A letter from a Katrina Survivor.

[teachski]

A friend from the summer community band that I am in left Massachusetts on August 24th to return to New Orleans, Louisianna. She is/was a senior there, majoring in Jazz Performance. Many of us here have been quite concerned about her welfare since the storm hit.

Most of us figured Dani would try to wait out the storm. She said in a phone call today that she and her roomates (off campus apartment) were planning to do just that, then her grandmother called and pleaded with her to leave. They left at the last possible minute and barely made it out. She lost everything she had except the clothes she had with her, some money, her laptop and the truck they left N.O. in.

She was unable to rescue her instruments which were in a practice room on the college campus. She lost a Professional model euphonium (baritone horn) and a professional trumpet as well as several other instruments. She has indicated that they may be safe, but she can't get back there to see. Most of the buildings on campus were destroyed, but video feed she has seen shows that one still standing...she was unsure how high the water had been there.

Here is her letter:

Dear Friends and Family - I am using this email because my University has been destroyed and therefore the email server has been destroyed - so this is my alternative email until furthur notice. I just wanted to let you folks know. I am at a refugee camp outside of Houston with 5 friends from school and we are lucky enough to have laptops and WiFi access, so we are able to access local New Orleans television stations, among other things. We have registered with Red Cross and Fema. The people here are very nice. We are staying in a small cabin with a/c which is nice because for the past 3 nights we had been sleeping on the ground in our tents (we only had 3 blankets between the 6 of us) and the heat index here is 112. Wells Fargo donated toiletries and we have plenty of food and water. In a little while we are going to United Way to see if we can get any other assistance. There are about 30 NOLA evacuees here at this camp and all of our meals are being donated by local restaurants. We couldn't be more fortunate. The Salvation Army has donated clothes to us as well. We each only have two outfits and our ID's.

Elora and I saw an aerial view of our neighbor's houses and our house is supposed to be in the middle and it was completely submerged in water. We had left our two cats, Waffle and Tangerine, on the second floor of our friends' house with plenty of food and water on top of the fridge. We saw an aerial view of his house too and they might be alive. We feel terrible about leaving them but we had 4 people in the truck already and couldnt take them with us. However we are preparing for them not to be there when we return because we know it could be weeks. I'm not sure what else to say about that. We feel awful. They're our kids.

We have many friends who stayed behind and many of them are in neighborhoods in which we are seeing dead bodies floating down the streets..The death count is over 2000 in New Orleans and the levees keep breaking. 5 out of the 6 of us are certified in CPR and First Aid and after Monday we're going to try and go back to New Orleans, not only to rummage through to see if we can salvage anything, albiet a photograph or a towel, and also to see if we can help those in need. Not to mention, my horn is in the music building at school, which we saw is still standing - and I refuse to go back to MA without my horn.

Anyways this is my update. Elora's cell phone works so you can call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Don't worry about the stupid phone minutes. We like phone calls. A lot of times you folks know more than we do about what's going on.

So - we have no homes or anything in them and our 'kids' are gone...but we have eachother, plenty of food and water, and so many people helping us out.We are more fortunate than thousands who are still waiting for help. I cant wait for the Wells Fargo people to come back with some toothpaste and a razor!! So - we're alright. Just wanted to let you know. You can forward this to the rest of the family if you want - My email address book with everyone elses' addresses is on the UNO server.

Danielle

Dani is on her way home to MA right now...without her horn. They are in Virginia. She sounded quite depressed when I spoke with her. She hopes that a college in MA or NY will let her enroll to finish her senior year and that she will be able to find a horn to use to do so.

 

[smitty77]

I'm glad to hear she is okay. I can imagine the guilt she feels for leaving the cats behind. I wouldn't be able to leave my cat and dog to fend for themselves, they're too much like family.

Smitty