RE: Remember the guidelines please!
I thought I would share this story from my wedding planning message boards. A New Orleans fellow knottie (bride who used theknot.com to plan her wedding) is on her way up here to Chicago and is joining our Chicago wedding planning boards. This is her story:
"My hubby, doggies and I are heading up there on Tuesday. I posted on the Chciago Knot board about any job leads for my hubby, in the Infomration System sector. If anyone has any ideas or knows any good temp agencies he should check out, please let us know. Thanks so much for your help and support.
Below is an account of how we got out of New Orleans on Thursday:
We (Andy, Kitty, the dogs and I) finally got out of Memorial Medical Center (Baptist) yesterday (Thursday). It was a nightmare. We went to the hospital on Sunday night (we usually go there to volunteer for the hurricanes because they always end of being short staffed and need people). After the hurricane on Monday, everything looked somewhat ok and none of the mayhem had started. On Monday night, the hospital decided to start evacuating all patients and others afterwards.
We kept hearing that we were going to be getting out and that people were coming for us but no one ever showed up. Then we heard we couldn’t take any pets and that we were going to have to leave them behind and euthanize them. That just wasn’t an option for most people with pets; although a few bird and dogs ended up dying of heat stroke and dehydration. Some of the nurses ended up putting their healthy dogs down because at one point, it looked like it wasn’t possible to take a pet.
Being at the hospital was scary. There was a building across the street had been broken into and occupied by “unfriendly” looters with guns. They were directly across the street from the parking lot where we were set up with the dogs, our supplies and my car. There was nothing stopping them from getting in because they had a flat bottomed boat and could easily come across the street and up with ramp of the parking lot which they tried to do a few times. That’s what the scary part was. Being in the hospital with the sick, walking around with the stagnant, smelly air wasn’t the worst part. We tried to sleep at night but were scared for our lives.
On Wednesday, two brothers from Thibodaux came up to New Orleans with 2 airboats to get their mom out of Lifecare (hospice at the hospital). As they were putting her into the boat, she died. They were kind enough to stay and helped to evacuate 300 people, all family members of patients that were being evacuated via helicopter. They then said they would be back on Thursday at 7am to continue helping. Thursday morning came and we didn’t see any boats or hear ANY helicopters landing on the heliport. That’s when we all really started to get worried. We literally had a HUGE sense of relief on Wednesday night that we were going to be rescued. We were able to drink the water we had without feeling like we had to conserve, we were able to sleep in the car with the dogs (a/c on) to try and cool down without having to feel like we had to conserve the gas. We had packed up 1 bag each and hid everything we possibly could in Andy’s office and the cars. We KNOW both of our cars are going to looted and that another thing to worry about…hoping that our cars would be spared. Those people out there looting are the lowest of the low. They do not care about people, people’s safety or people’s property. They have no respect for anything, not even human life. We saw many looters wading through the water, passing up people who needed help so they could get into stores or homes to loot. They weren’t in “survival mode.” Survival mode is breaking into a car and hotwiring it to get out of the city, breaking into stores for food and water. Survival mode is not breaking into jewelry and electronic stores. Make no mistake, they are animals.
Thursday, around 10:30 am, we heard a ton of helicopters coming in and out of the helipad that were hired by Tenet to get us out. They would’ve been there sooner but the government had stopped ALL copters and boats from coming in. I am very, very disappointed in the government’s efforts to help. We really feel like they didn’t do anything to help us. We had NO food or supplies dropped to us, we didn’t have any way to get out, and we didn’t have ANY protection. We saw plenty of helicopters flying around, boats going around…if those people were able to get in, the government should’ve been in there helping us. We had patients in the hospital, sick people who needed water and medical supplies. Outside, we had drug addicts and looters trying to get into an unsecured hospital to take our food, water, medical and pharmaceutical supplies! The National Guard was there for 1 day…on Monday after the storm passed and before the flooding started. They were completely useless! They came in and didn’t do anything but eat food and drink water we had. They walked around and said they were only there to show there presence. They didn’t even have guns. The looters were NOT afraid of them and not only that, the National Guard didn’t do anything to help stop the people from coming in and causing trouble.
A few hours before we got out the state police FINALLY showed up with riffles, shotguns and handguns. There were some shots fired right in front of us and our dogs were right in the line of fire if a huge shoot out would’ve started.
Anyway, you can tell I am upset and we have no idea what we are going to do. Unfortunately, Andy & I both work for ourselves so we are trying to figure out what we are going to do with finances. Both of our houses are Uptown and have damage now and we don’t know if we still have to pay the mortgages, car notes, health insurance, etc…I am trying to figure this stuff out. A lot of people are scared and what makes it worse is the looting. Our homes have most likely been broken into.
We finally made it to Baton Rouge last night with the dogs. We had to pay someone $1,000 to go against orders and he brought us to Baton Rouge with the dogs. We weren’t supposed to take them with us but we were not going to leave them there. We are ok right now and Hadley is a Godsend! We are staying with Hadley & Greg until we figure out a plan. We literally left with nothing but the clothes on our backs, my camera and the dogs. We are headed out to buy some toiletries, clothes and shoes. I also hope to start working very soon…I plan to buy a new laptop, printer and supplies and start up my business (again) from wherever we settle. THANK GOD, I can work from anywhere. I just have to go out and buy new stuff but I DID back up my files onto CD and I have that with me. We are going to be applying for FEMA aid and also see what Red Cross has to offer.
I also wanted to thank my cousin Ken and his wife Laura for offering their home to us and we still might take them up on that but I will let you guys know…
Susan, Terri, Erin and Celeste …THANK YOU so much for being in contact with me when the phones weren’t working…thank GOD for text messaging!!!!!
Everyone else…THANK YOU so much for the emails, phone calls and offers to help…we REALLY appreciate everything and, especially, your thoughts and prayers.
Keep praying and keep New Orleans in your thoughts.
Mary and Andy C."
