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Hurricane, Remembered

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Memoirs by teenagers who survived Hurricane Katrina.

Posted Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006, at 5:58 PM ET

Keoka Geary, 17. Before Hurricane Katrina, she lived in the Christopher Homes Park neighborhood of the Westbank. During the storm, she stayed in a hotel on Canal Street in downtown New Orleans, where a relative worked.

I will never forget getting ready Aug. 28 to go to the hotel, Mother saying, "Get ready."

Click here to launch video.

When we got to the hotel we had to rush in because it looked like the hurricane was approaching. That night it was so scary, and we were on the 12th floor. The building was shaking. I slept through the storm. When I woke up I was soaking wet. I thought I had peed on myself, but when I got up to walk in the room the floor was soaked.

So I woke my mama up and told her that the whole room was wet. So we had to get our things and go to my cousin's hotel room. They had six people in one room, and it was very uncomfortable.

Finally the hurricane was over. I looked out of the hotel window and everything was a mess. People were looting, but some people were getting things they needed like food. We had to stay four more days. We had no food or water. I wanted to take a bath so bad that I went to the pool and got water. The water had me itching a little but I was clean. After four days they put us out of the hotel and told us to go to the Convention Center. We had to carry those heavy bags. They were not small bags, they were big bags.

While walking we saw people crying because they had no food and water. We saw bodies in the street. They had an old man dead in a chair. I was so scared I just was ready to go home. I was so scared I thought I was going to die.

I went to the bridge [to Gretna] thinking we could get over but we could not cross without a car. We were walking on the bridge, and the Army men started to shoot in the air, saying, "NO ONE CAN CROSS THE BRIDGE ON FEET!" I dropped down on my knees and covered my ears. My mama was all the way on the other side of the bridge and she was screaming, saying, "Come back, Keoka!" and I just started to cry, I was so scared. It started to rain and everyone started to cry, saying, "I hope another hurricane don't pass by."

My family and I walked back down the bridge. We were sitting under some big trucks until the rain stopped.

My mama got a ride across the river from this man she knew, and she left me. She said that she was going to be back, but she never came back, because they told her she could not cross the bridge. After a few hours, my sister-in-law, her sister, my little niece, and I caught a stolen RTA bus across the river. The lady who was driving the bus used to be an RTA driver, so the man who had stolen the bus let her drive it. We told the lady to stop across the river and let us off, but the bus was going to Texas.

I did not know where my mama and sister were. I did not even know where my oldest sister was. They did not come and rescue them until four days after the hurricane. Then I finally found my mama; she was out looking for me.

culturebox
entries
1234

Memoirs by teenagers who survived Hurricane Katrina.

Posted Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006, at 5:58 PM ET
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