I was born and raised in New Orleans; I actually was born in Memorial medical center on Napoleon Avenue which held about 40 dead bodies and was completely under water. I am a junkie when it comes to my city and its heritage. My fiancé is from Houston, Texas; I literally try everyday to explain to him my complete and absolute love for my city, I never get through to him. It’s like my dad always said, “No one will ever know why or how we love this city so much until they have lived here or grew up here.” They did not make that bumper sticker “New Orleans, proud to call it home” for nothing. Hurricanes are nothing new to New Orleans. We have always known “it” would one day come and get us, I just never thought it would actually, literally, happen. Well, it did. To my amazement it did. I could not believe it happened. \r\n My fiancé works for Copeland’s as a manager. He was scheduled to work the day shift on the Saturday before the storm hit. Of course, being from New Orleans and knowing what this storm could do, I packed up my belongings and headed to his house to start packing up his things. Copeland’s has a rule that the store can not close until 10 hours before the storm hits, which in my opinion by that time it is too late. So, I waited and waited for him to get off of work so we could evacuate to Memphis, Tennessee. My uncle teaches up there and that is where we evacuate to every time. Finally, at 10 pm I got a call from my fiancé that he was heading home from work because all of the employees called and said they were evacuating and they did not have any workers to keep the store open. I was so relieved. I could tell him till I was blue in the face that we had to leave, he does not understand, he is not from here. He had no idea the destruction this hurricane could do to our city. I packed us up for a 3 day trip to Memphis. We placed everything up high just in case the water came in the house. I grabbed all of the wedding things I bought, my cats, and we left. \r\n It took us about 6 hours to get there. It was a tiring journey due to the fact that I was up the night before all worried about the storm and what could happen and Mikey had worked hard all day. We took turns driving, trying to keep each other awake. The roads were clear and it was a smooth, quiet, ride from there. We got to Memphis and crashed. The next day was sort of like any other evacuation. We got up, went shopping and visited Elvis’ house. I even ran into one of my friends from LSU. We talked about when we were heading back and normal conversation after evacuating since we have done it before. We have done it so many times; it felt like just another scare. \r\n I woke up as the storm was coming ashore; I think it was around 4:00am. I saw the news media getting beaten by her winds and rain. I remember thinking, “Ok, the storm is coming ashore now; we should be able to head home no later than Thursday.” The whole day we watched the news and learned of all the people stuck in the superdome. A friend of ours worked as a volunteer in the superdome. She said the people we so mean to her and they threw their trash everywhere. She asked some people to help here move some things to make more room, the response they gave her was “I ain’t fucking helping you cracker bitch; you should be the one helping me.” I was absolutely amazed when she wrote me that e-mail. How the hell can these people be so cruel? How the hell can they not want to help in this crisis? It is because they feel like they are the prisoners. I was so angry when I continued to read her e-mail. I am so glad I was not there to witness the cruelty of these African-Americans on others. I am not a racist person, but when things of this nature are said during such a difficult time, I can’t help but think angry thoughts. I was so frustrated by all that I read, that I had to stop and breathe. Once I calmed down, I went back by the television and I said to my dad, “I wonder when they are going to start looting.” I knew it was coming, it always does in a time of crisis, but the question was, when? Not three hours later, the looting begin. So, I watched the looters and the levee breaks. I could not stop thinking about how terrible this turned out to be. I found out my high school had water up to the 2nd floor. We had just built 2 brand new buildings. I tried to call everyone I could to make sure they were ok, but to no prevail. Communication was cut off and life as I once knew it had changed. \r\n Weeks passed and I started to get phone calls, everyone was calling and asking how everyone made out. I found out through a friend that our house was fine, just wind damage and our pool was black, but other than that, no water. I felt so blessed and all I could think of was, “when can I go home?” Two weeks after the storm hit, Jefferson Parish let the residence in for only 4 days to collect personal belongs and more clothes. Once we got back home, I could not believe what I saw. It looked as though we were attacked by a bomb or we were caught in a war. Trees were everywhere, telephone poles were snapped in half, helicopters would patrol the area, and they had the military in the streets with huge guns telling you where to go. I felt like I was in Iraq. We first went to my fiancés house to clean out his refrigerator and gather more clothes, etc. The smell that came out of his house when we opened the doors will haunt me forever. It was the foulest odor I have ever smelled in my entire life. Rotten eggs, milk, cheese, what used to be a frozen turkey, you name it and it was in his refrigerator. I cleaned it out wearing gloves and a t-shirt tied around my face so I would not asphyxiate. The heat was unbearable. I had sweat dripping down my face with a sheet covering my mouth and nose. I had to go outside every 10 minutes to breathe. We then left and cleaned out my grandpa’s refrigerator, and finally came to my house to clean out our 3 refrigerators. By the time we got to my house, I was immune to the smell. We were then asked to leave for a month. They said they would let us know when we were allowed back. We got back in our car and drove the 6 hours back to Memphis. So….we continued to wait. \r\nI then grew concerned about school. I am getting married in November of 2006. I have a set plan for my life up until that time. I am going to graduate in May, get a job, get married, and live on. Well, once the hurricane hit, I did not know what I was going to do about school. I had to graduate in May, there was just no if’s, an’s, or but’s about it. I had to graduate. So let’s just say I got cranky and mean. I could not believe this was happening. There is nothing I did to deserve this. But then, oh thank you Lord, online classes were offered and my life did not suck anymore. Shame on me for worrying about school, others did not have homes to return to. Some lost everything, including family members and here I am bitching about school. My best friend is in nursing school and she told me that one of her teachers lost 16 family member and some are still missing. I could not believe how lucky I was. \r\nAs the month passed, we finally got to head back home. We had all of our cars up in Memphis, so we drove all the cars home and went inside to start cleaning. We threw away our refrigerator, after all the cleaning and hard work I did trying to restore it. It had mold all over it, it was best to just throw it out and get a new one. We had to get a new washer and dryer because ours did not work anymore, as well as a new dish washer. Little things happened to our house. Nothing was open for awhile. We would have to wait in line for 3 hours just to get fast food. We lived off of Cane’s chicken finger, fries, and bread for about a week. My fiancé is now living in Washington, D.C. due to the fact that Copeland’s is unworkable. So, every three weeks, my fiancé buys me a plane ticket to come up here and visit him. I am here until the end of October and then I will probably be back at the beginning of December. Life is so very different, everything has changed. But, everyday things are getting back to normal. My dad says a lot of things that sit and make you think. I hope one day I can take his words and really accept them. It is hard for me to do that right now, but maybe someday. He says to me everyday when I complain about how things are, “Life as we once knew it has changed.” It has, it really has. All I can say is thank goodness we are all safe and sound.\r\n\r\n\r\nBy: Jeanne Mari-Angelle Livaudais\r\nHurricane Katrina- August 29, 2005