Excerpts from my journal written during Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath.
This is the longest of all the excerpts:
It's pretty bad out right now: we have no power, no water and I keep hearing noises in the closet. [We have] nearly no food... excluding cake and fruit cocktail.
I suppose a little fasting isn't so bad.
The roof of a nearby apartment complex is in the road and there's tree branches and leaves everywhere.
At 8:30 a.m. this morning, the eye was over New Orleans, the landfall has dropped Katrina's category and the wind was already at 50 mph here: that's all I was able to hear before the power went out.
We don't have an FM radio that works, so I don't know how bad it's gotten since then.
It's gotten darker outside, and Leon seems to be taking everything well. There's no lightning or thunder ... errr(lightning had arced across the sky at this point)... well, no thunder, so it doesn't bother him.
I'm watching this lamppost swing back and forth. I hope it holds up.
It keeps getting darker and darker, New Orleans is only about two hours away, which means if Katrina continues on her projected path, we'll be in the eye soon.
The shaky window has been rattling quite a bit, but we've piled some stuff in front of it.
Right now, we're huddled in front of the leaky window, using the little light Katrina has allowed us. Granted, it's not the smartest idea, but it's not on the windward side.
Soon, I'll have to light some candles, much against Manon's pyrophobic wishes.
Cracking sounds can be heard outside, but it's not exactly safe to open the door to see.
Hope my parents are okay.
Manon's been working to keep my mind off the weather, suggesting I nap, read and help him with making a homemade Othello board.
The sky's been getting brighter and brighter, but the fruit cocktails are gone.
It's only 2:30 p.m. and I'm wanting to sleep the day away.
We found some flashlights and we've seen people running out to their vehicles to listen to the radio.
The rain has stopped for a bit, but there gusts are still there.
The lamppost is still standing and there's more food in the kitchen than I thought!
The wind gusts sometimes sounds like sirens or someone whistling.
There goes someone running up the street...
There's a gutter scraping down the street.. at least that's what it looks like.
It's about 4:30 p.m.and the eye has passed us, it was probably that really bright spot I saw earlier.
There's people walking and driving around, I have no idea where to.
I was able to talk to my parents and then go outside and see the damage: the roof I wrote about earlier is probably what knocked out the power, as it's laying across the power lines, what little tension the poles could give keeping it about a foot or two off the street.
The tree next to the School of Nursing building has half of it laying in the road, with other smaller tree uprooted nearby.
The wind is still going, the closet is still creaking and I would kill for some french fries, but we've bared the worst part of the storm.
All that's left is the angry bottom, the aftermath, waiting for power and water and cheering when everything open up again.
