A Katrina Survivor's account, written by Pamela, disabled resident of New Orleans about her ordeal:
"We are alive and in Houston after a 9 hour Ambulance ride. We had evacuated to a hotel on Causeway and were on the ninth floor safe from flooding, but had no power or water and little food. The passage of the Hurricane was a harrowing SEVEN hours of exploding windows, howling winds and flying debris. I felt like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." 70 % of the glass in the hotel broke, but none in my room. It was a miracle. We took Cupid, the dog, and Jester, the bird but not the cats. Then came the problem of getting me out of the hotel. We could not get an ambulance to come get me. Even bribery didn't work. So we stayed in the hotel with no power and no phones working. Very few cell phones were working so we had to beg to make calls. But thankfully we got in touch with my Niece in Houston who was frantic about our safety. She called every ambulance service between New Orleans and Houston and finally got one to drive from Beaumont to New Orleans, pick me up and drive me back to Houston. (you can't even imagine the cost) They did not arrive till Wednesday about nine, after breaking down and getting lost, and escorted by a fire truck. Next was the problem of how to get me off the ninth floor, with no elevator. The firemen came in with the ambulance people, carried me down two flights of stairs, cut a hole through the wall to the parking lot, carried me through, put me in the back of a pickup truck and drove me down to the ground floor to put me in the ambulance. Then we drove all night to safety in Houston. We are staying with my niece and her family."
These people literally lost everything but she still writes: "But with our love and great friends we will put our life together again somehow."