Janet's Story

A recounting of accual events the day of the hurricane.

My husband, myself and 3 children normally live with my parents or on their property. We were in the process of building a new home on the lot behind their house. We had just finished building my parents home from a fire in 2004. As Katrina was approaching the Gulf of Mexico, my father (a semi-retired tug boat captain) decided that he wasn’t going to be leaving our family home in Pearlington, Mississippi. Pearlington is located on the Mississippi-Louisiana state line and is approximately 4 miles from the Gulf. It was not an unusual thing for us to stay for a hurricane as we didn’t receive much water even during hurricane Camille. Well, my husband, Tommy, made plans to stay and therefore, I decided to stay. We have a total of 8 children. 7 Girls between the ages of 24 and 16 and 1 son age 14, named Janssen. My son tends to fight with his sister (the 16 year old) so when my mother decided to evacuate she also decided that my son would stay with us in Pearlington (I did try to convince her to take him, but no one thought that the storm would be as bad as it was).

The day of the storm started out pretty normal for a hurricane, lots of wind and some rain, electricity went out early, etc. We thought that we had a working radio but found out that someone had left the radio on and the batteries were dead. All of the extra batteries were gone. With no means of communication (other than our cell phones) we were doing okay. We had food and shelter and there weren’t any trees left on the property as my husband had cut them all down to turn them into lumber to build our house. We talked to a few of our siblings and children throughout the morning but were never aware that the storm had been turning in our direction. We were still under the assumption that it was going to the side of us. At one point my husband and I went out onto our 8 foot porch of our new home and were viewing the bayou located on the lot in front of our home and we were making jokes about not having the property values go up yet due to having waterfront property. A few relatives and friends had called to tell us that the eye should be coming through around 1:00 p.m. My father had explained that as the storm passes over it would push up any water in that area and then as the eye would pass the water would then start to recede. Well, 1:00 came and went with no incident. We still kept walking to the back of my parent’s home that was raised and faces the bayou to check for water. Sometime around 1:20 my husband went to look out the back window and yelled that it looked as though water was coming into the yard. By the time he got to the front of the house the water was lapping the back door. My parent’s home has 6 double French doors and within 10 minutes the water had come up about 18 inches and it looked like we were visiting an aquarium. That was when the water started coming in the doors. My father had been sitting in his usual chair by the dining room table taking in all this commotion. I told him to get up and get his insulin and other heart, high-blood pressure medicine together because it looked like we were going to go under. He told me that he wasn’t going to get up until the water was up to his chest, and he did just that. My husband and I jumped on the counter to try and get the fridge open that was now floating and stuck between the cabinet on top of it and the one in front of it. We couldn’t get it open.. During this time the wood floors and furniture were starting to float everywhere and my mothers 120 lb dog “Freckles” came frantically swimming in the house. I put Freckles on a sofa that was floating around and we all got out of the house when there was about 5 inches of clearance on the door. The water went from floor to ceiling within 20-25 minutes, taking all of our cell phones, except one that I had put on the ceiling rafters over at our house. Before the storm we had put my daughters jet ski in front of the house and my son had the key around his neck. We also had tied off a flat bottom boat to the only surviving pine tree in the yard that was located between the garage and our new home. Sometime during the storm, when the water initially started to rise, my husband brought the jet ski over to our new home and threw the rope in the second story window and tied it off to one of the rafters. My son, thinking the jet ski was in front of the house started down the driveway only to be swept in the current and he was swept into the top of the pine trees across the street from my parents home. My Dad is now holding onto the gutter and my husband has gone to get the jet ski and flat boat. I tell them I am going to where Janssen is and head down the driveway holding a metal box my father had given me that had some coins and cash that he grabbed on the way out the door. The box was quite heavy and I was having a hard time keeping hold of the box while trying to maneuver down the drive. When I got across the street I decided to let the box sink and I would try and find it again when the water receded. At this point we get the dead silence that comes with the eye and all we hear are people yelling from their roof tops. We hear “HELP” and “WE’RE HERE, HELP US”. From around the corner I hear Mr. Dupree yelling that he is“ABOUT TO DROWN, PLEASE HELP ME”. He is literally pleading and he is no “spring chicken”. He is elderly and has lived in the house most of my life. I decide to swim around the corner and try to save him. He tells me that he is barely “able to hold on” and he is going to “drowned” as he doesn’t swim. As I go around the corner I find myself being swept down the main road in the neighborhood which has now become the “river”. I am not dressed appropriate for a hurricane or any other such disaster as I have on a very short skirt (I had no business wearing in the first place), a short sleeve t-shirt, and a pair of terry cloth tennis shoes. The tennis shoes have now filled with water and I have no control of my feet while trying to swim, so I kick them off of my feet. In front of Mr. Dupree’s house there is a limb sticking up about 6 inches in diameter. I grab onto this limb and hold on. I am now in front of Mr. Dupree’s house. I can’t see him but I let him know that I am there and the he “BETTER HOLD ON, SOMEONE IS COMING”. My son sees this a an opportunity to try out his swimming skills and he tells me he is coming around the corner after us. He gets caught in the current and grabs another limb in similar size. At the time we think that these limbs are caught under cars or some other debris so we are very careful holding onto them as we don’t want to dislodge them from wherever they are caught. We tell Mr. Dupree that they are coming with a boat and he “BETTER HOLD ON”. He indicates that he can’t hold on much longer. I then hear a family of eight (I think) that are on the roof of their house, on my right. It is a one story house and they keep saying that there are “3 stuck in the attic”. I let them know that help is coming and to stay put. There are about 4 adults and 4 kids. At this time my son and I aren’t really afraid, we are just in “overdrive”. You are in a survival mode and are just waiting for the next sequence of events. Having no shoes on presents another round of problems as by this time you are dodging all types of debris. Everything that is alive is trying to stay afloat. We are covered in pine needles and bark and fire ants. We are now the stopping ground for other items as well. We look towards the back of the neighborhood and see all types of items coming at us. There are cars, lawnmowers, motorbikes, wood, bikes, limbs, ice chest, etc. At one point we see a rabbit on a log float by and we see some turtles. There is a 2 foot fish that keeps swimming around my feet. The pine needles, ants, and bark are being pushed through our clothes (yes, even through my bra and underwear) as the current is so strong. We see my father’s watermelon trailer coming at us about this time. You see, my father must be a true redneck because who else would have a watermelon trailer. It is built from the back end of a Ford track with a hitch on the front. He has these insulated panels that sit on all four sides and the bottom. He puts watermelons and ice inside for different church functions and then places a panel on top. Well this is now coming towards us and stops right between my son and I. It is about 4 foot above the water level but my son is so wiry he is able to climb right in. He tries to get me to climb up there but there is no way that I can lift myself up to this level and I am still sitting precariously on this limb. About this time a couple of neighbors come around the corner in their boat to get us out of the water. I tell them to hurry and get Mr. Dupree instead. They bring their boat up to his roof and are llifting him into the boat when I turn around to see a four foot cottonmouth snake to my right about 18inches from my head. It is coiled and in a striking position. It is about this time that I start to loose whatever sanity I have left. I just keep telling the snake in a low tone “just leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone, just leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone….” My son has been enjoying this entire day and tells me that the snake is not going to bother me to just leave it alone but if it decides to crawl on me, just let it……I try to get the attention of the guys on the boat and let them know there is a snake…Of course, they want to know what kind (does it really matter?). They come over to get us and I fly in the boat, my son climbs in and the snake goes behind the trailer. We then maneuver around trees and houses to get to the family on the roof. We ask them who is stuck in the attic and they tell us “3 dogs”. Everyone in the boat looks at me and I tell them that unfortunately we have to save people right now, not animals. We let them know that we will be back for them in a few minutes.

