I remember the night before Katrina made landfall. I had stayed up all night watching weather reports and following the media "hype"...I remember the genuinely eerie feeling of knowing that as I watched that swirling storm inch closer and closer on the map to the coast that something immensely bad was going to happen and many people were going to suffer and nothing could be done about it.
I remember wringing my hands watching the CNN live coverage of checking people into the Superdome. The sky was getting dark and I wondered how on earth all those people would fit inside. I remember hearing about the people who didn't want to leave, or didn't think the storm was going to be that bad....and I remember thinking to myself that if I was there and had no way out, I'd rather start walking to get out than sit still. The feeling I felt was like knowing I was going to witness pure chaos...and it was surreal because I also knew I would never actually experience it.
Thinking back on that night, I realize that my fascination and fear watching the coverage was because I had never seen anything like it before. At 18 years of age, I had never before felt such distress over something so destructive. I didn't "witness" when it made landfall; I had a doctors appointment early that day and ran some errands afterwards. I remember sitting in the parking lot of Target, switching radio stations trying to find some news. Of course, it is still fresh in the minds of many Americans that it was actually much worse than the worst outcome had predicted.
Now back to the present day. I'm glad to hear, and actually so relieved to hear, that many people did heed the warnings to evacuate. I'm glad to see that maybe, just maybe, mistakes on action won't be repeated.
Once again, as a nation, all we can do is watch, wait, and pray.
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