Original Message -----
From: JOYAF4AN@aol.com
To: k4jrh@bellsouth.net
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2005 11:56 AM
Subject: Hurricane

Hi Sonny,
Great to hear from you and Shirley.

I'm still here in New Orleans, in fact I never left. I spent from Sunday afternoon before Katrina to 4am Tuesday in the Communications room of the New Orleans EOC on the 9th floor of City Hall with two other hams. We left early Tuesday when the flood waters reached downtown and it was either get out now or stay for who knew how long. It was an eerie ride back avoiding fallen trees, no lights and deserted streets. I live on the West Bank of Algiers and my area had no flooding, but a great deal of wind damage. I had a tree through my garage roof, shingles missing and a disappearing chimney, the yard was covered in debris but the house was livable. My boyfriend and I, KD5EWD, stayed at my house despite the mandatory evacuation order with no power for two weeks. We had running water and plenty of supplies, so we could take care of ourselves. We put a temporary G5RV up for HF and monitored the only local repeater still working on 440. That frequency was also being used by the National Guard as their radios wouldn't work otherwise. The Jefferson Amateur Radio Club clubhouse was under water and we lost everything. I think the pictures are still on www.w5gad.org . The library where I worked was also flooded and I have not worked since the Saturday before Katrina. The city laid off 3000 workers at the beginning of October and I was one of them. I am optimistic about being reinstated in the near future though. Parts of the city between the river and the lake are devastated and deserted, but normalcy is returning to some areas, slowly. My local Super Walmart even opened up yesterday! Please pass this on to any CARS members who may remember me and thank you so much for your concern. Hope all is well with you both. We will stay in touch.
Joy / af4an

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