Were you directly or indirectly affected by Hurricane Katrina?

Everyone is affected. We have students possibly staying here on campus that we have freshmen already living in study lounges (HUGE freshman class) & they're thinking of opening the doors to NO students. The price of gas has risen, emergency personel, law, fire, linesmen, etc have all been deplloyed from all the states. We have all been affected to some degree, but to a greater degree, no.

No, not at all.

No, I wasn't. I am very sorry for what has happened to you and hope that your nieces are found safe and well.

I don't have any family in the path of the hurricane so it does not directly impact me. But I think we are all suffering if we buy fuel. Note to the creator: I'm sorry to hear about your family. I hope they are doing okay under the extreme circumstances and I also hope your two nieces are found.

Only in the way that my job has changed a little bit.. We had a lot of salespeople in the areas hit.. So a lot of orders were stopped from shipping.. some went out before we could stop them... The ones that are calling in are displaced.. and we've provided them with special numbers to call. I spoke with one lady who was housing refugees (her word, not mine)..

Well not in the sense that I know anyone who lost a home, or had to evacuate. My husband has to work more, to deliver milk that Browns Dairy in New Orleans used to deliver, and there are a LOT more people here, so traffic is bad and store lines are longer. My kids have a lot of new kids at their school that need clothes and things. There are a lot of fund raisers here for our evacuees.

Where are your mom, sister and aunt staying?

Indirectly, but certainly not in any life shaking way.

I am so sorry to hear of all the losses some of your family has suffered! I was not directly affected myself. My mother and father and some other relatives were originally from S. Texas -- 5 miles from the Gulf near the LA border (so they knew all about hurricanes!) I thought my sister (who now lives in AZ) once said we had a cousin in N'Orleans, but so far my sis has not emailed a reply about this. I passed thru the city when I was a baby (in a car w/family) but do not remember it; however, I have always, since I was a little kid, wanted to go to Mardi Gras and also to explore the French Quarter and Cajun country (loved Cajun and Zydeco music since I was a kid, still do). I am very much aware of the contributions this great city has made to American music. Also when I was just a little kid, I developed an affinity for New Orleans jazz (trad, "dixieland") and liked musicians like Kid Ory & Louis Armstrong; when I was in primary school, teachers would say I was "in a rut" cuz all I wanted to do was read about jazz. I still like trad jazz though I haven't bought any since I was a kid. Hope you soon hear from your nieces! New Orleans WILL rise again, just like San Francisco did after our devastating '06 quake that burned the city down -- though there were not nearly as many lives lost as were from Katrina. Where are you living now?

I may not know anyone who has lost stuff, nor am I anywhere around the area, but I was directly affected emotionally. I have cried more in the last 4 days than I have in the last 4 years. I am in mourning for lives lost, babies missing. I am at a loss for words for how my country reacted. The leaders of the country showed themselves, and most of those were not the ones in official places, but the ones that put many others before themselves. From the little children to the small groups forming communities to help each other. Not the ones spending thousands on a pair of shoes during day 2 in New York or the ones playing golf just before it hit.
(oops got a litlle of track)

Yes, but I am only affected by the gas prices. Thats nothing considering people are missing family members and pets and there houses are gone.

....... Jeez, thats tough my thoughts are with you and BTWNo, I live in Jamaica.. Which has its own share of these disasters

I wasn't directly affected. My son came home with a note the day before yesteray about a family at his school who has relatives that were directly affected by Hurricane Katrina...have 4 children, lost everything. The school was asking for donations.

I have a friend whose brother works at a paper in New Orleans... he's an editor there... he and his family were on vacation before the hurricane, and he was called back to help deal with the news coverage. She wasn't sure if he was okay... I was able to find a story online (post-hurricane) attributed to him, so at least she's less worried about him now.

Not in the sense that you mean it. I was only affected in the sense that I was (and am) concerned about what's happened and frustrated by all the disappointing behavior, all around.

I am not "directly" affected by Hurricane Katrina, but emotionally, YES.

I wrote a letter to the editor (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA) and it was published September 1st: "President Bush needs to get us out of Iraq now and concentrate on our own problems. I want my tax money to help American citizens in their time of great need, not to fund a no-win war."

I watched Fox News continually since it hit, even sending an email to Fox asking for more on pet evacuations. Hours after I sent that email, there were small reports on people and the pets they were forced to leave behind.

