Here is a selection of comments posted on the Hurricane Katrina message board, including firsthand accounts of the storm, and words of support from those living in other areas.
sneauxbunny: I am sitting in Baton Rouge without electricity (on a battery powered laptop.) I am blessed because electricity is all I have lost. I am getting ready to go to church and pray … for all who have lost everything. I have so many friends that I cannot contact and it is so hard not knowing. The pictures on the internet are devastating.
abeteacher37: I am sitting here watching the news for the first time since 10 p.m. Thursday night when the power went out as I lay in bed listening to Katrina's winds and rain beating on the windows. I weathered the storm in Homestead, FL. Even though for us in South Florida Katrina was only a Category 1 storm, we had practically no warning of the wrath she would have on us …
I finally got electricity back this morning (three and a half days later), but I guess that is an improvement from the 10 days that it took for me to get electricity back after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Around Miami-Dade County there are trees down everywhere, traffic lights hanging by a thread … I am a teacher for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and we were closed Thursday and Friday last week. We are closed again today because too many schools were not ready to reopen today.
GeauxRaginCajuns: We are west of the storm but getting very strong winds. I feel badly for the people who made the choice to stay in New Orleans, although they were under mandatory evacuation orders. There are those who could not afford to leave and I understand, however being stuck in the Super Dome which has already lost a part of the roof still leaves them in danger.
We have lost branches here in Cajun country and are hoping to keep our power.
SeleneDrake: Normally the slowest time of the year in the hospitality industry in Houston, we have had to unexpectedly gear up to accommodate the thousands of refugees from New Orleans in our hotels, restaurants and streets (which, if you've ever been to Houston, you know are perpetually under construction). It is our pleasure, however, to offer hospitality to our genteel neighbor, as New Orleans has always been close to Houstonians' hearts, ever the gracious southern hostess. We're sorry that it has to be under such desperate circumstances …
Here I am thinking of Antoine's in New Orleans (the birthplace of Oysters Rockafeller and many other famous dishes), a timeless and incomparable place that has hosted generations of people from all over the world with consummate graciousness and hospitality. I was just there a few weeks ago, and my heart sinks to think that it "may never be the same" as the reports have advised.
