I woke up Saturday, August 27, 2005 without a care in the world. I was going to start my normal routine of eating cereal and watching cartoons until my mom met me with a surprise. “Wake up and pack your things”, she said. I was confused. I asked, “What for?” She replied, “There’s a hurricane in the Gulf.” I was shocked. I didn’t know there was even the threat of a hurricane. I hadn’t even known there was one. I had just started my senior year of high school and marching in the band. Because of all the excitement, a hurricane was the last thing on my mind.
We were packed and ready to go by 4am Sunday morning. There were ten of us traveling in two cars. We started to head out of New Orleans around 5am. The highway was flooded with cars backed up for miles. It seemed as if we would never get out. It wasn’t until the city enacted its “contraflow” plan, that the cars actually started to move. We made our way to Baton Rouge by noon. There we looked for a hotel. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a place in the city whom was vacant. Luckily, my Uncle had some friends who resided in Lake Charles, LA. They offered us a place to sleep in their home.
When we got there, they welcomed us with open arms. They showed us were we would be sleeping. All of the adults had bedrooms, while the children slept in the den. Luckily, I had won the sofa after a fight with one of my cousins. My cousins and I stayed up most of the night watching television. We watched the News periodically to track the progress of Hurricane Katrina. We weren’t thinking of any damage it might do. We were just happy to get a small break from school. I was hoping we would get at least a week out of school. I had estimated we would get about three or four days off. I went to sleep that night with the scure thought that I would be back home by the end of the week. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what would happen on the next day.
The next morning of August 29, 2005, everything seemed normal as usual. I remembered it was the day Hurricane Katrina was scheduled to hit New Orleans, but I thought nothing of it. i figured it would be just as all the other hurricanes had been. There would be little to no damage, and everything would return to normal. Then the moment came that I would remember for the rest of my life. BAM!!!!! The levees had been breeched!!!! The entire city of New Orleans was covered in water. My mouth dropped from shock as I watched the news. I saw entire parts of New Orleans under water. It was as if the News had slapped me in the face. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. My mind began to cloud itself with thoughts. What happens next? Where do we go from here? What happened to my house? For the first time, in a long time, I was really scared. Scared of the of the fact that I was slowly drifting into a new and unfamiliar world. It was a nightmare that I knew I could not wake up from.
The next day we all decided where we would go. My Aunt and her family went to my Uncle’s mother’s house in Alabama. My mom decided to go to her sister’s house in Dallas with me, my sister, and my grandparents. As we left Lake Charles, the ride went smoothly. Everyone was calm. Even though I had to endure the discomfort of being surrounded by luggage, I decided to tough it out. The entire ride to six hours. Into the fourth hour, my grandfather started to get restless. He tried to order my mother to pull over for directions, for his thinking she didn’t know where she was going. We reassured him we had everything under control, but even that did not help. The overall ride was unbearable. We were cramped in a small Toyota Camry with a lot of luggage. My legs started to go numb. I thought I wouldn’t be able to take it anymore. But when I thought I would lose my mind from all of the discomfort, we finally made it to my Aunt’s home.
She happily met us in the driveway. I helped my grandparents into the house and we all sat around and talked. I talked to my cousins who were happy to see us. But I still had my mind on everything that was happening in New Orleans. I was crying on the inside. I was crying to go home. But nothing could bring me home. Nothing but time.
The next day my mom got a call from her job saying they had relocated to their Houston office. So me, my mom, and my sister packed up and started to head for Houston. The ride took four hours. We arrived at my mom’s job where she greeted everyone with tears. They all hugged each other and talked about how they would rebuild their lives and what will they do next. My mom decided to stay in Houston so she asked about housing. We were told that there was an area close by called “The Woodlands” that was very nice. The president of the company made arrangements for my mom to look at an apartment. So we left Houston and found ourselves on the road again. We made our way to The Woodlands,TX, a suburb of Houston. There I stayed for a couple of months until my high school reopened some time later.
My journey was not an exciting one, but one I will really remember. Compared to a lot of people, I had it pretty good. Everyone in my family was fine, my mom had her job, I got to graduate from my old high school, and my house had no damage. This will definitely be a good story for my kids one day.

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