August 25 was supposed to be a usual Monday morning. I normally wake up at 5:30 a.m. for my morning devotion. While making coffee, I watch the weather channel. The chief meteorologist was explaining the projected path of hurricane Gustav and there was New Orleans right in the middle of the cone. All the memories of Katrina and the challenge of rebuilding the past three years flashed back in my mind.

August 29 was going to be the 3rd anniversary of Katrina landfall. I said to myself: Please Lord, not this soon.

As I drove for work that morning I started making a mental to-do list. We have a whole week of preparation time. The projected landfall was early morning of September 2. I was weighing options and trying to comfort myself thinking that maybe it will move to the west or to the east. Many factors could change the projected path. I guess I was still in denial of what is yet to come.

I told God, please give us rest; we just completed renovating the house six months ago. Roy, my husband, just finished cleaning up our shed and garage of Katrina junk two weeks ago! (We had nine properties at the time of Katrina: Five flooded and four had wind damage).

This time, as the office manager of a law firm, I am responsible for making evacuation preparation. My boss owns the building we are occupying. This building had severe damage after Katrina. We need to pack every important document for the cases and be ready to set up a satellite office elsewhere in case of any eventuality.

As I walked in the office, one girl asked how I was feeling that morning. I burst into tears. I don’t think I can handle another major hurricane. I don’t look forward to reliving our Katrina experience.

Packing for evacuation

The whole week revolved around packing important documents at work and at home. Insurance policies, telephone books, checks and back accounts details. Shopping for supplies to take for evacuation, paying bills and making sure we have enough cash and credit cards with us, cooking frozen foods to take with us when we live. Last time, we brought four days worth of supplies and were away for seven weeks. This time I was preparing to bring at least two weeks supplies.

Meanwhile Roy spent a couple of days clearing the yard of any object that may fly and hit the house. Everything has to go in the garage and the shed.

One thing for sure I told Roy: We will never leave this house with any stuff in the refrigerator and freezer. Never again will I clean up stinky refrigerators. I said stuff we cannot take goes in the garbage can. I cleaned three refrigerators and a freezer for Katrina. These were full of food in the freezer and refrigerators left for weeks with no power.

In the freezer was our wedding cake which was saved for our first wedding anniversary. Four months after our wedding, it will be thrown away.

Friday morning at work we started preparing the office: taking down work stations, moving equipment away from the windows, covering filing cabinets and loading boxes of documents in my boss’ van. We made sure two people have server and back up drives. If one got damaged, the company can still survive with the back up drive.

We were sent home at noon. I told my self I need to de-stress. I went shopping before heading home to prepare for evacuation. I spent half an hour in my favorite shop, came out with nothing. I was not really in the mood for shopping.

I came home mid-day so exhausted that I took a two-hour nap. When I woke up at 4:00 p.m., my husband told me we were living Saturday 1:00 a.m. We originally talked about living Sunday at 1:00 a.m. but Roy having lived in the Deep South all his life knows when it’s time to live so I did not complain. I had to rush and get ready.

Waiting for Gustav

We had family dinner Friday night with his daughters. We agreed to turn off the television set while eating. For a few minutes we wanted to be free of the thought of Gustav. We ate silently. Right after dinner his daughters left hastily to pack and get ready themselves. We agreed to meet up at 1:00 a.m. to head out of town.. After putting in my last plant from the porch, we prayed, asking God for traveling mercy and protection for what is to come.

We went to Hattiesburg Mississippi, settled in an empty house of Roy’s daughter that is up for sale. We are comfortable than most who have to stay in a cramped hotel room so we have no complaints.

Early morning of September 1, we watch Gustav make its landfall slightly west of New Orleans. We heave a big sigh of relief that it was not a direct hit yet we are still holding our breath. Will the levee hold the pressure of the storm surge? The City of New Orleans is below sea level and the levee surrounding it protects the storm surge from flooding the city.

Katrina experience

Our Katrina horrific experience in 2005 happened the day after landfall. Katrina made its landfall 100 miles east of New Orleans on a Monday, too. Thinking that we were heading home in a couple of days, we learned that the levees breached and the city of New Orleans was under water. We did not come back until seven weeks later.

Three years of rebuilding involves doing cleaning up, fighting with insurance companies, dealing with crooked contractors and the unbelievable bureaucratic red tapes and incompetence of the federal government recovery program. During the course of the three years I would always ask my husband: Are we in America? I felt that we are in a third world country with this recovery process. I never imagined I will be facing incompetence in the government.

So our point of reference will always be Katrina in 2005; we wait and watch if we can  finally say we are out of the woods. Thank God the levees held up and there was no flooding in New Orleans. We are now waiting for the city to re-open. We are still in the cone of uncertainty. Questions like: Is our house intact? Are there oak trees on top of our house? How about the rental properties? Are our tenants coming back?

As my husband and I prayed through our different emotional and spiritual stages, we agreed to hold on to God’s word as our anchor. God holds our future and He has His reasons why we are still living in New Orleans not in the Pacific Northwest.

Wiser and getting better

Having been born and raised in the Philippines,  I rode out so many typhoons but never had I thought I will be evacuating and will be a Katrina refugee and for Gustav this time. Hurricane season ends October 30; who knows there will be another episode of this experience. .

On Thursday 12:01 a.m. the city will be reopened. We will be among the 300,000 New Orleans residents heading back home. We know we will be reentering around the same time we left. Not until I see our house, checked out the properties and get back to my workplace will I know that I will out of the cone of uncertainty.

While it is our desire to move out of New Orleans this very minute, only God will make it happen. I hope this is the last time I will have to evacuate but should God choose to let us experience another major hurricane, we are definitely wiser and getting better at it.   

The author, a Filipina, is a resident of New Orleans. She and her husband are in the real estate business.