In July 2005, we bought a new house on Richland Ave in Metairie, La. It was a single house with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and double garage. The house was all white with two big oak trees in our front lawn. There are 9 total in our household; My parents, 2 girls, 3 boys and 2 yorkies. Although the house was small for 7 people, we still managed to deal with the space we had. We didn\'t settle into the house until August 2005, boxes and boxes were still laying around waiting to be unpacked. Thinking that we bought a home on a high land we would be safe without flood insurance. Boy, were we wrong!\r\n August 29, 2005, Katrina made land fall. We evacuated to Lake Charles a day before Katrina landed. There we stayed with our uncle and his family. On a regular trip to Lake Charles it would take about 3 hours, it took us 8 hours to get there with the bumper to bumper traffic. Its depressing to sit and watch TV about what\'s happening to my hometown knowing there\'s nothing I can do at the moment to help. Even when I wanted to get my mind off Katrina, every channel I switched was covering the storm. I knew my house was flooded when I saw the intersection of Veterans and Clearview flooded. I will never forget that feeling for as long as I live. Everything in that house is GONE! EVERYTHING! The worst part is that its a single story home with NO FLOOD INSURANCE! All of our lost was not replaced, its a lesson to be learned.\r\n Two years after Katrina, here I am living in a FEMA trailer. The house we had to sell because there was far too many damages. FEMA gave us 2 trailers due to our big family. Now the 2 trailers are docked behind our business in Gretna, La. I\'ve been staying in this trailer for 1.5 years. Its kind of embarrassing when people ask where I live now because I do not have a place I call a home. I live in that small white FEMA trailer. I forgot what a home feels like. I forgot how a real bed feels like. I forgot how it feels to take a shower with a strong water pressure. I forgot how it feels to have running hot water all the time. Soon I\'ll have it all back, SOON!........

Citation

“[Untitled],” Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, accessed November 23, 2024, https://hurricanearchive.org/items/show/31642.

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