One year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, life has stabilized for many, but not all. As the recovery continues, we invite everyone to share their remembrances of these areas, the disastrous storm, and the long year afterwards.

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I was in Jefferson parish the day the stom hit. It was so flooded, the power was out and the hotel was running out of food. Then when the 17th street canal broke, we had to evacuate again. We went to Baton Rouge and then Houston, Texas. When we went to Houston it was kinda hard for us to find a hotel or something, but we got one like at 4:00 in the morning. Then, we switched again. Then here came Rita. We had to evacuate again. Now this time we were going to go really nowhere because the house is detroyed, but we got lucky and the Courtyard Marriot helped us, so we stayed at the Residence Inn, another Marriot for like 5 days and went back to the Courtyard Marriot. Now we have to stay in a hotel until we find somewhere to stay. And another thing is I THANK GOD that we are with my whole family because my 2 uncles and my dad were missing. And, that is my Hurricane Story.

Tuesday morning at school while attending Lamar University I discovered there was a significantly large hurricane coming towards Texas and it seems that Beaumont was directly in the middle of the projected path. My roommate and I blew off the warnings thinking it wouldn't be as bad as everybody said it would, but thursday morning we turned on the television and discovered that this was a very big deal. Hurricane Rita: Category 4 was headed straight for us and we decided we should get our behinds on the road. I did not really take the time and look but I only had a 1/2 of tank of gas; however, this should have been enough to make it to Austin. We left our apartment and discovered that I-10 was already backed up as far as Port Arthur. We followed the feeder roads all the way to Highway 124 and turned on that. We managed to avoid all the traffic from Beaumont all the way to Winnie, Texas. We got on I-10 in Winnie westbound and the traffic wasn't necessarily all that bad yet. We made it to the east side of Houston and that was where we met the resistance. We were bumper to bumper for about 3 hours until we made it to the HOV lane. We got on it thinking it might take us through Houston a little faster, and to our prevail it even ended up emptying right into the eastbound lane on I-10. This was right when it opened and I thanked God for the luck we had received thus far into the journey. After we got about 10 miles outside of Houston on the eastern side we met the bumper-to-bumper traffic we were so whole-heartedly trying to avoid. We started running really low on gas so I began pulling into ever exit I could even though this was all taking place at speeds of less that 2 mph. We made it to Colombus when the car started sputtering so we got off the interstate there. As soon as we met the road that ran through the town we were directed by a police officer to get at the end of the line which went about a mile down the road to get gas. Well we waited in this line for a period of about 12 hours and the reason it took this long is because police officers were ordering everybody to get into this one lane and there were other people getting into the lane next to us and cutting in at an intersection that POLICE were actually trying to control. This was a problem though. They were directing people to get in one lane and letting people budge into this lane. We were moving the rate of about 1 block every 2 hours. I finally decided to wake up my roommate and go check out this situation. The police were sitting in their cars not doing anything and when I went up to one and asked what the situation is I received the answer "We are looking out for our own safety now. We are being threatened by people because they don't believe we are directing traffic the proper way." However maddening this was I just walked on in my rage not showing any amount of it. I walked up to the gas station and things were tremendously out of control. They had 4 pumps designated to people filling up any canister they could muster (water containers, milk cartons, even oil pans) full of gas and bringing it back to their cars. As soon as I discovered this (about 10 hours into the wait), I found two canisters in the car and waited in line to fill up. I managed to fill up about 4 gallons of gas in containers and brought it back to the car which was still about 2 blocks away. After putting 4 gallons of gas in my car, we headed east as far as we could go and found a gas station 4 miles up the road that had hardly any people waiting for gas. (What a coincidence!) After a 23 hour trip we finally made it to our destination. I hope the next evacuation in Texas is a more successful and organized one.

9/9/2005 I sit and type on the 40th anniversary of Hurricane Betsy, I realize that again my family has lost everything, not homes, not belongings, but our way of life. Life as we knew it will forever be changed, from this day forward everything will be before Katrina or after Katrina. I have cried, mourning the loss of my life as it was, and look forward to see how life will become. What have we lost? Below is a list of my family and what we lost. I have 2 sisters and 5 brothers so the list is long.

