hurricane katrina

Now that I have time I'm going to write one letter and send it to everybody. Some of you have already heard this stuff, but a lot of you haven't heard the whole story. So here goes....
Picture if you will my home in Ocean Springs, MS, it's a normal Saturday morning. Katie (my 2 year old) is watching Barney for the billionth time, Mama and me are sitting at the table discussing who knows what and DHS (dept. of human services) calls me. They ask if I'll take a 13 year old girl that I know very well for the week-end, because the shelter has to be emptied due to the hurricane coming. I of course say sure no problem. I know this isn't going to be a big deal because my house was here for Hurricane Camille and nothing happened to it, I knew I was in good shape. I'm actually looking forward to the week end and seeing this child again.
Later on this same Saturday I get another call from DHS, this time they ask if I have room for a 15 year old boy, I tell them that I have no bed for him, but they say since it's an emergency he can sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor, so I say sure. Later I take both kids to the skating rink because I think we might lose power and the kids will be really bored later, so let them have a good time while they can. I even joke that this must be a bad storm coming since God is sending me my first boy!
After the kids are skating I get one more call from DHS about a 16 year old boy, same story, so I say sure the boys can keep each other company.
It turns out that all the kids know each other or friends of each other, I think wow this is going to be fun, so I invite one of Katie's little friends to come stay for the Hurricane she's 3.
Sunday is great, we do last minute shopping for supplies, water, batteries, food, etc.
Monday morning comes and we all get up early to see what the Hurricane is doing. We're having breakfast, laughing, taking pictures outside, just having a good time. The wind starts blowing and my backdoor is GONE!
I run through the house to my bedroom to get my purse and house papers and the water is up to my bed and my purse and papers are in the water.
Now lets recap
In my house I have my mother who has just gone through surgery after having a stoke, my good friend, myself, 2 boys, and 3 girls. That's a total of 8 people, we have 3 dogs, one of the dogs is deaf and has cancer and one of them is over 20 years old. I also have a total of 11 birds including a very large blue and gold macaw.
Back to my story
I yell for the two boys to each take one of the young girls, and we all head to my back fence, because there is no where else to go. We get over the fence and to a single wide trailer that's the highest place we can find. The boys get the babies in the mobile home, then we find a latter so us old folks can get over the fence. By the time mama gets all the birds in cages and the kids go back in forth bringing them to me on the other side of the fence, I take them in and they go back for more, I realize mama is not out of the house yet. I can't get back over the fence, so the boys go to look for her. Mama is now in water over her head and is holding on to a Macaw that she is now holding over her head.
To make a long story short we all make it into the trailer. Every person, dog and bird is safe. The next thing I know the water is up to the edge of the couch and the 2 babies are splashing in it. We sit watching the water come in higher and higher, we have to stab at the carpet and tile with a knife because it's rising off of the floor and we can't stand. The refrigerator starts to float and turn over, so we open the door and let the water fill it so it doesn't turn over.
I try to act casual like I know every thing is going to be fine, so that I don't scare the kids. I sit in the window the water is the same height inside as out watching trees fall, hoping a boat will float by, I know there's no where to go.
The boys, that I've known less they 48 hours at this point, managed to save my cell phone and a bag of pull ups. These boys saved us and what they could of mine as they watched their stuff float away. I sit trying to call for help on a phone that no longer works and at the same time I can't keep from trying knowing that I'm running my battery dead and that I won't be able to recharge it any time soon. At this point I still think it might start working.
At one point we realize that the mattress is floating so we put the 2 babies on it and they stay fairly dry. You should have heard me explain to two little girls being potty trained why it's okay to "go" in their pull ups now.
We watch our cars go under water, the water is up to the roof of our house and I'm still hoping for a boat.
The water stops rising where we are at about 3 feet. When it finally starts going down, we breath a huge sigh of relief. We then realize that we lost our shoes, our feet are all cut up and frankly we are really hungry.
It takes about 8 hours for the water to come down.
Every surface is wet, the water has gone down and we go outside. I hear a voice calling and I think I must be crazy. Finally I see someone in the house across the street, it was lower than my house, it's an eight seven year old lady calling to me because she and her son are trapped inside. We get the door open for them, we find they were on a mattress for the entire storm only inches from the ceiling. Thank goodness for floating mattresses!
We come back to our house before dark, thank goodness for a little flashlight that my aunt sent to Katie, it takes no batteries, you just shake it and it works. If this ever ends I'm buying some more.
