Part I

Damn, almost a year since my life has taken a turn in a direction, I never imagined possible...but isn't that life? Not in a sarcastic way, but on the real.

Drawing closer to the 1 year aftermath of Katrina, broken levees, and an effed up government response, I would like to take this time to remember.

August 23, 2005

Graduation, two weeks in Puerto Rico, a new job, free time…now this is the life!!!!! I still need to pass by UNO to get some paperwork and maybe pass by Rachel’s office to holla at her; I’ll just leave work early today and handle all of this.

Damn, I forgot to call Marissa to see how she made out on her first day at FAMU. “Girl, ya’ll better watch out. I heard they have a hurricane that’s suppose to hit Florida…and you thought you were running away from evacuating, lol…oh there’s Rachel, let me call u back”

August 26, 2005

“So the anniversary reception and Vicki’s baby shower is this weekend. I just need to get one last gift and I’m straight. Ma, I’ma stay at your house this weekend. Hey, what’s up with that hurricane, now they saying it might come our way. Do you wanna evacuate? Aright then, I’ma be by your house tomorrow.”

August 27, 2005

Why is my cell phone acting up? I have to call people 7 times before it goes through. Well the anniversary party is rescheduled because of the hurricane, but I don’t know many people who are evacuating. Man, I really feel like some BBQ shrimp. I’ma go to Cheesecake Bistro ya’ll want anything.

No really, what the hell is wrong with my phone? I get to “the bistro” and I’m mean mugging this girl but I don’t know why. Oh shit!!! That’s the girl Common pulled on stage at the concert…yeah I’m hating but so what…

I get back to moms house and take a nap that turns into my mom waking me up in the morning with a frantic “Go get your grandma cause we leaving”

August 28, 2005

I think of passing by my apartment but I already over packed for the night I spent at my mom’s house; plus I knew we wouldn’t be gone that long. Before picking up my grandma I went to the gas station to fill up my tank. The gas station was more crowded than the parking lot after the club. It took forever to get to a pump and when I did it took 20 minutes to fill the tank, because of how slow the gas was pumping. On the opposite gas tank from mines was this real thugged out dude…gold teeth, blunt in his ear, wife beater, g-nikes…u know. We began talking bout the whole situation and he said, “this gonna be the big one. You know how I know? (Closes his eyes while inhaling then exhaling slowly) Cause you can smell it in the air” I chuckled cause I know he was dead serious, he chuckled cause he knew I thought he was loaded. As my pump finally finished I threw up the deuce and told him to be careful.

Grandma was already ready, she had a little bag of clothes and her little safe box. We made it back to my mom’s house and her ex-husband was there and said he was gonna follow us. We loaded up her truck and I parked my car on the sidewalk by her house…but it never floods over there so my car would be safe.

We decided to go east because EVERYONE was going to Houston. The phones were still acting up but you could still call and receive calls after a couple of tries. Conversations usually went “Oh, ya’ll decided to leave too huh? Yeah, once my mom saw how big it was she was ready to go. Naw, we probably be back on Tuesday, after it passes”

The traffic was okay and the weather was real nice. We drove with the window down most of the time. Wow, people are taking all their pets with them, cages were on the back of every other truck. Damn, we’ve been driving for 9 hours…are we there yet?

At every gas stop, gas seemed to double in price…but those were the stations that had gas available. We made it to Montgomery, and that was cool cause they had some Civil Rights spots I wanted to see. But there was no room at the inn. We used a phone book to call other hotels and they were all booked up, so we had to keep driving.

I don’t remember what time it was but we made it to Lagrange, GA, and were able to get some rooms. After confirming that my cousins had finally made it to Houston I took a shower and headed straight for the bed.

August 29, 2005

Not even worrying about the storm I made it to the lobby for a continental breakfast and a daily check of my emails.

A blank draws as I can’t remember anything that happened during this time and hearing that the levees had breeched.

August 30, 2005

Nothing prepared me for what was to come next. I turn on the television to find still pictures of New Orleans flooding. I didn’t think for a moment that my apartment was flooded, after all, stuff like that happens to other people…not me.
Still pictures turned into live coverage. It was all surreal. The images of New Orleans were identical with Iraq. People stranded. Streets in which I grew up on were unfamiliar. That wasn’t my city on this broadcast. A mix of emotions ran throughout my head.

I took my laptop and went to the lobby to find whatever I could find on the internet. Thousands of pictures weren’t enough to convince me that this had happened to New Orleans.

I then saw one picture that made the nightmare a reality. My apartment was behind a strip mall and on the corner was a Shell station. All I could see of that station was the top of the shell that stood about 15 feet high. I cried. I knew that I could no longer deny that Katrina had no direct impact on my life. Looking back on it, it was so selfish of me to cry tears over materialistic losses when I still had my life.

The days after this were chaotic. Calls to cell phones with Louisiana numbers were almost impossible to reach. We began to hear news of looting, murder, rape…basically hell on earth in New Orleans. It wasn’t uncommon to see someone walking in a daze…everything was uncertain.

September 2, 2005

It’s time to go where family is and that’s Houston. All major parts of I-10 east and west were closed so we took every back road from Lagrange, GA to Houston, TX. I saw watermelon patches and cotton fields, which made me a little uneasy because it was almost dark.

September 3, 2005

It took us two days to get to Houston and yet this would only be the beginning of our journey.