I am ashamed at how the United States government responded to this crisis. I can't see how they can screw their mouths up saying "they didn't know the levees would breech" or the estimated damage a category 4 hurricane would cause.

Bush is paying "lip service" to all those impacted by this disaster. He should be impeached for his ineptitude.

I have no idea what that even means.

Yes, I'm sure NOLA will rebuild itsself...For ppl living there it's more than just a life it's almost like a Religion.
There is a place on St.Charles st. just around the corner from Robert E Lee Circle, it's called Michauls.. ( pronounced...Meeshawls).it's right on the Parade route....We were there for the Endimeon Parade...(not sure of the spelling) but it's the richest parade of all the Mardi Gras parades.
You'd LOVE it there....The food is excellent, drinks divine, and the music ...well you wouldn't want to leave...lol. They have 2 separate dance floors/with live bands + 2 separate dining areas.
We got to be there for the parade for FREE (look at her website..the price is EXPENSIVE to be there for the parade)...The reason we got to be there for free, my sisters boyfriend, his cousin owns it.

Thanks to everyone for your concerns.
My mother is in Texas at our Aunts. (for those of you from Texas, my mother says that the people in Texas have been so Gracious!)
She will be coming to IL. to live with me soon.

As far a Blaming the President consider this.
The State had to ask for the help 1st.
If the president had jumped in then he would have been blamed for stepping on toes.
Over asserting his authority.
Now think about this.
Suppose he did and told the state to evacuate, send aide down there,
And the Hurricane did very little damage or nothing at all?
Then he'd be accused of being paranoid, over reacting, spending money wastefully.
The president is in a DAMNED IF YOU DO...DAMED IF YOU DON'T..situation.
I personally would not want to be president and have his kind of responsibilities
.
Was it his fault that ppl were breaking into stores stealing guns, setting the buildings on fire? No.
Was it his fault that when the help was sent that ppl were SHOOTING at the hellicopters? No.
LA. was warned 10 years ago, to DO SOMETHING...but did they?...No.
Is it his fault that there are STILL ppl REFUSING to leave? No.
Is it his fault that rape and murder is going on there? NO.
Is it his fault that my mother, my step-father, my sister and her boyfriend had to sleep out side on their porch with their guns loaded? No.
So before laying ALL the blame at the Presidents feet, take a DAMN GOOD LOOK AT THE STATE AND WHO RUNS IT.
Also, the people that were in Metairie, (Jefferson Parish) where my mother was, was not under an Emergency evacuation before the Hurricane hit.. WHY NOT?
It was told to get the ppl out that the WATER WAS COMING!
But the response was "NO, I' m not telling them to leave"...
So those ppl thought (including my mother) that they would be ok.

Indirectly, yes. I don't think anyone could not be indirectly not affected unless they're a sociopath or live in a cave (thus they haven't heard about Katrina).
Directly, no. I don't know anyone personally who lives in that area.

Probably indirectly if at all--I live in Virginia and the storm bypassed us.

I was wondering what has happened with the other towns, cities and bayou country area to the west and south of N.O. There was not all that much publicity about these areas that I noticed. Isn't Metairie very close to New Orleans? Were any other towns totally destroyed in LA, either flooded out or flattened? Hopefully these smaller cities and towns are drying out and people continue to return to try to get their lives and homes back together. I have only heard about one town in Miss. being totally flattened. It's quite confusing. We just heard here in SF that the 300 or so people our mayor had offered to help get back on their feet did not want to move so far from home, so evidently it's still uncertain. I did see today in our free daily newspaper a pic of a woman in a town other than New Orleans being reunited with her dog -- a photo like that is enuff to make a grown man cry!

There WAS a little place called "Buck Town USA" ( I'm not joking) it was on the Lake Front, you walked over a little bridge and you were there. I'm telling you it was a teeny tiny town, and yet it had its own ZIP code! If I remember correctly most of the houses there were on stilts. From what I hear it's gone!

In Laplace (pronounced La plauce) west on I 10 past Metairie, where my sister lives is a huge trailer park (off Airline HWY), she tells me that all the trailers are still there with the exception of a few that had trees fall on them... they mostly got the wind damage.
She has the eletric back and has already been in contact with FEMA.