• Grand Isle - Daddy and Momma, very possible that they can go back to their home, but it does have some damage.
• Chalmette - Kathy, (sister) rented but lost her belongings
• Chalmette - Josh,(nephew) Casandra and children, rented with Kathy, but also lost their belongings
• Grand Isle - Linda, (sister) is working out of the country, but her home sustained severe to massive damage to her home
• Grand Isle - Brandon, (nephew) Miranda and Allison, rented Linda's house, lost all their belongings.
• Grand Isle - Jonathon Frazier (nephew) Rented from Linda, his belongings are in question.
• Grand Isle - Michael, (brother) Wendy and Abigail, their house is next to my parent's, their house totaled.
• Grand Isle - David (brother) lived below my parent's, his home and belongings were washed away.
• Grand Isle - Mark, (brother) Gina and Robert, their home had over five feet of water inside
• Grand Isle - Paul (brother) his home next to my parents is totaled.
• Grand Isle - Jamie (brother) and Tracy have about over five feet of water in their home.

My home, Grand Isle - well was our future, where I planned to grow old with my family. It is still hard to accept what I saw, my home destroyed, my family's, my neighbors and friends, all our homes are gone, damaged or completely destroyed. My husband spent 21 years in the Coast Guard and is now in his 7th as a State Trooper. This home was our future. But I have come to realize that the homes listed above is/were my family's present. We didn't have homes in New Orleans, Kathy and Josh lived in Chalmette, but we all lived in Grand Isle, a place the media has said faired decently. If this loss is fairly decent, I would hate to see total destruction. My family survived Besty. I was very young and have very few memories of it, but I remember playing on the slab of our home that blew away for Betsy. My Mother says we will make it through this. She did once and we have no other choice but to believe her. She raised us to have faith and to always believe that you can do and be whatever you wanted. We all want to go back home, and at the end of this nightmare, we will. Darleen Taylor

I lost my house, everything I own including a car to Katrina. My job is gone as well. I have 20 family members living in a two bedroom apartment with my niece. We are only being allowed to have the small mobile trailers to live in for now and we are not allowed to tap into the city's water system. We have to have licensed electricians to hook up the lights, which many of us can't afford. None of our elected officials that are making these rules have to live by them. We are at their mercy right now, and God help them for messing with his children.

She is an 85 y.o. Alzheimers patient and was last seen at Chalmette hospital where she was in for a test. She was a resident of St. Rita's nursing home. Her name is Celeste Hingle. Please call 225-222-6242 if anyone has any information on her. My name is Dianne H. LeBlanc. My mother is missing in what could be her last days with us. Please help me find her. We know she was in Chalmette hospital when Hurricane Katrina hit. But although we have tried everything we know -- Red Cross, online, etc. -- we still haven't a clue where they sent her -- Ala., Tex , etc. Please dear God, please help us. We can't let her spend her last days as a missing person. Again I'm Dianne LeBlanc. Phone 225-222-6242 and my mother is 85 y.o. Celeste M. Hingle.

