I survived hurricane Katrina. Here's my story

[Kasia]

Thank you all for your support. It was very surreal. We lost everything we owned, and then when they let people back into New Orleans, Will stayed here in an RV before they delivered our FEMA trailer, and I stayed in Meridian, MS with the kids and pets. We inherited Will's father's house in 2004 and Will wanted to sell it but I told him not to, because what if a hurricane comes, then where would we go. Little did I know how prophetic that statement was.

So for 2 years the kids and I lived there and came down some weekends and Will drove up for some weekends. I was very depressed and ended up having to take anti-depressants and that helped me out a lot. Then in July 2007 I told myself that I'd rather live in a FEMA trailer with husband, kids and all animals than in a nice roomy house without him. So I packed up the kids and pets (we didn't have THIS many back then, just one duck, one chicken and about 15 birds, a dog and cat) and moved into the FEMA trailer. Will set the RV up to be the kids TV and video game area while the FEMA trailer was "home".

We were waiting for the contractor to remodel our home, and Will paid him the whole amount in CASH, and the guy skipped town and took off with all our money. So we had to hire someone else, and spend whatever little we had left to buy furniture, appliances and such, and slowly got walls put up, tile, paint, carpets, etc. And we are still no finished. We moved into the house on New Year's Eve 2007, even though it was nowhere NEAR finished, and it STILL isn't finished.

We don't have any family here and not many friends. Our closest friend lives an hour away but it's not someone who could come and help with renovations.

And now the kids no longer live here either. But that's another LONG LONG story.

So it's just Will and myself and our birds, chickens and ducks, dogs, hedgehog and cat.

It's been a very long hard journey.

Heather, where did you live when Katrina hit.

 

[babylady4]

You need Mike Holmes......

Seriously, I am grateful you shared your experience. Nothing like that will ever happen here on that scale. We may have the occasional tornado or flood, but nothing of this magnitude.

In the grand scheme of things you lost stuff; but not people. That is what is important.

I like your neighbor's spirit!

Thank you for sharing your story with us.

 

[QuinnP]

After Katrina I c anvassed Tillamook for HurricaneHousing.org to help raise money for the survivors. I am glad you are ok.

 

[Kasia]

When Will woke us up early on Sunday, August 28th, and told us we had to evacuate, I was mad. We had just had a party for my daughter and her friends the day before and the last thing I wanted to do was pack and leave. But he turned on the news and that's when I saw the mayor urging that we evacuate.

Will told me to pack what's most important, and so I stood in my living room thinking, EVERYTHING is important, but then I said to myself, this is all material things. So I packed enough clothes for the family for a week, all the food that I made for the party, birth certificates, a few books, passports, laptop and camera. Then all the duck, bird, bunny and cat food. We only had one duck, one bird, a cat and a bunny. We were heading out to St. Louis. It took 16 hours to get there, and we got to a hotel at 4 on Monday morning and slept with the intention of getting up and moving on to Will's aunts house who lives in St. Louis. But Monday morning when we turned the TV on and saw the news, saw what happened to New Orleans, we didn't feel like leaving, so we just stayed another 2 days.

They had other families from New Orleans at the hotel, and some local nuns came to the lobby and brought the kids toys and games and snacks.

We ended up staying with Will's aunt for about 10 days, and then when we found out that the power was finally on in Meridian, MS, we headed there.

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Wow.... thank you for sharing your story.
Im so glad that the people from Michigan found you and were able to help out.
I'll have to write more later, Im pretty choked up.
God Bless you all !

 

[Kasia]

I had a lot of people make fun of my name. So I try not to go by Katrina anymore, I go by my Polish name, Kasia. I STILL get teased when I introduce myself to new people.

School started a week before for the kids, and I had bid on a couple of book bags for them on eBay. I had to email the seller and told them not to send the book bags yet because we didn't know where we would end up and when we would be in the house in Meridian. When we finall got to Meridian, I emailed them my address there and they sent a HUGE package with clothes, toys, jackets, school supplies and shoes for both my kids. Total strangers, and I only bought two book bags. The kindness of total strangers really brought tears of joy. Friends online sent us packages, clothes, gift baskets, etc. It was a very humbling experience.

 

[EweSheep]