Katrina You Bitch

This isn't my only entry today, I'll be updating in a few with pics from the wacky wedding Saturday night.

I copied this from NashuaTelegraph.com, only because if I link it, it won't be any good after a few days.

I've mentioned before that my friends Cheryl and Lou are from New Orleans. They've been living up here for amost 20 years, but they still have lots of family down there. The week before Hurricane Katrina hit, Lou headed down there as his mom was very ill and near death. They had to do the whole 'pull the plug' thing, and Cheryl and their daughters (ages 17 & 18) headed down. The rest is in the article below:

From Nashuatelegraph.com:

Family forced to leave it all behind

ANDREA BUSHEE
Telegraph Staff

HOLLIS - When Patricia Jackson of New Orleans arrived in New Hampshire with her three granddaughters - ages 3, 5 and 7 - she had some tough questions to answer. "They (her granddaughters) wanted to go home," she said tearfully. "I had to tell them we didn't have a home."

After surviving Hurricane Katrina, Jackson and 14 of her family members drove for three days to get to the Hollis home of her brother Louis Weysham last week. They arrived at about 12:30 Sunday morning with only the clothes on their backs and the three vehicles they drove in.

Jackson's house in east New Orleans was destroyed, as were her brother's and her daughter's homes, she said. She hasn't heard from many of her relatives and doesn't know when she will be able to go back to her home or whether she will stay there when she does go back.

She also had to leave her two dogs behind.

"If they didn't drown, they probably starved to death," she said, "That's what the kids were asking about, too - the dogs."

As if that weren't enough to deal with, Jackson and her family are also mourning the loss of her mother, Dorothy, who died of a long-term illness just days before the hurricane hit their home.

"We never even got to grieve her death," she said.

Jackson's mother died the Friday before the hurricane hit the area, and Jackson, along with many family members from New Orleans and New Hampshire, had traveled to Carriere, Miss., about two hours outside of New Orleans, to help with the funeral arrangements. They planned and grieved Friday and Saturday but had no idea the hurricane was heading in their direction until about 12:30 a.m. last Sunday, when someone called Jackson and told her to turn on the television, she said.

"We just started to get things together," she said, "The traffic was tremendous."

The family decided to ride out the storm at Jackson's niece's house in nearby Kiln, Miss. According to Jackson, the eye of the storm missed them by about five miles. The winds sounded like a freight train, she said, and trees were breaking everywhere around them.

"I don't think there was a power line left," she said. "It tore up everything. We're lucky. God was with us."

Homes around them were destroyed, but the house Jackson's family was in was not damaged at all, she said, describing the scene. When the storm was over, there were trees and power lines all over the street. Houses were in the middle of the road, and survivors could see dead bodies. Boats were washed up nearby, and sewage began to fill the area. In the three days following the storm, several nearby houses were marked with black X's to signify that the people inside them had not survived.

"It was worse than what is shown on TV," Jackson said.

Within several days, neighbors on the street began cutting the trees with chainsaws so families could leave the area. According to Jackson, the street was like an obstacle course to drive through. Her sons David and Arthur swam to nearby boats and siphoned gas out of them so the family could fill their cars; someone they knew also brought them gas in a portable tank.

The family pooled their money to get out of the area and traveled through Northern Mississippi to leave, Jackson said. They had no way of communicating with any of their other relatives in the affected area, because phone lines and cell towers were down. On their journey north, the family encountered gas shortages, stations that were charging up to $10 a gallon for gas and people fighting over gas in lines.

Many stations limited the amount of gas each person could pump, and the family ran out of gas many times. They stopped and asked to buy small portions of gas from strangers who had some stored in tanks along the way.

They also had to find alternative routes since many roads in the area were closed. It took them three days to get to New Hampshire, and one of their cars broke down on the way. A family member from New Hampshire met them in Pennsylvania with a trailer to tow the car.

When they did arrive in New Hampshire they were exhausted and still trying to process what had just happened to them and the area that most of them lived in all of their lives.

Family members say they are glad to be here, but they are also worried about the relatives they have not yet heard from. The relatives who arrived in Hollis on Sunday range in age from 3 to 72. Patricia Jackson said it took all they had to get her father to leave the area so soon after her mother died.

The funeral home where they left their mother's body was also destroyed, she said, but the family found out Sunday that employees had evacuated to northern Louisiana with her body before the storm hit.

Now that they are in the New Hampshire, the family is not sure what they will do. They have mixed emotions about going back to their homes once they are able to, but they say they already miss the cities they come from.

"It's still a shock," Jackson said. "You don't know what to think. You want to sit down and cry. As much as they said this would happen, I never thought it would."

The family spent their first day in New Hampshire in the home of Louis and Cheryl Weysham of Hollis, who were also in Mississippi with the rest of the family when the storm hit.

Cheryl Weysham took her two daughters and found a flight home out of Jackson, Miss., while Louis stayed with the rest of the family and drove north.

When Weysham arrived at home, she said, she contacted her business partner, Theresa Flynn. Flynn and her mother, Shirley, began to collect donations, along with another family friend Roland Levine, so when the rest of the family arrived they would have someplace to sleep.

They collected mattresses from Family Outfitters in Manchester, and food, clothing and many other supplies from local religious organizations and businesses, Weysham said.

By the time the family arrived, the Weysham's basement had been turned into a mini-shelter. Some of the relatives will stay there while others will be with family members in Nashua and Milford.

Cheryl Weysham's brother, John Hughes of Milford, was also able to help. In addition to helping Weysham's in-laws, he and Weysham are also waiting for their mother and stepfather to arrive from New Orleans, where they grew up.

"The last we heard they are in Texas," Hughes said, adding that his mother is "tired and stressed out."

They are also having trouble getting to New Hampshire because of gas shortages, he said.

Hughes is worried about them, as he was worried about the rest of his family while they traveled north, he said, but there was never a doubt about where the relatives would stay. He and other family members in New Hampshire wanted to help in any way they could, he added, and the housing is something they could handle right away.

Supplies, food and clothing are something that they will need help with, though, he said. They are also trying to find other families in the area who are willing to take their relatives, since their own homes will be cramped.

To donate or help, call John Hughes at 672-6631 or Cheryl Weysham at 554-6868.

Shear Paradise hair salon, 35 Lowell Road, in Hudson will also collect donations for the family.

Listening to: Gorillaz. Because you just can't hear the same song over and over and over enough.

Currently reading: "Hour Game" David Baldacci

Thinking about: Just when you think you have it bad....