Broken Heart for New Orleans
Most of you know I am a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. I lived there until I was four when my family was transferred overseas to Europe. We came to New Orleans to visit twice a year as all of our extended family was there. It was our true “home” as we moved around every one to five years. When Mike and I married in 1995 he got a job there with Mobil Oil working as an engineer offshore. He worked mainly offshore of Mobile, Alabama and stayed on Dauphin Island (another area that has been devastated). From our first home we could see the 17th street canal (one of the levee that was breached today). It is now underwater along with most of the city.
We had to evacuate twice during the five years we lived in New Orleans, the last time being for Georges. Our oldest, Alyssa was only two months at the time and we truly didn’t know if we would have anything to go back to. We were so thankful that George took a turn and New Orleans was spared. Every hurricane season we would talk about the fact that if any hurricane were to come directly in the mouth of the Mississippi it would be devastating. It had never happened quite that way until Katrina.
As I watched the news late Sunday night and saw the magnitude of the storm, my stomach began to ache. I knew this could not be good. Because the people of New Orleans have had to evacuate so many times without anything happening some of them (thousands) tried to “ride this one out”. My entire family did evacuate and are safe in various places in Texas, north Louisiana and Florida. I am praying for the safety of those who did not who are yet to be rescued. It is overwhelming to all who are involved to even conceive of how they will clean up and put their lives back together.
Please join me in continuing to pray and help in any way possible.
August 31st, 2005 at 10:40 am
My heart is breaking too.
So horribly sad. My prayers are with everyone affected.
September 1st, 2005 at 4:52 pm
This is so sad, I will continue to pray for everyone involved and Richele let me know if you hear from your Aunt. Love you
September 11th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
My prayers are with everyone envolved with this devastation. It’s hard to beleive that so much destruction can happen. I’ve seen the destruction here on the Gulf Coast and whole neighborhoods are just gone. A lot of my friends lost everything some only have a slab to tell where their house stood. We were very fortunate and only had a few shingles missing. We are so thankful, but like you it breaks my heart to see all the devastation.
October 4th, 2005 at 4:21 pm
Good Lord Richele! Are you not the most beautiful woman I have ever seen!??!!! Brad has some killer picture of you and at first I thought I was seeing an age enhancement of Alyssa…. ~HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY~ May you have many happy years to come!!!!!
Love you!
Maura