Community Chat

[Drythe]

---

@GingerPeach wrote:

---

@Drythe wrote:

@I was blessed to be able to be there for @ 6 weeks doing animal rescue.  Arrived 3 days > Katrina hit and was 'on the ground' really, in a tent when hurricane Rita passed over. The things I saw, good, bad, happy, and heartbreaking, will never leave my heart.

N.O. is my favorite city in the US, had been there many times. Have only gotten back once since then, but in a few weeks I'm going back for a visit and a volunteer reunion.

---

I just received the Best Friends animal rescue monthly magazine.  It focuses on the Katrina 10th year "anniversary."  (I'm putting that in quotes since even though anniversary is rather a neutral term, that occurrence was anything but neutral.)

Anyway, Best Friends says that 6000 pets were given help by BF.  Only some went back to their original people, many went on to other shelters, and some are still being cared for at Best Friends site in Utah. 

---

Homegirl,

Many were adopted by the volunteers.  I have 1 dog and 3 cats who lost their owners because of Katrina.  Will never forget the day or the circumstances in which each one was found.

[GingerPeach]

I so wanted to be there.  I was not physically able but am glad so many like you were able to volunteer. 

[newziesuzie]

Thanks @Drythe and @GingerPeach.  It was heartbreaking seeing the

animals and to think how confused they must have been.

[shoesnbags]

Thanks to @newziesuzie and everyone else for remembering New Orleans on this day.  I'm a NOLA native and watched the disaster unfold from our evacuation destination in Florida.  Thankfully all of my immediate family evacuated before the storm, and had varying degrees of damage.  We lost my dad 2 1/2 months after the storm because like so many of the elderly his heart just couldn't take the stress.  He had lost my mother to cancer just 6 months before, and then Katrina got his house.  He died the day after Thanksgiving.  My house was spared, although much of the suburb I live in was flooded.  So we had a house and our belongings which was so much more than most.  Many in my neighborhood, including us, took in relatives who had lost their homes.  I couldn't locate my elderly uncle who had lived in the totally devasted St. Bernard Parish for more than a year.  Turned out that they had lost everything and were living out of state. So many memories, so much to be grateful for 10 years later!

[luv-the-Q]

@shoesnbags, I am so sorry for all that you and your family endured during that time.  It was an impossible situation.  It was scary, surreal, but also brought out the best in a lot of people.  People also tend to forget that another super hurricane named Rita came soon after.  For some, it was even more devastating.  That was a very trying time.  

[newziesuzie]

---

@shoesnbags wrote:

Thanks to @newziesuzie and everyone else for remembering New Orleans on this day.  I'm a NOLA native and watched the disaster unfold from our evacuation destination in Florida.  Thankfully all of my immediate family evacuated before the storm, and had varying degrees of damage.  We lost my dad 2 1/2 months after the storm because like so many of the elderly his heart just couldn't take the stress.  He had lost my mother to cancer just 6 months before, and then Katrina got his house.  He died the day after Thanksgiving.  My house was spared, although much of the suburb I live in was flooded.  So we had a house and our belongings which was so much more than most.  Many in my neighborhood, including us, took in relatives who had lost their homes.  I couldn't locate my elderly uncle who had lived in the totally devasted St. Bernard Parish for more than a year.  Turned out that they had lost everything and were living out of state. So many memories, so much to be grateful for 10 years later!

---

Thank  you for sharing your story @shoesnbags.❤️

I'm sorry about your mom and dad.  You have such a 

positive outlook.  I admire that.

[newziesuzie]

---

@luv-the-Q wrote:

@shoesnbags, I am so sorry for all that you and your family endured during that time.  It was an impossible situation.  It was scary, surreal, but also brought out the best in a lot of people.  People also tend to forget that another super hurricane named Rita came soon after.  For some, it was even more devastating.  That was a very trying time.  

---

Good point, we don't hear much about hurricane Rita now.