Leaning against a fashionable chair in one of the greatest hotels in the states was Mary Johnson. She had a reason to have a sense pride as a resident of a place boasting of centuries’ old architecture and an invigorating culture made up of blends of African, Spanish, French as well as several Native American aspects (Larson 27). Bourbon Street lights her mind at the coastal joint in the south east city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, as she waits for her husband Harry Kewell who had been out on an official appointment. Time tickles beyond their planned time and she decides to drive a few miles to the south to meet him.
As she continued her driving became extremely hampered by strong winds. Initially strong winds with the speed of up to 14 mph were a common phenomenon in New Orleans (Brankley 16) but this seemed quite abnormal since it hampered her driving seriously. Her gasoline tank was almost running dry and she decided to get herself some from a fueling station. Probably this was the very decision that was to save her life. No sooner had she parked the car at the fuel station than she heard the police warning people not to drive and to vacate their premises at once. Unable to figure out the reason – although she had suspected, she had heard of advancement of a hurricane over the news that had originated from the Bahamas six days prior, and it had moved over to Florida as a weak category 1 hurricane – she didn’t think it could get to a point of affect that region so soon. She decided to tune on her car radio and she must have been lucky to be on point to get the news. The hurricane was feared to be developing into a category 3 hurricane as it entered Buras-Triumph and was advancing at a very quick rate. The federal and county systems were both busy ordering residents to evacuate immediately. This is when she got the point about the struggle she had witnessed earlier between the residents and the forces. Soon roads close to where she was were flooded and the last thing she managed to experience was a huge ‘bang!’ over the roof to the gas station.
She woke up to find herself at Tulane University Hospital. Dr. Nimrod James of the hospitals emergencies department informed her that she had been in a shock; that she was one of the victims of Hurricane Katrina that had claimed lives to the extent of over one thousand, five hundred with numerous individuals still missing.
When she was declared well she decided to get back to her home and have a look at the situation. Even though it was still amid the doctor’s objections she quickly managed to convince him that she was better of if she had the knowledge of everything.
The New Orleans wasn’t the one she had known before. The ones beautiful scenery was by now well converted into natural wreckage. Bad ordure seemed to be the order of the day. When she failed to trace her husband and her two children she moved quickly to report to the police. From them she got the accurate data of the deaths originating from the disaster as well as the number of missing individuals. With 1833 dead and another over 600 missing, not to mention the electricity disturbance and separation of relatives was already a National disaster.
Works Cited
Brinkley, Douglas. The great deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. New York: Morrow, 2006. Print.
Larson, Kirby, Mary Nethery, and Jean Cassels. Two Bobbies: a true story of Hurricane Katrina, friendship, and survival. New York: Walker ;, 2008. Print.
