Hurricane Katrina

In times of crisis, there is no time to judge, but act. Such was the case 10 years ago when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

Our girl travel group banded together with thoughts and prayers and money to help a family who had welcomed us many times to their home in Jefferson Parrish, Louisiana. They had evacuated and could not return home for three weeks.

The National Guard would only let small groups of residents back in at a time. Although they appreciated our offer of money, they said that many of the staff of the Ocean Springs, Miss. hospital where their daughter was a nurse and on duty during the hurricane had lost everything and were living in the back parking lot of the hospital in make shift housing. We found a conduit to help these workers.

Another good friend, Cindy and family members, had ridden out the storm in a safe room in their house near Biloxi. It would be nearly a week before we spoke with her. Cell phones have made our world smaller, but Katrina took down the cell towers. After nearly a week, Cindy drove to a shopping center north of her and finally got a cell phone signal. She called me.

Our girl group sent money to her sister who lived in Baton Rouge and her sister bought what she could in food supplies, water and fuel for a generator and drove almost to Jackson, Miss. to get back to the Biloxi area since part of I-10 had been destroyed. Yet, another angel helped us help our friend.

Most of us remember the 24 hour news coverage of the hurricane and the horrible images that until then we had only seen on television happening in foreign countries.

Time has restored some of the Gulf, but a drive down Hwy. 90 towards Pass Christian, Miss. tells the story of the power of the storm, vacant land hundreds of feet from the water with only a sidewalk or a set of steps left from homes and businesses.

Parts of Louisiana still sit to this day devastated.

This weekend is the anniversary of the storm. A time to remember the victims. 1,836 people died as a result of the storm, 40 percent drowned, 49 percent were over the age of 75 years old, and as of last year 705 people, including children, were still missing. There are yet thousands of untold stories of the survivors.