Refugee
8.31.2005 : 01:27
I'm staying at my parent's house. They've offered to shelter me for as long as it takes. I've got very 2 pair of shorts, 2 pair of pants, 2 pair of shoes, 3 shirts, my journal, my bible, and my iPod. I am in reality a refugee. I don't think it's all that bad really. Of course I'm in a grim situation, but I am surrounded by caring friends and family that are all very sympathetic and willing to help. My prayers are with those who are still in the city.
I watched the news most of yesterday. I was beginning to think that things were going to be ok. From most of the shots I was seeing of Canal street and the quarter there was a lot of debris but not much water. I tried calling people in the NOLA area but, of course, all the phones are out. I think my phone number is out too because several people have tried to call my cell, but since it's a 504 ( New Orleans ) number I think maybe it's routed through the city. I haven't had any problems calling out though.
Elizabeth's uncle works for the power company here in Arkansas and is leaving today to go to Louisiana. He's heading to Slidell ( which is about 5 or 6 miles north of the city across the lake ) and so we gave him a set of out keys in case he may get a chance to check on our apartment. According to the news I heard this morning the bridge from Slidell to New Orleans is out.
It seems the worst is to come. I heard this morning that another levy broke close to lake pontchartrain and now 80% of the city is underwater. I saw footage from Kenner this morning and it's under 5 feet of water. This effectively means that the place that I work is ruined, and probably most of Metairie too. The Superdome, the CBD, and the French quarter have about a foot and a half but the water is rising. It will take about 2 or 3 feet of water to ruin the first floor of my apartment. And it will take about 16 feet to ruin the second floor ( but I don't think there is any danger of that ).
Another major problem that concerns me is looting. There are apparently hundreds of people on Canal street just ravaging the place. I'm assuming the quarter can't be much better. It is my solemn hope that they are only looting the businesses and not people's houses and apartments. It would be sad indeed for my stuff to survive the hurricane only to be stolen or destroyed by looters.
_Nathan
I'm staying at my parent's house. They've offered to shelter me for as long as it takes. I've got very 2 pair of shorts, 2 pair of pants, 2 pair of shoes, 3 shirts, my journal, my bible, and my iPod. I am in reality a refugee. I don't think it's all that bad really. Of course I'm in a grim situation, but I am surrounded by caring friends and family that are all very sympathetic and willing to help. My prayers are with those who are still in the city.
I watched the news most of yesterday. I was beginning to think that things were going to be ok. From most of the shots I was seeing of Canal street and the quarter there was a lot of debris but not much water. I tried calling people in the NOLA area but, of course, all the phones are out. I think my phone number is out too because several people have tried to call my cell, but since it's a 504 ( New Orleans ) number I think maybe it's routed through the city. I haven't had any problems calling out though.
Elizabeth's uncle works for the power company here in Arkansas and is leaving today to go to Louisiana. He's heading to Slidell ( which is about 5 or 6 miles north of the city across the lake ) and so we gave him a set of out keys in case he may get a chance to check on our apartment. According to the news I heard this morning the bridge from Slidell to New Orleans is out.
It seems the worst is to come. I heard this morning that another levy broke close to lake pontchartrain and now 80% of the city is underwater. I saw footage from Kenner this morning and it's under 5 feet of water. This effectively means that the place that I work is ruined, and probably most of Metairie too. The Superdome, the CBD, and the French quarter have about a foot and a half but the water is rising. It will take about 2 or 3 feet of water to ruin the first floor of my apartment. And it will take about 16 feet to ruin the second floor ( but I don't think there is any danger of that ).
Another major problem that concerns me is looting. There are apparently hundreds of people on Canal street just ravaging the place. I'm assuming the quarter can't be much better. It is my solemn hope that they are only looting the businesses and not people's houses and apartments. It would be sad indeed for my stuff to survive the hurricane only to be stolen or destroyed by looters.
_Nathan
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There is much to tell..
8.29.2005 : 22:13
I haven't written in a long time. I still don't have the internet at my house and I'm usually too busy at work to use it there ( plus I think they frown on that ). So sit back and let me catch you up.
