August 29, 2016
This is the eleventh anniversary of the notorious storm, Hurricane Katrina, that resulted in the citywide flooding of the City of New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It was the worst natural disaster in American History.
I was there for a visit that weekend, because the weather was expected to be normal. A storm in the Gulf seemed to be heading toward Florida, and not New Orleans. By Saturday morning everything changed. The lull was over, and it appeared that the storm had changed course, and the city was due for a direct, and serious hit. Windows were boarded up, as most businesses in the French Quarter are, for every approaching hurricane.
By Saturday night, Bourbon Street was alive, but not as busy or crowded as usual. The tourists were enjoying their visit, even with the constant warnings of an approaching storm. I decided to leave town the next morning.
By Sunday morning as I arrived at the Airport, the headline on the Times Picayune predicted a final warning - the Hurricane was taking aim at the City. And it did. I was on one of the last planes to leave pre-Katrina New Orleans. As I looked out my window, I was stunned to see the packed highways with bumper-to-bumper traffic of people fleeing New Orleans, perhaps for the last time. Some never came back.
An example of the flood damage is shown in the kitchen of my nephew Michael's home. It was only a few blocks from one of the breached levees, and the house spent weeks under water. He was a Fire Department Lieutenant and stayed with his Engine and Firemen on an elevated expressway to protect it all during the flood. There was nowhere else to go. He lived in a FEMA trailer for more than a year. His house was later torn down.