Katrina: Life a Year Later

I wrote the following days after Hurricane Katrina hit our lives. I think it's still important enough to republish. Sadly, I was more optimistic then than I am today.

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Greetings, This is a relatively quick note to let you know that we are fine. My 86 year old mother, my dog, and I evacuated from the New Orleans area on Sunday morning. We left at 5 am and wound up in Chicago at 8:30 at night. The biggest irony was that this is my week of vacation and we were going to spend it in Pass Christian, MS, just about where Katrina hit landfall. The area was underwater for awhile and I can only assume that we would not have survived had we gone there. Initially, we were going to wait out the storm in Oxford, MS, about 2 hours south of Memphis. At a Sunday 10:30 am press conference, the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, told citizens to mandatory evacuate and not to return for five days. That was enough for us; we called a good friend in Chicago and found out how long it would take to get there. We are now safe and comfortable and plan to go to Stevens Point for the next month or two while we try to regain control. To be honest, this is still beyond my comprehension. I’m sure once I actually know more about my apartment, I’ll either break down or know how to handle this. Right now, you just don’t know… Although I can assure you that this means we will not try to rebuild our lives in Louisiana. Instead, to me, my thoughts are—at least at this moment—we will remain in the Midwest and try to rebuild our lives here. We have only been there a little over a year and have not really put down roots, so I’d prefer to be where we really do belong (in spite of the cold weather up North!). How you can help: If by chance you have access to information, I’d really appreciate you forwarding it to me. It is really, really difficult to find out details. We are assuming we are underwater, but I’d love some more knowledge. Specifically, we lived in Metairie, Jefferson Parish (county), between Cleary and Clearview on Lake Villa Dr., one block from Veterans Parkway. I’m five miles between the City proper and the Airport. I keep hoping to recognize something with the fly-over shots from the national press. Moreover, before you give those household appliances, TV sets, etc. to the Salvation Army, please consider hanging on to it for a month or two. We don’t know if we own anything anymore and may need your compassion, but I am holding out hope that at least some of our family mementos have been spared. Probably the only thing I am hoping for is that my Diploma for my Doctorate survived. BTW, we don’t have flood insurance. Again, many thanks for those of you who have tried to call us. The phones are out and access to any basic service in the NOLA area is, at best, limited. I do have access to my email accounts, mainstreet921@hotmail.com and susan.simkowski@gmail.com so feel free to touch base. I really appreciate your concern and prayers on our behalf. Keep us in your prayers. Susan M. Simkowski