I am at LSMSA right now. Boarding school. Joy.

Not really, though. I am with my friends, but a communal six-person bathroom and this whole boarding school thing isn't my thing. Even if I can wake up at noon twice a week.

I never thought I'd say this, but I really miss Franklin.

Really.

My question to my lovely friends is:

Would it be worth it if I moved back to Clayton? Friends-wise I think (Hope?) I'll be ok, but I don't know if it's good for college.

I mean... being anything in debate would be harder now that junior year has already started... and everyone's starting as a junior at this school.

But I'd rather have my familiarity.

I don't know. What do you think?

All my StL friends... well.. here is the deal:

I might go back to St.Louis.  But ONLY IF not many people are going to LSMSA to see if Franklin can re-open.  I would rather go back to Franklin if I can, because that is the best college situation, and I don't want to leave Yiwen here by herself.  If a bunch of us can go together, that's good.

But if that can't be, I'm packing up and going back to Clayton.  It is complicated, and a little less useful for trying to salvage anything here, but you know... both of those choices are at least not BAD.

One last thing: I AM NOT STAYING IN BATON ROUGE.  If I can't go to LSMSA, then I am not staying to go to some crappy school here.  So... I can go either way right now, leaning towards staying, depending on what you guys decide.  PLEASE email me adagio@gmail.com or call me ASAP!!!

First, please do not repost this without my permission. Certain places where I update is getting on my nerves, but I do want to tell my friends what happened. Thanks.

Second, I actually took pictures of everything up to the convention center, where I was scared shitless and pratically collapsed.

Here is what happened with Hurricane Katrina and the fucked up Aftermath:
On Friday, we could NOT evacuate, same for Saturday and Sunday because my dad's attending doctor said they needed residents at Baptist Memorial Hospital. Well, we figured that the hurricane would not knock down the levee, so we did not take enough stuff with us because we didn't know the situation early enough. All my pictures are inside my house, along with most of my clothes and other worldly belongings. I don't know what to say now.

When we first got to the hospital, it seemed like most things were fine. I went online, the storm came, the power went out, the generator came on, it was fine. The water uptown had basically receeded by Monday afternoon, and that was when we should've taken a clue and left. However, at that time, the levee had not been breached, and we figured the water by our house would receed within the next few days.

Wrong. That night, of course, the levee broke, and the water poured in. I called Christopher (the ONLY phone call I was able to make from Hurricane to my arrival in Baton Rouge) and found out he was going to Austin, but when my parents came back, we looked outside and realized uptown was already flooding. The last opportunity to get out... was gone. So basically we toughed it out for the time being, and they began transporting patients off the helipad to other hospitals, and our meals were becoming more and more pathetic. Within the day, the flooding got sustantially worse, and you can imagine how fucked up I felt when uptown was getting this much water and the levee breach was by MY house. These rescue operations were starting, and the news wasn't telling us ANYTHING. In fact, because of that, we wasted about an hour watching the news when we could've left the city. At night, we finally got a call from Baton Rouge from my dad's hospital there that they were trying to save us, but not much was done. No one was trying to fix the levee even after 36 hours, and that is just ridiculous. Even the security guards at the hospital were saying that to fix the breaches it would only take this and that before the breach got bigger and drowned the whole city.

Bad night of sleep, and when I woke up in the middle of the night the generator flicked on and off before all power was lost. Phone lines were down within hours of that, and there was no power, no water, and no ways of communicating outside the hospital at all. It was probably one of the worst days. Looking at the garage by the water, you could see the most vile and disgusting water that there ever was, and there were still people swimming in it. A looter swam through the muck and had two stab wounds. There were barely any boats or helicopters. Help was barely there, and we never got deliveries that we were supposed to get.

The weather was awful with no a/c, and we were all panicking about our house, because we barely took anything and since we rented it there was no insurance. There wasn't much else to do but mope, and they finally began evcuating the hospital around noon. There was about six feet of water outside of the hospital that had stabilized at that time, maybe more, and there were looters trying to get in. We got on a boat that took us down Napoleon to St. Charles where there was dry land... and then they just left us there with the locals. Who were straight out of the projects. What the fuck. The hospital did not give a shit about the medical staff, and the only two doctors left bribed someone very quickly with a boat to take them to Baton Rouge, and lied to us when we asked them. There were people looting the Rite Aid by us, and it was AWFUL.

