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My wife, our three children and I survived Katrina. We lived in New Orleans when it hit. My wife was in the hospital due to her kidneys when all hell broke loose. My kids and I stayed in New Orleans, because we weren’t leaving without my wife. Perhaps that was a poor choice. In retrospect, given the information we had at the time, I don’t think I would do differently. The children were scared; our daughter cried every night because she missed her mom. All of the children were brave during the following weeks. In the end, though, it became apparent the situation was not improving and help was not coming. Through a combination of boat and footwork, we worked our way to an evacuation point. At one point, on the streets of St. Charles, my legs gave out and a man promised to get the kids to safety. He kept that promise, and I am ever grateful. How do you ever offer thanks enough to encompass the magnitude of that generosity? I hid, hours later, when vandals arrived and claimed they were going to rape and kill me. In the night hours, I crawled through the muck and the water to get to my kids. A local, with a heart the size of a mountain, found me, and, with his canoe, brought me to my kids. We were air evac-ed a few hours later. To the day I die, I doubt I will ever fear anything so much as the sight of a uniformed stranger grabbing my baby girl and lifting her into the air. My daughter, adventurer that she is, wanted to do it again.
We survived. My wife, it turned out, was air-lifted from the hospital the day after Katrina hit. You could see the relief sink into the bones of our kids when they saw their mother safe in a shelter. We lost our dog. My dog. He was mine. I couldn’t carry him out, not and still give full attention to 3 kids. It’s a sacrifice I’ll never forgive myself for, although I can’t ever see making a different decision.
We’ve made do since then. We’re on our feet, trying to establish a sense of stability. We’ve been fortunate to have a modicum of support from FEMA. The Red Cross helped back in October. We haven’t asked for much help. We’re better off than most, the help we have received has been incredibly generous and we are grateful. My family and I went through a disaster. The people of this nation, you, your neighbor, the person you pass on the street have done so very much for us and those like us. The generosity you have displayed is humbling.
Rage is what first inspired this writing. A corporate entity (Capitol One, which bought out Hibernia) contacted me this evening to collect debt from New Orleans. Never mind that I called and wrote in early October to cancel the bank account. In December, a rotating fee hit the account for $14.95. That grew to $150+ with late fees which grew to $5 a day, when they couldn’t reach us because no one knew if we were alive or dead. We paid an Entergy bill after the hurricane just to put us behind us, one which included dates AFTER the hurricane. We’re not asking for a free ride. I see the suffering Katrina survivors deal with. I no longer have faith in our government on any level. The time for that is past. Paying late fees for the days which followed is insulting. What bothers me about this is the fact that this only affects lower and middle class homes, when they least need it. This is a rapacious company profiting by the losses of the weak. Like clockwork, though, I can expect 2 calls a week from this company asking if I want to buy their newest policies.
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