In the meantime…..my husband has had to swim against the current to get to our new house and literally swim under the garage to get to the second floor. He unties the jet ski and jumps out the second story window only to find that he has no key. The current has increased so he remembers that there is an air hose on the ground that runs from our house to the garage. He puts the rope to the jet ski in his teeth and dives under the water and finds the air hose and pulls himself over to the boat. When he gets to the boat he has to take the engine cover off to get the water out of the engine in order to start it. He and my father have no idea that we have been floating down the middle of the neighborhood as they think we are in front of the house where the jet ski was originally parked. My father is still holding onto the gutter. My neighbors bring my son and I over and we get on the jet ski and get it started. My husband brings the boat over to the roof of our house and we maneuver my father into the boat. My son and I then proceed to go check on some neighbors that we thought had stayed for the storm while the eye is still passing. They aren’t there so we return. My Dad,husband, my son and I go over to my fathers shrimp boat that is tied off in the bayou. My son and I climb on and my father and husband go to look for some friends that we knew stayed behind in a double-wide trailer and a metal building. One of the friends is a mechanic and the other is an elderly man who stays in an apartment at the mechanics auto shop. Our friend the mechanic, Lester, is about six foot tall and skinny as a rail. My father and husband get a few others to safety on the way to the shop. When they are coming towards the shop they see Lester and Russell (the other gentleman) sitting in a flatbottom boat waiting for my dad. They had the roof cave in on the boat and had to lift the metal roof in order to get the boat out. They were sure that we would come for them and wanted to know what had taken so long. The most entertaining feature of this whole rescue experience was Lester’s attire. He had on a bright blue and yellow neon diving suit that stops at the knees. He also had on a motorcycle helmet with a face guard. When they drove up to the shrimp boat my son remarked, “Look, Lester looks just like a Power Ranger” and he was right!

