The Massive Storm

          We were at school and Amanda and I were playing a game of basketball. “Look at how there are no clouds in the sky, just a shining sun.” I thought to myself what a wonderful day this was going to be. Then, the bell rang. I knew now we were going to gym, my least favorite subject. Only four more hours until it’s 3:00. I was planning on going home and relaxing.

          Then I got home and searched for the remote to watch T.V. Right now the news was on from my mom this morning. “Beep, beep, beep.”  went the T.V.  

“This is the New Orleans weather service. Today, on August 25, we are seeing Hurricane Katrina traveling up the southeastern United States. We will update you soon. If you see any unusual storms, please contact us at weatherservice.com. Thank you.”  I was a little worried about the hurricane, but I just put it aside and kept watching.

My mom called me in for supper. When I walked in I immediately knew mom made meatloaf. I thought to myself  I hate meatloaf. Why do we have to have meatloaf? I decided I was just going to take a snack for later instead.

         Two days later, on August 27th, my mom told me to hop in the car. We were going to the store to buy some vegetables for tonight’s dinner. I was in the car with my mom, and we heard the radio go beep, beep, beep. I asked her to turn it up, because I knew that beeping was the weather service.

         “This is the New Orleans weather service. Today, we have news that Hurricane Katrina started as a category 1 hurricane. Now, it bumped up to a category 3 hurricane!  It is now near the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, so be prepared and find shelter. Thank you.” I still didn’t care much about the storm so I turned on a song.

When we got into the store we went down aisle 4 for the vegetables.  I grabbed some fudge brownies but mom put them back on the shelf. We checked out and loaded up the car. I went home and went to bed because I had a long day.

          It was August 30th,and  I read in the newspaper Katrina was near New Orleans! It was now a category 4 hurricane with winds at 170 miles per hour. It just kept on getting worse. Now my heart was racing. That big of a hurricane is a big thing to be scared about. I looked out the window at noon and about 20% of New Orleans was under water.

It started to flood badly. I could see people leaving their homes before the storm was going to get worse. My mom told us all to head upstairs to the attic to a higher level. Up in the attic my dad took a hammer and broke open the window so we could get on top the roof.

         80% of my town was underwater. I saw helicopters lifting people off of the roof of their homes. I could see the water flooding in the attic. My dad waved his hand at a helicopter.

The helicopter came and helped us out even though we were not hurt or anything. It was fun riding in the helicopter but then I saw our whole town and how it was ruined. We saw a black Labrador trying to swim through the water. I told the person driving the helicopter, and we picked him up too. We didn’t know whose dog this was, but good thing he had tags on his collar.

         In September, people were trying to clean up New Orleans. Then, on September 23, about 3 weeks later, Hurricane Rita struck leaving damage and lots of rain. Three days later we went back home and my room was almost completely destroyed. My blankets were soaked, my markers all bled together, and my posters were ripped. 

After the storms were over the news came on, and the T.V. reporter said, “Well the hurricanes are over, and it turned out that Hurricane Katrina was a category 5 hurricane and had winds up to 175 miles per hour.  Hurricane Katrina is the most powerful Atlantic storm on record! 1.2 million people left before the storm hit. Hurricanes could travel up to 500 miles per hour. 30,000 people hid in the Superdome for safety. There was almost 1,000 deaths from Katrina. The storms made $100 billion in damage. There was also a black Labrador returned to his owner. Good thing he had tags on himself!”

I am glad the storm was over and that lots of people were safe. I went to school the week after and surprisingly it still was there. That meant more homework but that’s okay. At least everything is back to normal, and the dog had found his home.

Citations

“Katrina, Hurricane.” Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2016. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

“Tropical cyclone.” Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2016. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

<http://school.eb.com/levels/elementary/article/390127#>.