For those members who are not from the USA, hurricane Katrina devistated New Orleans, LA, and surrounding parishes (counties) ten years ago. We were about two miles away from Interstate 35 in central Texas, one of the main evacuation routes. A local church set up an evacuee station with sandwiches, showers, and contacts with places the evacuees could stay. We helped in any way we could, with laundry, books for the children, and finding temporary homes for the evacuated pets. I still feel the pain the people felt--not knowing if they had anything to return to; not knowing if family and friends were safe; and just now knowing what the future held. If you are so inclined, take a moment to think about those who are still displaced and looking for a way home.
I've thought about those poor folks many times over the years since Katrina hit. We saw the devastation, on television, left after she'd passed through and saw the heartache she caused to so many. I can only pray that everyone has managed to move forward with their lives and are coming to terms with the tragedy and loss. Let's hope that there's never a recurrence of that dreadful day.
Needless to say we remember katrina...............maybe too well. This is what we wrote shortly after her passage: http://cappyandpegody.blogspot.com/2005/09/tolling-of-great-southern-belle.html for more stories of other storms just type hurricane into the search engine on or blog. A word of warning though they aint all happy stories...............
The Dallas/Ft. Worth area had over 25,000 of the evacuees, not counting a few thousand other people who had left well before the storm hit and had come to the area to stay with family, friends or checked into hotels and motels here. Houston had the largest number though. Almost all towns of any size had a church building or community center opened and ready for evacuees. Our youngest goes to AnimeFest over the Labor Day weekend every year, it's location is in a hotel adjacent to the main shelter near downtown Dallas. There were some less than reputable men in the shelter who made walking through downtown less than friendly but I think the majority of the people were just trying to survive under far less than perfect conditions. And the hotel was also the main staging area for search and rescue dog groups, so there were several working dogs in the hotel too. Buses and vans of the groups from around the country met up there, organized their plans and headed out for New Orleans that weekend.
I got to see New Orleans before she hit, and I really enjoyed it. I have not been back afterwards, but I have met many people that had to relocate because they had no home left. It is terrible what they have been through and are still going through.