If you search around for LIVE SATELLITE VIEWS you can see for yourself the before and after damage. it's shocking!
I did find out that my Aunt lost her dog (her house is under water).

For me to say I have been affected would just seem wrong in light of what you are going through. This is just terrible for you. I've followed everything and have the same outrage and sympathy everyone else does but it has not touched me as it has you. For me, my spirit and faith in the inherent good in people took a bit of a slap with a lot of the things I saw and heard. I'm sure things are a lot worse than what we have been shown which makes me feel even worse for the poor people down there.

Indirectly for me..
I hope that your family will come out of this okay...one day this nightmare will be just a sad but vivid memory. keep us posted.

WOW - that is amazing, that trailers would still be standing! Too bad about the little town, which I'd never heard of before. I had heard of Laplace though since I have long been a fan of Cajun music, so had become familiar with some LA place names over the years. So glad some people now have their electricity back. So sorry about your aunt's dog and her house. Is the dog just lost or did it actually die? Did she have good insurance on the house? Queen Ida (dunno if you like zydeco or not but I sure do) lives just out of San Francisco in Daly City; she is now a grandmom of 78 years -- there was a short thingy about her in the "Examiner" paper yesterday.

I am so sorry for the deaths in your family. Yes, it's tragic for teen-agers to die a horrible death. At least they died together.

None of my family has died....but thank you for your concern.
My Aunts dog died but it was because it was left behind. Why I don't know, I'm guessing it's because my Aunt is in her 80's.
My one Niece is in Ruston,LA. she is fine.
I called OCS to find out about my other Niece they said they would send out an email to all of the other OCS places, and If they hear anything they would let me know.
I do know that she was living with a Foster family.

Yes, "WOW" is an understatement...I thought that trailer park would be gone too!
Maybe one of the trailers saving graces is, that most of those trailers were older ones.
They built them stronger years ago.
My sister told me her trailer is strapped down with ties that go 8 ft. underground in cement.

Now THAT is certainly news to me (about the ties that go 8 ft. underground in cement). That is great! That undoubtedly is exactly what saved them!

yes, my campus got partially flooded and I ended up having to sit out a semester and I am now unemployed. On top of that, it will be a major hassle transfering to another university if my campus doesn't reopen the next semester and even if it does, finding housing near campus will be a pain. I can't really complain since I haven't lost everything, but this definatly sucks.

WOW - that is amazing, that trailers would still be standing!

no, not really, considering that St. John Parish is over 30 miles west of NO.

I still think that Blanco and Bush screwed this thing up horribly. Even if he didn't want to "step on her toes", putting that aside, putting Micheal Brown as the head of FEMA was just plain retarted. Yeah, lets put friends and family into certain positions and fire all the people who actually knew what they were doing. Bush would have made a great pre-Nagin New Orleans mayor.

St Bernard and Plaqueman Parish is virtually wiped out. The only difference between NO and these places is that its poor white people instead of poor black people living there. I think part of the eye might have actually passed over them. St Tammany got screwed. Pretty much anything east of NO. I am also guessing that some parts of north shore got some damage but don't quote me on that.

The answers to this should have been "Directly" & "Indirectly" not yes and no!
I Other! Indirectly affected by the damn gas prices!

You can't help but be affected...period.

If you had written this, then yes maybe it should have.
But, YOU didn't ...so GO SCRATCH!

Will your university help you relocate to another one? I think they should considering the price you pay in fees tuition..etc.
If they don't help, can you get a partial reimbursement?
Also how far back dose this set you on getting your degree?
Hope it works out for you.

They give you an option, either take online classes, which they're working on setting that up as we speak, OR resign from the university for the semester and receive a full refund. They're going to have to refund my dorm fees (maybe minus the 10 bucks I spent on my meal card) no matter what. From then on, I could go to another university and pay their normal fees or sit out a semester (given that most deadlines just passed last week as I was trying on deciding on what I should do, most likely I'll just sit out for the semester). I heard that some universities from out-of-state offered in-state tuition rates to people affected by the hurricane. No matter where I go, the problem is that it's a question of being successful in getting all my credits transfered.

