This is the true story of the storm that attacked Louisiana as seen from my eyes and the way I remember it. Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

I had no idea what an ademco was until I rented a house and got renter’s insurance out in the part of Louisiana where we lived. See, to lower the rates (tremendously by the way) you needed a security system. I never left my house unattended much. But this was the day after Katrina. It became a necessity.

The sun came back up the next day. The sweltering heat was felt throughout. Walking outside felt like walking through a waterfall. Louisiana is know for its humidity. That day was much worse. The other problem with heat and humidity is mosquitoes. They love that time of year. They also love human blood. Little tiny vampires with a penchant for sweaty bodies. We didn’t have screens on the windows or doors at the time (a lesson we learned from and remedied later) so our windows and doors had to stay closed to keep out the little bloodsuckers. That made it even hotter. There was me, my wife and daughter, my wife’s mother, brother, sister, great aunt, grandfather, two nephews, four dogs and a cat. We were all crowded in a house that had no electricity, unclean running water, and closed doors and windows. Sometimes we’d go outside and get in the van and turn it on for a bit to have air conditioner. But gas was a rarity, so we didn’t do it often. Ten people and four animals in a hot house just wasn’t working. Two of the adults were over 70. There were three kids under 7. They all had red, sweaty faces with no true relief to be found.

I checked the gas level on the van. We had half a tank. Same thing on the other vehicles. We had to get out. The storm hadn’t killed us, but that heat was about to finish the job. We all packed up, said a couple of prayers, and headed down the road passing empty gas station after empty gas station. After a few hours we were very low on gas and finally found a gas station with people. We waited in the mile long line. We finally pulled up and filled up the tanks with half-hearted smiles on our faces. The store was open, so we went in and got drinks and food, something we hadn’t had since the day before. It was nice and cool in the store. Some of us stood by the drink coolers for a while. We stayed there for about two hours, worried about the trip ahead. While sitting there, the last of the gas was sold. We had been lucky.

We packed up and headed off again. Everyone was cooled off. The vehicles had gas. It was time to find a hotel. We started this trip on the Eastern side of Louisiana. When night fell, we were almost in Texas.

(To Be Continued)

• The Surprise Pound and a Dog Walker
• Katrina - Part 1
• Katrina - Part 4 - Hotels and Moving
• Katrina - Part 2 - The Storm Stops
• Wal-Mart Made Me Do It