Surviving Katrina Five Years Later

Leonard Thomas, 23, cries after a SWAT team burst into the flooded home he and his family were living in on Monday,5 September 2005 in New Orleans, La. Neighbors had reported that they were squatting in the house in the wake of Hurricane Katrina but the authorities left after his family proved they owned the house. Some rescuers are not taking any more food and water to those who have decided to stay in an effort to force them out. Many people had no where to go, no means to travel or for some the fear of the abnormality of what was happening, too being homeless and forging for just the means to survive with the hope anything could be found. During and after Katrina it was utter chaos.

If one would ask anyone in New Orleans that had survived Katrina, it is forever embedded in there memories not so much with the horror, as much as with deep sorrow; for many lost loved ones or have mentioned a lost home that they had lived in for many years, too have inherited from a previous relative that no longer exists or lost keepsakes such as old photographs of family.


The first disaster was the Hurricane, but the aftermath even five years later for many in New Orleans is still a struggle with several neighborhoods still devastated such as in the ninth ward and with the US economic depression and even greater hardship. For those that died in Katrina, the death toll and homelessness is still being heavily felt in economic poverty.


The cost of live in New Orleans after Katrina one should have been a able to afford a rocket to the moon, for the cost to rent an apartment for many apartment owners felt the renter should help pay the repair bill that insurance companies either refused, canceled or payed minimum, too utilities for consumers are still paying for the recovery and ever increasing fuel costs or buy food was extremely high after people began to return to the city with many market shelves practically empty; but since Katrina with the economic depression it is beyond belief it is so expensive and continues to rise which has been many a topic of discussion.

One of the things that did hurt New Orleans worse then Katrina, was American racism towards the large African-American populace in the city; for it came filtering down that no one wanted to help them and for those oppressed prior to Katrina.


If one would ask what made people the maddest, was FEMA not doing what they should, lying among other things, the US government for all the false promises that keep coming and who could forget the FEMA trailers that caused much illness and death, that as far as passing any health standards they fell flat.

The US government these days, mentions about building so many schools, forgetting how many lives that still suffers in a city that symbolizes with the Feur-de-lis.

Will New Orleans ever return completely, it may never be known, for it has not been seen so far from its well-known past French historic beauty.

Flooded I-10/I-610/West End Blvd interchange and surrounding area of northwest New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana on 30 August 2005. While it has been estimated that a least 1,836 people lost their lives, the actual account may never been known. Five years later, dead bodies from Katrina are still being found. While some died after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, many died in the aftermath from exposure, starvation, lack of water and those that were suppose to be helping them.

A body floating outside the Superdome in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on 2 September 2005. Some New Orleanians attempting to escape, had to wade water some as high as the waistline, while pushing dead bodies out of there way as they waded through the water with the hope of safety;  I met one of these people in the aftermath and the horror still gleamed on there face.  There was so many dead bodies, they came to be known as "floaters." As for the Superdome shelter it came out as a horror beyond some people's belief it was so bad and was in the center of the downtown flooding.

During Katrina there was a so-called evacuation route plan for road travel called the "ContraPlan," but with the many New Orleanians attempting to leave it was excessively congested with some people still being caught in the Hurricane, as in one case a full bridge going towards Slidell that collapsed and a lot of cars landed in the water resulting in several deaths. For others, they were rerouted to such states as Mississippi where they also were hit by the hurricane with much devastation seen. On a Tuesday after the Hurricane, when some New Orleanians were told to take alternate highways because I-10 was wiped out, it was still extremely congested; while some people found nothing left of there homes, one factor many did not expect and that was to be greetied by policemen with armed military fellows pointing rifles in there faces to be told to leave, even though they previously had been told they could come. As many did not know, the whole city was under Martial law.

As for former US President George W. Bush making promises, his idea of helping New Orleanians was either fly over for a look or find a reason to "party;" as the oblivion of the suffering was around him. As for International charities sending funds and a lot of FEMA money, was diverted to build Concentration/ death camps on US soil.

New Orleanians wait on a collapsed rooftop desperate to be rescued from the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for many this was a common site,  some having to hang from trees above the flooding sometimes for days without food or water; with the wonder if they would be saved. While some people were successful, many were not. After Katrina, many New Orleanians were eventually evacuated to other parts of the US which was said the intention was to be short term until the city was considered livable again. Many were too afraid to return or could not afford to return with the US economy on the plummet even then and no employment being found for most of the displaced. For some that was allowed temporary housing, too many were later put into the street and needless homelessness increased in these areas of the US; as for others, they have faced legal action due to the abandoned homes that they were unable to rebuild, refurbish, demolish or sell. Katrina made landfall in New Orleans on 28 August 2005, to be classified as the worse natural disaster in US history and just prior to that day, what was so unbelievable it was a beautiful warm sunny day.

As the many that actually survived Katrina like myself, while the US government has said they want to hear the American Katrina survivors voices they actually do not, whitewash their responses or as me being an Israeli just writing this, I got an overwhelming backlash from them. Which this is nothing but an attempt to make the world believe everything is coming up Snapdragons, when the US government forgot to mention they used a heap of cover-up compose.-HRM Deborah