What it was like

Hurricane coverage took over local TV completely. I watched the aerial footage of jammed Interstate Highways, lines of vehicles barely moving, the procession extending as far as the cameras could see. The affluent and upscale people were finding their exodus out of harms way a trek and ordeal. One family, very yuppie, a couple with two children, two small yappy dogs and a late model SUV were bemoaning their personal misery as it took them over 9 hours to reach Baton Rouge, only to find every motel and hotel locked solid or commandeered by emergency personnel. In retrospect I am more inclined to laugh at their plight and feel little sympathy for them. Considering all that followed, they didn’t know what suffering was.

In my third floor ‘ye olde urban slum’ apartment at the rundown ‘Rebel Arms’, at 1005 Decatur, I did what I could to prepare myself and my neighbors. We could not buy those ‘emergency supplies’ newspeople urge people to get in such situations. The local Wallgreens and small grocery stores that are in the French Quarter all considerately ‘closed for the duration’ 24 hours before the storm arrived.........

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