I lived in Biloxi, MS on the Tchoutacabouffa River (pronounced Choo-ta-ca-buff) and unfortunately decided to stay after consulting with neighbors who were there during Camille, and said the water only got to their back doors. Since I lived in a 2-story house, i thought, "no problem, I'll just go upstairs with my icechest, radio, flashlight, Bible and cats and ride it out." Big Mistake! I slept on and off during Sunday night, while watching the local news, and by the time the power went out and the sun came up I knew I was in deep trouble. The water was fast approaching from the river, so I went upstairs with all my provisions. About 7 A.M., the wind started getting really loud, like a Jet engine, so I got in my walk-in closet with my bible and a flashlight, and kinda dozed off again (from sheer exhaustion). I was awakened by the feeling of water bumping the floor, and I knew the upstairs was fixing to flood. I had just enough time to throw 2 of my cats into the attic, and since we had spanish tile on the roof, I decided not to join them since I knew I couldn't punch a hole through that. I threw my other cat into a carrier and by this time the water was up to my thighs, all in a matter of minutes. I crawled out my bathroom window, and stood on a couch on the upper deck until it started to float, then it was time to get on the roof. By this time the wind was howling, and so was my cat, who had already peed all over himself. Through my fear I felt enormous guilt for staying and subjecting them to this. This was about 9:10 a.m. and I stayed by the chimney until the water started coming up the roof, which is about 30 ft. The river had turned into the ocean, with waves, whitecaps and all. It was terrifying. I was praying the whole time, and the only thing I had thought to grab on my way out was a wooden Rosary that I had brought back from Venezuela. It was around my neck, and I just kept asking God to send a Hedge of Protection around me and my cats and Guardian Angels to protect me. I realized that if the water went over the roof I would probably drown as the current would have swept me away. I saw my pool house floating on the other end of the roof by two enormous trees that were now sheared off that used to provide shade over the back porch and pool. I slowly made my way across the roof and onto the pool house, all the time hanging on to my cat in his carrier (which I had to periodically dump the water out of, so he didn't drown). I sat on the poolhouse and hung onto a tree branch to keep from floating away with the cat carrier between my thighs, hanging on for dear life. All of a sudden, a bunch of roaches and spiders started crawling all over me, looking for higher ground, and I started freaking out. I kept trying to slap them off, and after a while I just had to send my mind to a different place, because if I didn't I would have ended up doing something stupid, like jumping in the water. Eventually the pool house started sinking, and this is where I almost died. I managed to get my cat back up on the roof, wedged behind one of those trees, but since the poolhouse was sinking, I couldn't get any purchase to push off of, and I finally had to get in the water and climb one of the half-sheared off trees, and the current was really, really strong, and the gusts of wind had to have been well above 120 miles by this time. I just barely managed to get back on the roof, and haul me and the cat to the other side, where i got on the steepest part with my back to the eaves, and just started praying and freaking out again. I asked God for forgiveness of my sins and to please take my cats quick. I really did not think I was going to make it, and kept praying for the guardian Angels, and this is when the wet Nutria showed up. ( A Nutria is a HUGE Swamp Rat) so I suppose God does have a sense of humor, and I told him if that's what he was sending to look over me, I was taking it. Mind you, all this time my cat was howling and yowling for his very soul, done messed himself by this point, and I couldn't do a damm thing about it. All of a sudden, I heard this voice in my head that said "Be calm, my child, help is on the way" and I KNEW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was God speaking to me, and a certain sense of peace came over me and I knew I was going to make it. About 15-30 minutes later, my neighbors came and rescued me in their boat. They had seen me on the roof in my bright orange rain jacket. I lost everything I owned, my car, except for my life, and my cats, and my family, and those are the most important things of all. Thanks to Dan and John O'Conner, my Heros forever. And to Dan's lovely wife Sarah, for taking me in for the following days and helping me not to lose my mind. Cathy Jenkins

So much for women and children first. Despite having several days of notice, there was no plan for a total and effective evacuation of the city. The result: those with cars or money to pay for cabs were able to flee. New Orleans has the lowest rate of car ownership of any major city in the United States (including New York and Washington D.C.) and one of the highest rates of poverty. 35% of African American households do not own a car versus 15% of Anglo households. Those without an escape -- of whom women and children composed a large number -- were left behind. Stories about failed evacuation plans must point to the lack of coordination, and ask why there was no concerted effort to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable. Domestic violence survivors left to fend for themselves. The media has occasionally reported on rape during the chaos after the storm, but not the underlying issue... displaced women are at greater risk of violence. Furthermore, survivors of domestic violence have been completely overlooked in the media coverage. Many shelters could not evacuate women. Women fleeing violence at home needed a safe shelter, away from a potential encounter with their abusers who might be in the Superdome or civic center shelters. These women faced assault not only by their partners and Katrina, but also from a system that continues to fail them. Separating mothers and children. Several stories have touched upon heart-wrenching experiences of mothers who passed their children on to buses and were unable to go themselves. In some cases media reports cast children who were forced to separate from their families as either orphaned or abandoned. This portrayal does not reflect the systemic shortcoming of the evacuation. Other stories touched upon but never explained how dozens of babies in hospitals were airlifted out -- but their mothers were left behind. News stories need to focus on why this happened -- and what should be done to prevent it from ever happening again. The Youth Media Council has joined with others to call for racial justice in the media coverage of Katrina. We support this call to action and specifically point out the disproportionate impact on women and children who make of the majority of poor people worldwide. Go to this Webpage to do your part! http://www.fundforward.org/uswomenwithoutborders/contactmedia.php

My daughter lost all of her things in Hurricane Katrina. She's 9 months pregnant. This is her first child and I was looking for anyone who has some info on how to get baby furniture for her new baby when it arrives. I can be reached at NORALEEWILSON@MSN.COM.