Hurricane Katrina Damage
Damage done to Angie and Jimmy Moreau's home by Hurricane Katrina.
I can honestly say that Hurricane Katrina was one of the scariest things my family and I have ever been though. We evacuated, so we weren't scared for our personal safety but we were scared about many other things: "Are our families alright?", "Did our pets survive?", "Do we still have a home?", "When will we see home again?", and a million other thoughts went through our heads.
Two days before the storm hit, I was not worried about it hitting us at all, even though it was heading straight for us. Jimmy, my husband, who was on a tug boat at the time was freaking out, but I was as calm as could be. We had been told many times a hurricane might hit and they never did so I assumed this would be another close call. Since Jimmy was freaking out I agreed to get out of the trailer and go stay at a friend's who lived in a house the next town over -- which didn't ease Jimmy’s mind at all.
I honestly wanted to stay home. I was so sure the hurricane wouldn't hit that I only took the clothes on my back and the kids only had the clothes on their backs figuring I could go back home the next day and get more (since it wasn't coming for two more days). I locked my cat and new puppy in the laundry room with enough food and water to last a few days in case I had to stay at my friend's until the threat was over. I really didn't put much effort or thought into any evacuation plans. I did turn the electric off and grabbed our important papers because Jimmy told me to. We hung out that night as if it were just a day away from home. My main concern was I was without internet all night haha.
Jimmy called and woke me up early the next morning and was asking me what I was planning on doing. I was mad because it was so early and he was freaking out on me and I just wanted to go back home. He was asking me if we were evacuating up north and to hurry up and go and I kept telling him to wait until I watched the weather on TV, that’s when he said he'd been watching the weather all night and the hurricane was heading straight toward us at full speed. I believe at that point it was 175 miles per hour and a category 5.
I was like oh crap and woke my friend up telling him we had to leave and quick. My friend agreed we needed to go and we jumped in the car and headed up north; my friend, my brother in-law Tommy, my four kids, and myself. Jimmy couldn't get home because the canals were closed so the tug that he was on had to tie down in Harvey Canal in the New Orleans area. We didn't spend a whole lot of time in traffic on the interstate like a lot of people did -- we were lucky. We didn't stop driving until we reached Tallulah, Louisiana, and were lucky again to find a vacant hotel room. People were saying we wouldn't find one until we reached Arkansas, which was still hours away from us. I called everyone I could think of that day and found out my mom, my sister, my neighbors, and a few others were staying behind. I wasn't too worried at that point. I was worried about Jimmy being tied down on a boat right where the hurricane was said to be hitting. But above all I was okay. I still for some odd reason believed that it was going to shift to the east and hit Florida like always.
The morning the storm hit I was freaking out, the reality finally setting in. Watching the news was terrifying. But what was worse was that my cell phone wouldn't work; no cell phone would work. I couldn't call Jimmy, I couldn't call my mom, I couldn't call anyone, so I didn't know if they were okay. I kept seeing on the news how bad New Orleans was hit and kept thinking, "Oh my god, are my mom and husband okay?" Sometime during that day I received a text message from Jimmy saying he was okay. I was so relived! I just wanted to go home after that but everyone kept saying I couldn't because the roads were closed. We spent two more nights in the hotel, still not able to get in touch with my mom or anyone else in my family.
Jimmy and I kept in touch by text message. He told me that he was finally getting off the tug boat and to meet him in Port Barry, Louisiana, at a campground because we were going to stay in a tent for a while. One day I finally got a text message from my Aunt Becky saying everyone in my family was okay and that my mom was fine. After I got that message I just broke down and cried like a baby because it was the greatest news I had ever heard in my life. We stayed at the campground in a tent for a few days.
Then Jimmy's boss needed him in New Iberia, Louisiana, for work so we planned on staying in the hotel with him. After we got there we got word from people in our town saying the roads were open again and we went home in a hurry to make sure our pets survived and to see how bad our house was. First we stopped by my friend's house and checked out his damage. We asked him to keep the kids while we went to our house thinking it might be too much for them to handle if the pets were dead inside. When we got to our home a huge tree had landed on it blocking our way to the front door. I stood stunned as my neighbor came running out of her house crying saying it was so horrible and how sorry she was about our house getting crushed by this huge tree. But I wasn't worried about the tree, I was really thankful we had no water damage and that when we went inside my pets were okay. The hole in our roof was about 7 foot by 5 foot long and Jimmy tarped it before we left for New Iberia again, this time with the pets. I wasn't really upset about the damage, just honestly thanking God that everyone I knew was okay.
We didn't stay home because we didn't have electricity for another few weeks. Jimmy and my friend Jerry stayed in New Iberia working and I went to Houston, Texas, with the kids to stay in an apartment that Jimmy's boss rented for us. I just wanted to go home the whole time. It was so emotionally stressful that I cried the whole time. When a friend from my town told me she had lights it was again a huge weight lifted off my back and I called Jimmy and told him I wanted to go home. We went home a few days later and a day or two after that we had lights too. We were able to get our insurance money pretty quickly and a friend fixed our roof for pretty cheap so we were really lucky. It was indeed a stressful and terrifying ordeal for that month and a half, but we survived Hurricane Katrina.
From my experience I can say one thing, if a hurricane is heading this way again I'm not playing around, I am evacuating right away and bringing my pets!
Written by Angela Mitchell Moreau, July 2006, in Lacombe, LouisianaBy Tori Moreau
"Wow!", the hurricane is so bad. It was a bad year to happen in. I missed half the school year. Which was unpleasant. The hurricane made our tree house come down and made a bigger tree come down in our house. We got a dog and a cat and we still have the cat but we gave the dog away because he pooped too much and the hotel we stayed in was a no pets place. We had to give him away, at least we gave him to a nice family that would care about him as much as we did. The hurricane was as bad as Betsy but a little worse. Betsy was a three hurricane and Katrina was a five. The Hurricane was so bad.
By Tabetha Moreau
The hurricane was hitting our way. I went to an apartment. When I got back it was one tree. We did not have electricity. We were worried about it but it was alright. I hope it never happens again.
By Travis Moreau
The hurricane was very scary. I thought my puppy Rascal was dead. It hit our house hard. When I first saw our house there was a big tree in it. I was scared. Tracie was crying. We found my puppy stuck in wires when we got home. We got rid of my puppy. I was sad. I hope it never happens again.