NEW ORLEANS (Aug. 29) — By the time I arrived here from Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina hit, the Blackwater guards had settled in at the Sheraton on Canal Street. Some of them had rappelled into downtown from Blackhawk helicopters, or so they told us.
We never knew if that was actually true, or if their tale was meant to make us feel more or less secure. But what it certainly did was add to the sense that things were not yet under control. Directing me to the elevators across the lobby, the front desk clerk instructed me to turn left just past the guy with the semiautomatic rifle. Breakfast was pancakes outside at the Salvation Army truck. We were glad to have them.
The Gulf Coast, where I spent the first week after the storm, had been pummeled in ways that shocked even the most experienced hurricane hand. I was working for USA Today at the time, partnered with a colleague who’d already lost his first rental car when the surge hit his beachfront Holiday Inn in Gulfport, Miss. We had a dozen or so hurricanes between us. Still, the vistas Katrina left behind were nothing short of stunning.
In Waveland, Miss., a coastal town of 7,000, every building downtown had been reduced to rubble. Just two landmarks stood stubbornly amid the debris: the tiled steps leading to the slab from which City Hall had vanished, and the commemorative sign thanking volunteers who rebuilt the structure in 1969 after Hurricane Camille roared through. Katrina was not above cruel jokes.
NEW ORLEANS (Aug. 29) — By the time I arrived here from Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina hit, the Blackwater guards had settled in at the Sheraton on Canal Street. Some of them had rappelled into downtown from Blackhawk helicopters, or so they told us.
We never knew if that was actually true, or if their tale was meant to make us feel more or less secure. But what it certainly did was add to the sense that things were not yet under control. Directing me to the elevators across the lobby, the front desk clerk instructed me to turn left just past the guy with the semiautomatic rifle. Breakfast was pancakes outside at the Salvation Army truck. We were glad to have them.
The Gulf Coast, where I spent the first week after the storm, had been pummeled in ways that shocked even the most experienced hurricane hand. I was working for USA Today at the time, partnered with a colleague who’d already lost his first rental car when the surge hit his beachfront Holiday Inn in Gulfport, Miss. We had a dozen or so hurricanes between us. Still, the vistas Katrina left behind were nothing short of stunning.
In Waveland, Miss., a coastal town of 7,000, every building downtown had been reduced to rubble. Just two landmarks stood stubbornly amid the debris: the tiled steps leading to the slab from which City Hall had vanished, and the commemorative sign thanking volunteers who rebuilt the structure in 1969 after Hurricane Camille roared through. Katrina was not above cruel jokes.
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I rememBER HOW real it was…my frIENDS AND fAMILIES faCES,,,
WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY ….
5 YEARS AND WE ARE STILL STANDING …… I LOVE YOU NEW ORLEANS..
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I remember my parents faces not knowing if any of our family in baton rouge or patterson louisiana was safe..its a look I’ll never forget.. Have a bless day dawn
This is making me cry . But N.O. will get back where it was before Katrina hit its gonna take some time.
What a sad day that was..God Bless You Dawn.
Hey it was a sad day!! iam still praying for our state! God is good and it will get better!
I luv New Orleans it my 2nd home and I am still giving thxs to God for keeping my papaw safe throught the rought times there. And this too will raise. Never for getting what was then and whats now. N O 4 ever in my life and my heart.