Sophie Prescott
3-4-19

    It was August 24, 2005 a day after hurricane Katrina hit, I was with my mother, father and sister huddled in our basement. We lived in New Orleans, the days before the storm hit on August 23 We had been stocking up on non perishable food, water, flash lights, batteries and just about everything you needed to survive. We were huddled together in the middle of the basement, it was freezing. I hadn't slept for two days. The night before the storm hit my father was up all night covering the windows in plywood and tying down anything valuable in an attempt to save it. I had a feeling that everything beloved would be lost. This was the first hurricane i've ever experienced and it hopefully will be the last. My dad was in the military so we moved around alot. My family moved here from a small town in Oregon.  

    After spending the night huddled in my basement with my mom, dad and sister. My dad decided to go upstairs and inspect the damage. I told him to be careful, it was the morning on August 24, the second day of hurricane Katrina. When my father came back down he said that everything outside had been blown away. He said the house had suffered an extreme amount of damage. I asked when it would be over all I heard was silence. I asked what would happen if we ran out of food, my parents said that we shouldn't. Then I asked again “when will it be over”? My dad said he didn't know, I asked about family members but we had no way to contact them. My eight year old sister asked “will there be school tomorrow” I knew the answer to that but my mom said "maybe hunny". Then I asked “how many people are injured”? After a long silence my dad finally said hundreds, even thousands possibly. I then knew that this wasn't some little hurricane this was the real deal. My mom said “I wonder how long this will last.” My dad said we might have to evacuate if were here for to long. I wondered if my other family members in the area were safe. The next day we had to evacuate our home, water was starting to leak into the basement. We ended up going to my grandmothers who happened to live only a few hours away and was out of the storms reach. When we returned home everything was damaged. All the windows were broken, the house had severe water damage, and most of our beloved items were lost.