I did eventually find an apartment. Most of you I think know the story but for those that don't we stumble across a really nice town house apartment ( has an upstairs / downstairs ) at 1416 Bourbon Street #2. You can find it at google maps. The full address is
1416 Bourbon Street #2
New Orleans, LA 70116
We moved in on Aug 4th with help from Elizabeth's parents and one very nice gentleman from the church. So, for the past few weeks we have been settling nicely by meeting our neighbors, getting drivers licenses, finding good places to shop and hang out, taking Memphis to the vet, going to work, and paying lots of taxes. Actually the past few months have been fairly difficult. Along with the stress of moving and running low on money we've had to deal with the hidden costs of becoming a resident of New Orleans. Apparently when you change the tag ( license plate ) on your car in Louisiana they ever so casually charge you sales tax on the vehicle. Did you say sales tax? Yeah, sales tax. Did I buy the car in Louisiana? No. Does Louisiana have anything to do with the purchase of my car? No. But they're going to charge me sales tax depending on the parish I live in ( which is Orleans parish where sales tax is 9%) for the blue book price of my car. So in short it's going to cost me $500 to put a license plate on my car. There was also the unfortunate event that Memphis got sick and we had to take him to the Vet and pay for medication. Also ( like everybody else ) I've been dealing with soaring gas prices.
Now I've been taking this in stride. I know eventually I'll get a paycheck and then we'll be ok. And eventually Elizabeth will get a job and then we'll have plenty of money. And then the Hurricane came....
On Friday when I left work at 6:00pm I heard it mention by my co-workers that we may want to watch the storm to see what it does. But in fine New Orleans tradition no one was really that worried because hurricanes don't really ever hit New Orleans. I had a meeting Saturday morning at 7:30 back at the store and people jokingly played it off saying, "don't worry about the storm, it won't come here". Well so we went to work and forgot about the whole thing for a few hours. By lunch the news was giving a serious prediction that it would hit New Orleans so I made plans to go weather it did or didn't. I called my parent's in Searcy and told them to expect us and I called Elizabeth and told her to pack some clothes for me. By 2:00pm management had decided that we were closing the store early and we should secure the computer equipment. So from 2:00 to 4:00 I and the graphics department un-hooked the workstations and put the up on the counters, wrapped all the video equipment in plastic, put trash bags over everything, and pulled all the SCSI drives out of the servers and secures them in cases to be taken in the evacuation. I got a ride and made it home by 5:00pm. At this point the storm was a category 3 and mayor Nagin was on the TV saying that there is a voluntary evacuation and discussed the routes on how to get out of the city. I didn't really think the storm was that serious. I knew some damage would occur so Liz and I moved our important things upstairs and taped the windows and secured everything outside. I was sure things would get blown around and very wet but that most of my possessions would be alright and that I would be back in a few day. So we packed the car and headed out of the city around 7:00pm.
We knew being so low on money that we would have to drive through the night. Traffic was really not bad considering how many people were evacuating. I did get an eerie feeling when I saw all 6 lanes of I-55 heading North. I let Liz drive at 11:00 pm and we took a nap at 12:00, but by 1:00am after drinking 2 cans of Red Bull I was back in the drivers seat. At 6:00am we pulled into Searcy and I sat down with a cup of coffee to watch the latest news. We were horrified to hear that it has become a category 5 storm and that there is no way that it would miss New Orleans. We feared the worse as we live about 4 or 5 blocks from the Mississippi river. My mind started racing at the thought of having nothing except what was in my backpack. I managed to get a shower and head to church with my parents for some much needed prayer.
Elizabeth of course got some sleep and I joined her after I got home. I was up in the afternoon but found no comfort in the predictions on the news channels as to what was about to happen to my new residence. I did make a lot of phone calls and as far as I know all my friends made it out of the city.
This morning I came with Jared to class to see some of my old teachers and to write this. I'll continue to update as I know anything, but for now I am safe and my friends and family are safe and we can only pray that God will be merciful.
