Thursday September 22, 2005 is a day I will not soon forget.  That was the day we were told to EVACUATE!!  Getting gas to even leave town became a chore.  Long lines and an all around panic everywhere.  I had to do the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life!!  I had to evacuate with my two boys and leave my husband behind.  Michael had to stay behind and work at the prison.  (This was before Michael switched jobs)  We started our journey while Michael bunkered down at the prison.  We were on our way to Jena, Louisiana which is not very far from Alexandria, Louisiana.  What normally was a 2 1/2 hour trip to my parents house there in Jena ended up being a very long and agonizing 9 hours!  Cars were at a crawl on every road going north.  Many people ended up stranded on the side of the road due to running out of gas.  On the way to Jena, every gas station was either out of gas or closed.  Luckily I had enough gas to make it all the way to Jena without any problems.  It wasn't until we got to Alexandria, that you could find a gas station that had any gas left.  It was a very long trip and we were happy to be safe and out of the car when we got to my parent's house.

Rita roared ashore Saturday morning September 24, 2005 near the Texas-Louisiana border with 120 mph winds tearing neighborhoods to bits and leaving some areas under up to 15 feet of water.  Rita came ashore as a category 3 hurricane.

Coastal Cameron Parish was under as much as 15 feet of water, and local officials said as many as 90 percent of homes in Cameron were destroyed.

About a week or so later we came home to what seemed like a war ground.  It looked like the whole town had been bombed.  Trees and power lines were down everywhere.  We were one of the lucky ones to have our power on at this time.  Half of the town was still without power.

The Lord truly blessed us for we had no major damage to our house.  Just the corner of the house where the big tree fell on it.

The picture to the left is of our new cat that we received the day before Rita hit.  So we named her Storm.

The picture at the top of the page is of the huge tree that fell on the corner of the house.  The house in the background is ours.
We are thankful for God being with us during this hard time, for we could not have made it through without Him!