I light a candle and put it in a window hoping someone will come by and see us. I really thought we were going to be rescued. You can't believe how I felt when about 3 hours later my good friend and foster parent to the little girl I was keeping shows up! I felt like crying from joy to see any one. They tried to take us all home with them but there was no way that they had room for all of us and the animals. We couldn't leave the animals after all we had been through together. I did let her take Katie, it was hard, you have a need to cling to each other after this kind of disaster, but there was just no way that she could stay here.
The next morning we start clearing out the house, there was just so much it was over whelming. We had no food, or water, no car to get any. Our feet stayed wet for 2 weeks. Friends started checking on us right away, bring food and water, but you have to remember we couldn't get gas, so driving over here was a gift that you wouldn't believe. If you're reading this and you were one of the people that came then you'll never know what it meant to us, and that we know how much you were doing for us.
The boys worked from morning to night dragging wet clothes and furniture out of here. They got bikes working so that they could go get us food from distribution centers that were too far away for us to walk to. They kept us entertained at night with the stories of their lives. They made us a camp in the drive way out of tarps that we lived under. DHS showed up to take the kids out of this mess about 3 days after the storm. The 13 year old girl was already getting sick and I made her leave, but my "boys" wouldn't leave. Thank God for my Boys. We worked non stop cleaning out the house for the next two weeks, we ate MRE's and flushed toilets with buckets of water. We bathed in the neighbors pool for the first week, then it got too nasty. Every morning I doctored on my hands and feet, trying to get the puss out of sores so I could walk, mama was starting to have trouble getting around, we were so tired. The boys took over and started to take care of us. Lord knows I starting to love my boys like they were born to me. I think of them leaving now and it makes me want to cry. I've never met two finer people.
Piles of my life built up in the yard. It started to stink, it was so hot. We would try to get it to the road but it was just to much. Trying to stay clean and get food was a full days work, and the cleaning just never ended. Going through pictures, trying to save all that was left of my mother's son, my great grand mothers quilts, all the things that you can never replace.
Through it all, the red cross never came, fema never came, but my friends they came. I am a blessed person. My friends took care of us, bring ice, water, clothes, shoes, dog food, peanuts for the birds, you name it they brought it. Even medicine that I needed.
My friends and family are priceless, how can I feel bad about material items? Things we needed family sent from across the country, the mail didn't exist but somehow their packages got through.
My Aunt has a warehouse in South Carolina, she got a pull trailer and came to get us. Adults, kids, dogs, and birds. She took us all. My uncle came and helped us pack. While they were packing I ran out in the yard with my prized posses ion a pillow I've had since I was 12, my mama made it for me. I was so proud that it had not gotten wet. Every night when I went to sleep it smelled so good. One dry thing.
She looked so funny when I brought it out and assured me she had plenty of pillows, but I insisted I take it, and she said okay and put it in a garbage bag for easy packing. When we got to SC the first thing I do is pull out my special pillow to sleep on. MY GOSH!!!! it smelled so bad I thought I would die! What we must have smelt like! Believe it or not we were scared to leave. It was our home, it felt like if we left, even for awhile our lives would just disappear.
People were so kind to us in SC. Every thing seemed so clean, we all just wanted to stay and never leave, yet we were all nervous about being away from our home. We all got medical treatment, people gave us clothes, I finally got shoes that fit. We bought a step-van, like a ups truck, it was the only thing big enough to get us all home in.
We are back in our house now. We have no walls and it's cold in the morning, I worry about our birds. The flies are terrible and fly paper is unheard of. I finally got some, but it was just luck. We have a hot plate we got in SC, no stove. A friend gave me a frig, another friend lets me use her car. The churches pulled out my walls and took my stuff to the road. Another church cut down my tree, that was on my roof. These days we hope for an electrician (I may have found one) and a roofer. We really work as a team. Privacy is on the honor system, no walls, not even in the bathe. My boys are still here, they work side by side with the men from the church, they tried to make me screen doors out of scraps today to keep out the critters, I wish you all could meet my boys. Katie is doing well. She wants me to tell her best friend in SC that "Katie loves her and that she'll be right back".
Katie sees her lawyer Thursday, the boys will soon be leaving, Mary is dealing poker in Indiana, there's another hurricane in the gulf.
FEMA never has come yet, I really wish I had not wrote "FEMA help" on my roof, it makes me feel foolish now. Allstate says all my damage was flood and that I don't have flood insurance.
On the other side I have the most incredible family and friends of anyone I've ever met. As I write this I have a smile on my face when I think of all of you.
Thank you, all of you.
I may not have a house right now, but I am loved. I wish I could explain how proud I am of all of you, but I just can't find the words.