My story.\r\n\r\nLets see. My family is the typical wait to the very last minute to do everything and anything. So naturally we were looking at the news trying to decide whether or not to evacuate. We decided as typical, to leave in night before Katrina hit. My mom and her husband decided to stay behind but my sister, her husband, my niece, my aunts, my grandparents, and I drove to Texas to stay with a family friend. It would normally take us about a 5 to 6 hour driving a straight shot west, however it took us 24 hours to drive to up Louisiana, then across to Texas then back down to Houston. My story is boring but my moms story is better. She passed away but I know her experience so I will tell it for her since she cannot.\r\n\r\nShe decided to stay in Louisiana because like many of us, she believed that the hurricane would not cause much damage. She thought the most that would happen was some typical street flooding and maybe power outages. She said she was sleeping when the Katrina hit but was woken up by extreme rain, thunder, and wind. She thought the worst was over and then the water began to rise. She said she knew she had to get out when the water was passed her knees and the fact that we lived in the and already three foot raised house had her worried. She said that the water kept raising and all they could do was swimming until they were high enough. She said that they finally found high enough ground on an onramp to the interstate. They had to stay they overnight until a bus passed and picked them up. From that bus took them to Houston where they stayed at an arena until cell phones actually started working again. I went and met her at the shelter that was created at the arena. The site was pretty sad the look at. There were cots everywhere you turned and knowing that most people like my mother had just faced the realization that there home was either gone or destroyed. Some people lost love ones well others were looking. I am grateful that my mother was safe and I got to spend a few years with here before she passed away. I still think about what she went through all the time and all of the memories that were made in the house that was destroyed. I think one of the saddest things to know are that family pictures are gone never to be seen again ☹\r\n\r\n-Diana C.\r\n