I lived in Terrytown for almost two years until Katrina. I previously had lived in various places around New orleans such as Mid-city, Carrollton, the Marigny, and the 8th Ward. I got a job as a machinist apprentice at Avondale shipyards, so me and my girlfriend moved to Terrytown. I spent nearly two years working there. Approximately one month before Katrina I had a very vivid dream about New Orleans being submerged completely underwater, even the tall buildings. It was such a vivid dream that I wrote it down in a notebook (I rarely have resorded my dreams before). I still have the notebook with the 2 page description.\r\n Once we realized Katrina was DEFINITELY going to hit New Orleans, my girlfriend made me figure out a plan for evacuating (we had no car). If it was up to me we would have stayed and I would have documented everything. My dad came and picked us up early Sunday morning. He is a coonass and has driven 18 wheelers his whole life. He knows every backroad in Louisiana. So, while the rest of New Orleans sat in bumper to bumper traffic for 10 hours just to get to Baton Rouge. My dad got us from the westbank all the way north of Zachary, LA in about 3 hours. It was a beautiful sunny day and we took a very picturesque evacuation route, passing dozens of Civil War plantation homes. \r\n My girlfriend and I lived with various members of my family for a little over a month. We decided to stay with her family in Iowa so she could continue her schooling up there. We took a train and realized her family had no sympathy for us. We had not yet received any money from FEMA and we were completely broke. We were on our own hundreds of miles from home. Luckily, the local Red Cross gave us a little money and a motel voucher. We lived out of the motel for about a month and a half. \r\n It was an amazing coincidence that a company hired by FEMA to assisst victims of Katrina and Rita was operating barely 2 blocks away from our motel room. We went and got jobs there. Our job was simple. People from Louisiana and Texas (mostly New Orleans) called us to fill out there FEMA application. Through our experiences with FEMA we knew the flaws of the application system. We understood all too well that checking \"yes\" in this box or checking \"no\" in another box meant that these people would receive NO assisstance, whether or not they truely needed or deserved it. It was difficult for me to check certain boxes at times, especially when they would begin crying on the phone (I often knew exactly where in New Orleans they lived), and the answer they gave meant they would receive no financial assisstance from a very flawed emergency program. So, there were several times I filled in the box that would ensure they would receive financial assisstance. I\'m proud that I was able to help them, even though they had no idea that I may have altered one or two of their answers for their benefit.\r\n A short time later we moved to Chicago so my girlfriend could continue her school. But later we broke up and I was on my own in a city that seemed to be opposite to New orleans in almost every way. After a 2 year stay in Chicago I decided I could not take another frigid winter, or any more rude people. I moved back home to Louisiana. It took me 2 years to get back on track. I now attend the University of New Orleans for film. I am currently working on a documentary about New Orleans.