After this semester, if they open up UNO I'll just go back again. If not, I'll have to go shopping for universities and see which ones are the best and work for me best (which will take some time hence I didn't make this deadline) sometime before the semester starts. Either way, I should be getting a full refund for this semester unless I choose to take online classes (I am considering that option right now. Its a guestion of whether I want to graduate one semester later verses taking some classes without having a professor in the classroom teach. I have about two weeks from today to decide).

How sad. I am so sorry to hear this! One does not usually hear this stuff on the news -- since they usually tend to cover a huge city like N. Orleans first. The other little places are ignored too much, but I can imagine how these folks are suffering too. (Then too, since I do not have a TV, I get most of my news from a neighbor secondhand, from a free local newspaper, and occasionally from the Internet when I check on the news on my break at work). One can only hope attention is paid to these other-than-New-Orleans peoples' desperate problems also!

Well, yes, in that the hurricane came directly through Birmingham, AL, and no, in that we, and no one we know suffered any sizeable damage. My brother's friends own an oil company and have made two trips to Gulfport/Biloxi delivering oil and supplies to the people there. My best friend's friend owns a bar in New Orleans, and he barely made it out of town, getting a few gallons of gas here and there all the way to Picayune and from there it started getting better. He and his group drove straight through all the way to Auburn, Al. His home was in the garden district, and the bar was on Canal Street, I believe. I don't know when they'll get a status on things there.
...on a sidenote...I'm so sorry about what your family has gone through. I hope that resources and contacts will come your way quickly. I also hope you hear something about your other neice soon...

They don't need attention, what they need is food and someone to take them to a higher ground. I hope most of them made it out ok.

Canal Street doesn't have that many bars though . The only one I can think of is maybe the Dixie Tavern.

OH SY!! come to my state! Check out Auburn! It was a great university and I spent some of the best years of my life there....
http://www.ocm.auburn.edu/katrina/
there's lots of aid and resources available on this page and phone numbers you can call and find out how they could help in transferring.... I would love to show you around!

I'll try. I wonder if the deadlines allready passed though.

it looks like they say they'll consider it on a case by case basis. I would call and see if you were able to get all of your paperwork together quickly, if they would consider letting you come for fall, so you wouldn't have to miss a quarter. From what I hear, a LOT of the universities are being very, very lenient on this.

Hey - also check out UAB - University of Alabama/Birmingham - https://studentaffairs.sass.uab.edu/admissions/app...
and Alabama:
http://admissions.ua.edu/undergraduate/

also READ THIS:
http://www.nasfaa.org/publications/2005/frkatrina0...

oh. I see its based on quarters, not semesters. I wonder how that would work out.

jest fine.... actually I think Auburn does quarters and Alabama and UAB does semesters

Well, "attention" meaning HELP! Help with food, water, etc. Do not ignore them just because they are not residents of the big city, in other words.

Saw this on the online paper. dailyharold.com

DuPage colleges accepting displaced students .
Benedictine in response to an offer by university President William Carroll to accept students from schools in Katrina’s path.

Benedictine is asking displaced students to pay their tuition, which will be forwarded to their home colleges to help pay salaries for employees who find themselves without jobs.

Those students who paid tuition before the hurricane will be accepted for free.
And many more are on their way, Benedictine and North Central officials said.


Hope this helps!

P.S. Dupage is in ILLINOIS...

Indirectly, I guess. Are we able to type more than one answer in a question?

Not really - just worried about some SC users (and their family).

I have been indirectly affected owing to the rise in fuel prices, but not in any other way.

Answer as much as you want to.

Everyone in the US was affected whether it be by losing a loved one, having a loved one displaced ect - to having be a victim of price gouging. It was a National disaster and all of us have felt the affects. I'm truly sorry for your families situation and hope you hear from your nieces soon.

I moved from New Orleans shorlty after Katrina, not because my house was damaged beyond repair, but because my dad's company, which suffered a lot of loss and decided it wasn't worth the risk to stay in a city that could very well face the same situation again in the near future, decided to trasnfer. My family was lucky enough to be able to salvage much of what we owned, as we only got slight wind/water damage. But my sister, who lived near one of the levee breeches that cause massive flooding suffered the most; her house was flooded with 11 feet of water, and she and her husband lost *everything*. Not to mention she found out she was pregnant shortly after.... Now they're living in a pint-sized house they bought and totally remodeled just in time for the baby. So I guess all's well that ends well, you know?