_Nathan
I haven't written in a long time. I still don't have the internet at my house and I'm usually too busy at work to use it there ( plus I think they frown on that ). So sit back and let me catch you up.
I did eventually find an apartment. Most of you I think know the story but for those that don't we stumble across a really nice town house apartment ( has an upstairs / downstairs ) at 1416 Bourbon Street #2. You can find it at google maps. The full address is
1416 Bourbon Street #2
New Orleans, LA 70116
We moved in on Aug 4th with help from Elizabeth's parents and one very nice gentleman from the church. So, for the past few weeks we have been settling nicely by meeting our neighbors, getting drivers licenses, finding good places to shop and hang out, taking Memphis to the vet, going to work, and paying lots of taxes. Actually the past few months have been fairly difficult. Along with the stress of moving and running low on money we've had to deal with the hidden costs of becoming a resident of New Orleans. Apparently when you change the tag ( license plate ) on your car in Louisiana they ever so casually charge you sales tax on the vehicle. Did you say sales tax? Yeah, sales tax. Did I buy the car in Louisiana? No. Does Louisiana have anything to do with the purchase of my car? No. But they're going to charge me sales tax depending on the parish I live in ( which is Orleans parish where sales tax is 9%) for the blue book price of my car. So in short it's going to cost me $500 to put a license plate on my car. There was also the unfortunate event that Memphis got sick and we had to take him to the Vet and pay for medication. Also ( like everybody else ) I've been dealing with soaring gas prices.
Now I've been taking this in stride. I know eventually I'll get a paycheck and then we'll be ok. And eventually Elizabeth will get a job and then we'll have plenty of money. And then the Hurricane came....
On Friday when I left work at 6:00pm I heard it mention by my co-workers that we may want to watch the storm to see what it does. But in fine New Orleans tradition no one was really that worried because hurricanes don't really ever hit New Orleans. I had a meeting Saturday morning at 7:30 back at the store and people jokingly played it off saying, "don't worry about the storm, it won't come here". Well so we went to work and forgot about the whole thing for a few hours. By lunch the news was giving a serious prediction that it would hit New Orleans so I made plans to go weather it did or didn't. I called my parent's in Searcy and told them to expect us and I called Elizabeth and told her to pack some clothes for me. By 2:00pm management had decided that we were closing the store early and we should secure the computer equipment. So from 2:00 to 4:00 I and the graphics department un-hooked the workstations and put the up on the counters, wrapped all the video equipment in plastic, put trash bags over everything, and pulled all the SCSI drives out of the servers and secures them in cases to be taken in the evacuation. I got a ride and made it home by 5:00pm. At this point the storm was a category 3 and mayor Nagin was on the TV saying that there is a voluntary evacuation and discussed the routes on how to get out of the city. I didn't really think the storm was that serious. I knew some damage would occur so Liz and I moved our important things upstairs and taped the windows and secured everything outside. I was sure things would get blown around and very wet but that most of my possessions would be alright and that I would be back in a few day. So we packed the car and headed out of the city around 7:00pm.
We knew being so low on money that we would have to drive through the night. Traffic was really not bad considering how many people were evacuating. I did get an eerie feeling when I saw all 6 lanes of I-55 heading North. I let Liz drive at 11:00 pm and we took a nap at 12:00, but by 1:00am after drinking 2 cans of Red Bull I was back in the drivers seat. At 6:00am we pulled into Searcy and I sat down with a cup of coffee to watch the latest news. We were horrified to hear that it has become a category 5 storm and that there is no way that it would miss New Orleans. We feared the worse as we live about 4 or 5 blocks from the Mississippi river. My mind started racing at the thought of having nothing except what was in my backpack. I managed to get a shower and head to church with my parents for some much needed prayer.
Elizabeth of course got some sleep and I joined her after I got home. I was up in the afternoon but found no comfort in the predictions on the news channels as to what was about to happen to my new residence. I did make a lot of phone calls and as far as I know all my friends made it out of the city.
This morning I came with Jared to class to see some of my old teachers and to write this. I'll continue to update as I know anything, but for now I am safe and my friends and family are safe and we can only pray that God will be merciful.
_Nathan