I know it is easy for everyone to watch the news and criticize people’s decisions when it comes to natural disasters, especially hurricanes since they are tracked. It is very hard to live through these experiences though. Even though hurricanes are tracked, people have to make very quick decisions which aren’t as easy as you would think.
Hurricane Katrina – August 29, 2005
At the time Hurricane Katrina was in the Gulf of Mexico, my husband and I lived in Marrero, LA. We also owned a business in Marrero, LA. which employed 23 people at the time. From diligently watching the news, all decisions must be made at the very last minute. Besides food and water flying off the shelves in all of the grocery stores, it is business as usual until about 3-4 days from landfall. It takes the government until then to really start ordering evacuations. They just can’t shut down the entire gulf coast (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL). It is too many people and chaos would ensue.
When Hurricane Katrina made a slight turn to the left, we knew we were in trouble. This was about 4 days out. We had already had 23 hotel reservations in Sugarland, TX for our employees and their families. We made sure that our families had somewhere to go as well. My side of the family all headed east to Alabama; the opposite direction of us. We had been through this drill before many times as Gulf Coast residents, even though we rarely had to put the plan into action. Of course, some family and some employees refused to leave their homes.
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, Mississippi took the direct hit. After the eye crossed land, the push of water from Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana caused the levees to break, and devastation ensued. This is when all hell broke loose. As we all watched CNN, we prayed for the ones that did not evacuate. There were barricades placed to not let anyone else back in, as they were trying to rescue and get people out.
At the time of Hurricane Katrina, I was 27 years old. Hurricane Katrina was the very first hurricane where we left the city. I packed a weekend bag expecting to be back home in a few days at the most.
Our house had one foot of water in it, as well as, substantial roof damage. The flood water in our house was rainwater due to the evacuation of the pump workers. They turned off the pumps, so there was nothing removing the rainwater. We had a generator which ran for four weeks until the power came back on in our home.
Our business, which is one mile from our home, had zero damage. The building even got electricity back a couple of days later.
One week after Hurricane Katrina, we still had employees and their families in hotel rooms. We knew that our company would go under if we didn’t start to work. We put our contingency plan in action and started operating out of a vendors business in Sugarland, TX. It was my task to find apartments for everyone, which I did. We could not return to work in Marrero, LA to conduct business since nothing in the city was operational yet. There were no grocery stores or gas stations open. The trucking companies were not functional either. We had no choice, but to operate out of Sugarland, TX if we did not want to the business to go under. Our business is in the oil and gas sector, and we sell to international companies. We had deadlines to make, and some of our customers had no clue of the disaster that Hurricane Katrina caused. Communication is always key, but trying to make sure that everyone understands that the company has been uprooted is not easy. We were lucky to have a contingency plan in place because it saved our company.
We were blessed to have a local Texas church donate furniture to our employees which we were very thankful for! We were able to get 23 one bedroom apartments which our company paid the rent for. It was very crowded though! Some of the employees’ families were not very fortunate with the storm, so many of the apartments were housing more family members than just our employee’s family. Even though we were all safe and lucky, the stress is so extreme that there are no words to explain it. We were trying to keep our company and jobs afloat while questions about our homes were multiplying. There were many kids of all ages that were ripped from their daily routines. Some of our employees were not able to have their spouses come with them due to their spouse's job requirements. Some of our employee’s spouses were forced to quit their jobs. When your routine is changed, on top of being ripped from the only home you have ever known, the stress is unbelievable!
A week after Hurricane Katrina hit, the men bunked up in cars and drove back to try to get to our business and homes. They were able to get through the blockade, but they were told that they were on their own from a safety standpoint. Cops informed them that there were plenty of looters, so they needed to be aware of their surroundings and beware. They were also told that they had to be out by sunset. They went from house to house and removed carpet and anything else they could. Mold was already growing up the walls in many homes. They also had a trucker follow them into the city, so they could go to work and get whatever product they could out of the warehouse. They also drove as many of their spouse's vehicles back to Sugarland. (They were smart enough to load the back of a pickup truck with full gas cans, as there was not any gas available anywhere near New Orleans.) When you evacuate, you usually take one car as traffic is always a nightmare. When the men got back from their 24-hour excursion, we were all so excited to see that they made it back safe!
We were all safe in Sugarland and were just patiently waiting while working, for New Orleans to reopen!
Hurricane Rita – September 26, 2005
Sounds like the story is over, but it is not! Less than a month after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita was making it’s way to Houston. Unfortunately, we were under a forced evacuation from our apartments. We tried to make the trek to Dallas, but we couldn’t get there due to traffic. So, we all headed back to New Orleans. My husband and I went back to our house which did not have carpet but did have a tarped roof. Staying in our 3 bedroom house was us, my parents, and 3 of our employee's families. It was still very much a ghost town. You had to stand in line for groceries, and when it was your turn, you were escorted by armed army men down three aisles only. There were limits as to how much you could buy as well. Our poor city was trying really hard, but it still wasn’t completely operational, so we couldn’t stay and work from there. So once Hurricane Rita passed, we headed back to our Sugarland apartments.
We were not able to come home and open work until after Thanksgiving. It was a long road, but we were part of the lucky ones because we made it! We all lived through Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, and our business survived! I am very grateful for that every day!