across the river who were flooded. It was erie for a few weeks as we were the first ones on our block to return. It was also difficult because even weeks after the storm it was difficult to find places open to buy what we needed. It was some time before we could find a place to eat out open. Even months later we still feel like part of our heart was pulled out by Katrina. I don\'t think anyone will ever competely get over it.