We waited out the rest of the storm, mostly on the shrimp boat. At times, because we were at the end of the bayou and because all the debris was moving through us, we would have to untangle items from the lines that were keeping us moored in place. At one time my husband had to get on a deck and push it out of the lines. Another time he had to maneuver an entire roof from the lines. We have friends/neighbors who have a three story home located behind us. The water went up to the top of the second floor. We knew that the third floor, where her 2 sons rooms were located, was a dry area. When the water had started to recede we decided we would go over and get into the upstairs to find some dry clothing and maybe some bedding for the night. Because they too are at the end of the bayou, a bunch of the debris had settled on their second story deck that used to overlook the bayou. There was about a foot and half of pine straw, squirrels, frogs, limbs, snakes and other such items on that back deck. We had to carefully climb over to a small bathroom window (remember, I am barefoot) and brake the pane so that we can unlock the French doors. Well, my husband broke the pane and put my son through the window. When my son opened the doors we found that the whole front of the other side of the house was gone. We could have just gone around the front and walked right in. As we were trying to find some water and food items we found that some of the floor boards under the carpet were missing and we were stepping on air. We did find some Kentwood water and a bag of Hershey kisses. We al went upstairs and laid down on the dry warm carpet. It felt so good to not be wet or cold anymore. We just lay there for a few minutes then started rummaging for clothes and things. We found a radio with working batteries, 3 pillows, and 2 blankets. The clothes were too small but I was glad to have them. I also found a pair of blue steel toed boots, a little too big but I was no longer bare foot. As we were getting comfortable we started hearing a hissing sound. The house next door had been blown away and there was a natural gas leak. We had to get out of the house. We took what we found and went back to the shrimp boat. When the water had gotten down to about 4 foot deep we took the jet ski back over to the trailer so that it wouldn’t be laying on the ground when the water went down all the way. My husband, Janssen and I took the 2 blankets and three pillows and went over to our second story and tried to sleep with the heat and mosquitoes. My father and Russell slept on the shrimp boat and Lester went to his house to try and see what he could salvage.

About 18months ago a developer built a house in the front of our neighborhood. He built this house way up on stilts. Everyone wondered why someone would do this and we could all understand how the house had never sold. Well, our neighbors who came to get us earlier and gone around collecting everyone in the neighborhood and that house had about 30 people living in it that first night and I think there are still people living in it today. They too went scavaging for items that would be useful such as food and water and bedding.

We all would meet up at some point during the day time and check on each other and help each other with what we could. We found peanut butter and sometimes we could find a loaf of bread and if you were really careful you could find some dry pieces in the middle. We found some canned goods on the second day and a can opener. My husband was able to get my fathers insulin, which was now hot, but he used it. We were worried about him and Russell as they were both without any of their medications. By the third day, Lester’s son came into town and we were able to evacuate. We had 8 people in a small Chevy Blazer. Most of us had to take off our shoes because they were so full of mud and stench that it would have made the trip miserable. We were covered in mud because there was no place to bathe but the bayou. We stank but were grateful to be alive. We had mixed feelings about leaving as we were leaving so many of our neighbors still in the neighborhood. We did leave them all the food and water we could find and gave some of them cash on the way out of town. We drove to Pensacola where a very dear friend had every bed in her house set up and her motor home was plugged in and waiting. When we got there we sent 5 people in to get showers and Lester, Tommy, and myself went to Wal-Mart to get everyone at least one outfit to wear and underclothes and shoes. When we got there the Security guy told me that Wal-Mart was closed. I got out of the car in my muddy clothes barefoot. I started crying and begged him to please let me buy some shoes and clothes. He said “wait just a minute Ma’m”. I did and he came back and told me to go in and get whatever I needed and there would be someone waiting at the register to ring me out.

The next morning I got up at 4:00 a.m. and started making phone calls to get a rental car and a place to live. I ordered all my fathers meds from CVS. We had called my Mom the night before and my children to let them all know that we were alive. All you could hear on the other end of the phone was sobbing.

I wrote this so that others could enjoy our Katrina adventure. People have been so wonderful and giving to all of us. We have been able to see most of our children and grandchild since the storm at least once. My Dad is doing great and so are Lester and Russell and their families. My son enjoyed every minute of the event. We are blessed. Thanks for your time and hope you enjoyed the adventure. When I get the time I will write down the experiences that my brother and one of my daughters encountered. Until then, keep your prayers coming as they are greatly appreciated.