Ashanti Duckworth, 16. Before Hurricane Katrina, she lived in the Algiers neighborhood of the Westbank.
The night before the storm, I wanted to leave New Orleans with my relatives because my mother, stepfather, and brother didn’t want to go anywhere. My mother told me, “If our house and family go down, you go down, too.”
The next day, Katrina was a Category 3 storm. The lights went out before she arrived; it was just a little rain.
During the storm we were in the hall; all doors to the room with windows were shut. We laid covers and pillows in the hall where we were safe. But we often opened the door or looked out the window to see the damage that was done. I felt the house move. Our house was shaking and the breeze was blowing though the floor of our house.
After Katrina passed we were safe to go outside. As I stood on the porch and looked around to see what Katrina had done and left behind, I wanted to cry. Three trees were leaning in our yard. No one could pass up the side street because of the trees in our yard.
The corner store on Newton and Whitney Avenue was charging $5 a canned good. Everyone was going to the store because they were running out of food. This problem caused many people to break into the stores.
They had an old woman standing in the line for the store. She said, “I don’t have no food or water in my house. I am very hungry.”
One young man said, “Hold up, I will be right back.” He broke into a store nearby and gave her a basket for her needs. She got lots of canned goods and water.
Afterward, everyone else was able to go in and take whatever he or she needed.
As the day went on it got darker and darker. It was so dark that I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face.
My younger sister and I took a bath at least five times that day. Each time we got in the tub we felt as dirty and sweaty as we felt the very first time …
My sister is only 4, and till this day she still isn’t right. Each time it rains she says, “There go Katrina. Oh, she turned back around that quick!”
