Katrina beat us up, but we are alive

[FanTC]

I typed this hastily upon arriving in Missouri.
Not alot has changed since.

The night before the storm, we sat watching and waiting on the storm and powr outages that we coastians tend to get occasionally.
I sat there smoking dope and mentally strenthening myself for the typical evacuation, followed by a day or 2 of no power. I was talking on ICQ to karla and hermit and Lowry and readying myself and stood sure that we would ride it out at home, as our place was stucco and block and had stood Camille in 69 and prolly many before and after her wrath.
Well, as Katrina drew closer the evac orders were more and more stern and I watched as the bitch got bigger and badder, yet still was only going to graze us. Steve called and said that his girlfriends dad had demanded that we come up to the country to ride it with them. I declined the offer, believing that we'd be fine, yet changed my mind when the storm drew closer, fearing the damage we'd sustain from the massive trees that grew in our yard. I called back and my friend had decided to pull his invite, but I told him I was coming up there and if it was a problem I'd just make him the first pre storm casualty..
We left a couple of hours before the deadline to get out, driving the 20 or so miles north into the boonies in 50 -60 mph winds, trees and stuff beginning to fly thru the air.
That night we waited on the storm sitting out on the porch and smoking dope as we watched the winds increase and the proverbial shit hit the fan.
The winds had kicked up to about 120 or so and I talked briefly on the phone, assured that everything was gonna be just hunky friggin dory.
Several bowls later, the storm tore us up out there too, killing power and we watched trees snapping and dropping around us until things slacked off many hours later.
The old man whose house we were at headed outside with the wind still cranking about 70 and started gathering up pieces of his roof...mainly the crown molding from the roof and told me to grab a ladder. In the killer winds, the old man and I climbed up on the roof and patched it as we were being blown like theres no tomorrow and pelted with horizontal rain. I was blown off the roof twice, but we got the thing patched and stopped the flood in the kitchen.
Several hours later, the storm was over to our knowledge and the country folks were out starting to clear trees and shit off roads to make travel easier, or rather possible. The old man and I rode to Gulfport to find his son that was MIA. We got to his neighborhood and the sheer devestation there and the whole route to the area simply floored me. That was when the tears began.
We found people wandering the streets, wading water, and looking terribly lost and confused and tried to get info from them, but the shock had set in and everyone was quite numbed.
We got to the old mans sons house after hiking miles thru fallen trees and power lines and passed many bodies on the roads in ditches and some in trees and scattered body parts littering the area too. The house was totalled, mud and water filling every room, and no signs of life anywhere. The old man nearly lost his mind right there but said we were going to prowl around and hunt other places. As we headed back to his truck we came upon a house that had been simply shifted off it's foundation and moved about 50 feet down the road. That's when the stench hit...that unforgettable smell of death.
There was an old man and other people trying to get in the shifted house so we stopped to assist them in any way we could. They were looking for the old ladies that lived in the house. After a half hour I was able to squeeze thru a busted window and pull one out. She had apparently drowned in the flood waters. We helped get her body out and in a decent spot to await the crews collecting the dead.
That night we slept in the heat, 98 degrees with 100% humidity and zero circulation of air. The old guy had a gas grill and pulled out a roast and sliced it to grill meat to eat with the crackers we had. The gas ran out before cooking was complete, blood ran out the side of my mouth as I ate. I ignored it and chewed it the best I could, that was the first food I had had in the two days we had been out there, and I was starving.
Shortly before sundown, Carol and I and Sugar and Itty loaded up and tried to get back home to survey damages at our house. We made the 20 mile or so trip in a matter of a couple of hours, winding off the road to avoid the trees and poles and power lines and general debris.
In Long Beach, we noticed that every crossing over the railroad tracks was guarded by police. I stopped to ask if we could go check our house and was informed that the police had no say, that the entire coast was under martial law and total control of the US military. Choppers and military transports roared through the sky and down what roads were passable, so we rode around a while looking at what was once the most glorious place on the planet to live....now in total devestation!