New Orleans

My friend lives in Lafayette which is about 2 hours west of New Orleans. I was pretty scared for her and her family before Hurricane Katrina hit because I wasn’t sure if they would be affected by the storms path or not. I wasn’t sure exactly how far away Lafayette was from New Orleans, but I knew it was fairly close. Turns out that Lafayette was barely affected by the storm itself, but they are very much affected by the aftermath of the storm. Lafayette and the small towns around it are now flooded with refugees from New Orleans. The population has doubled there!! She told me they even had to close a local Albertson’s for fear of being robbed!
Since the storm, I have not been able to contact her. Every time I call it says the phone line is busy and to call back again. I knew by then that she was most likely ok since she was in Lafayette, but I wasn’t so sure about her fiancé who is in the Air Force Guard. I knew he would have been called up to go to New Orleans and was probably there during the storm. Well I was finally able to talk to her a couple days ago when she called me. Thank God she and her family are all ok. Her fiancé was in New Orleans during the storm... and in the aftermath, as the city began to flood, he was trapped in a flooded building for a few days. My friend, not knowing whereabouts in New Orleans he was, tried calling his unit. They told her he was safe and gave her the location of where he was at. Even if she had no way of contacting him, at least she knew he was safe. Well, he was safe, but he was not at the location his unit had thought, as my friend soon found out. He was finally able to get through to her on his cell phone and it turned out that he was not where he was thought to have been. The truth was, they had no idea where he was! She called the unit back and told them where he really was, but they refused to believe her, insisting that he was at the first location they had told her. By then, I’m sure the unit was quite sick of her as she had already called numerous times at that point. Finally, since they still refused to believe where he was, she finally had him call his unit himself.
I’m just so relieved and thankful that she and her family are ok. I know one other person that lives in New Orleans, but I do not have a number to contact him even if I wanted to. I pray that he is ok…
My friend joked with me on the phone saying, “Aren’t you glad you got to see New Orleans when you did?” “Yes”, I said, “I really am, but I’ll see it again someday soon.” I had gone to visit her for New Year’s in 2004. It was my very first time in New Orleans. For some reason, I have always wanted to go to New Orleans. It seemed like a very interesting city and I was very interested and curious about its history and architecture. New Orleans did not disappoint me. I absolutely LOVED New Orleans… its culture, its architecture, its history, its food, just the oldness of it intrigued me. And, of course, the partying.
We were there during the Sugar Bowl between LSU and Oklahoma. What an amazing night that was! It was like Mardi Gras, only better. There were fans everywhere, decked out in red/white or purple/yellow, cheering on the corners or booing the opposite teams, but all in good fun. I did not personally have a favorite to win, but I figured since my friend was from LA, I might as well be an LSU fan for the night. So we went and bought some LSU shirts and cheered along with the LSU fans. I’ve never seen such hard core team spirit before that night. What a blast we had!! When I had originally planned on coming there, we were looking for hotels in the French Quarter and couldn’t figure out why everything was so expensive. We had no idea the Sugar Bowl was that week!! My time in New Orleans was definitely one of the best in my life.
Since the Hurricane that destroyed so much and battered New Orleans, I have wondered if the town would ever be the same as when I was there. Besides worrying about my friend and all the millions of people affected by Hurricane Katrina, I was also worried about the fate of New Orleans itself. What will become of this historic city? To wipe it away, would be such a terrible shame. Many polls say that the majority of people believe New Orleans cannot be repaired. I disagree… I know they will rebuild New Orleans to its former glory. Luckily, many historic sites and buildings were spared, what does that tell you? New Orleans is here to stay!