They were getting out coolers and writing their names on them, just taking stuff like it was nobody's business, and it was disgusting and terrible and they all smuggled out alcohol and thought it was hilarious. We managed to get on an army truck with a bunch of the hospital staff, squeezed in while the nasty project people tried to get on. We ended up at the convention center. I dunno exactly how many people were there, but I would estimate a good 7,000-10,000 people. And how many were armed? ha. We freaked out and stayed in a group with a bunch of the people from the hospital, one of which had a wife who just had a baby and was flown to Baton Rouge w/o her family. We called collect hundreds of times and tried to get cell phone reception which was completely dead to get someone to pick us up, while the chaos in the convention center was incredible. I have never seen such disgusting, vile, and terrible people in my entire life. We set up camp outside of one of the halls, and GUNSHOTS broke out around the inside/outside area. My parents RAN OUT from where they were trying to make a phone call and we all just grabbed our stuff and ran for it, while all the people there ducked. I guess they're used to it. Well, I'm sure as fuck not. It was the most traumautizing and terrible experience of my life. Especially when it happened AGAIN and everyone just started screaming and getting down, even the old people and babies we were with. Eventually, we realized people could not come to pick us up from Baton Rouge, but they were outside the city for the time being.

Two incredible nurses basically hounded a Ryder moving truck that was dropping people off in the middle of the night and paid them to take us to the west bank. We eventually got on and piled in the back area, and I felt like a refugee, which, sadly, I was. We went across the bridge to the west bank on a bumpy and terrifying ride and ended up outside of West Jeff. Thankfully, the people who drove us did not kill us and take our money, because that happened numerous times last night. The people at West Jeff just got power back and let us go inside. It was probably the only highlight of the night. The only thing, and I was about to cry because things were finally starting to look up. We got food, and we were waiting in one of the ER areas. We got air condititiong for the first time in days and slept. The head nurse called the patrol people and explained that we had women and children and ol dpeople, so they let cars come in and get us. It was probably the only good thing that happened all night.

If we had not been with that group of people from the hospital, we very well could have just died. We had no water, were surrounded by criminals, and the nurses who were unlucky and got to West Jeff this morning said they saw bodies around the convention center as they left. Dead bodies. Once those animals had had their fill of alcohol and fun, they would've realized water was running low and riots would break out. I cannot begin to describe how terrified I was when people wouldn't stop yelling, cursing and threatening. We eventually got on the road back to Baton Rouge. We knew some realtor friends, and they got us an apartment here for the time being. I'm in their house, on their dial-up, and I have no clue where to go.

My friends have my cell #. Please call me if you can. I will try to call everyone that I can after 9:00 PM b/c my minutes are running out. Yes, my house is completely gone and I will probably have to go move away. Where to? I don't know. Right now I will probably stay in Baton Rouge. I'll try to get in contact with Yiwen (so please tell me what your situation is) and Rebecca if they come down here. School... most of my expensive books are in the garage at the hospital, and I have no hope that our cars are still there after the looting.

No cars, barely any possessions, no house, no insurance (we had only been here a year and barely realized what was going on)... what now? Will the government provide any aid for those who have sustained substantial damage? Can anyone sue the city for never fixing the levees after prior knowledge of their endangerment to the entire city? Will people whose houses are dry be devasted by the looting? I don't know. They were shooting up at rescue helicopters because 'they were making too much noise and we couldn't sleep' at the Superdome. What the hell can I do? Please try to call me sometime. Please, if it gets through. It really might, because my area code is different, and I will try to call everyone else.

I don't know if I will stay in New Orleans or not. There is nothing for me here except friends. Nothing. I hate this city, I have always hated it, and here it deals me the biggest blow I've ever had along with the worst couple of days in my entire life. For sure last night was something that would rarely by matched in terror. So this is what the government and martial law has come to. We JUST sold our house in St. Louis, so I don't know if I can go to Clayton. Probably not, where would I live. Right now there are three choices of where to go to school. Cindy C... what are you going to do? I can't reach you at all, but what about college?

I'm so sick of this. SO so sick of this. I need to get out of the state as soon as I can, but that doesn't look likely. I hope those looters kill themselves from the inside. Why are they saving them. There is nothing to save. These stupid looters were the ones they rescued off rooftops. That is no loss of human life. The people in Lakeview who ARE NOT poor and lazy and stuck on their roofs and cannot get down because of the rising water that no one cared about as they struggled to rescue these low-lifes. There is no video of St. Benard Parish on TV because there are dead bodies floating everywhere.

So, tell me what you think. I don't know what to do now. Email me if you can. Ask Rebecca, Yiwen, Cindy, Michelle for my email.

My other email is myfullname@gmail.com. Obviously it's not myfullname, but insert my first and last name where that is. Hope to see you all in better times.

-Yue

I don't know how many of you are watching the news in New Orleans, but it looks like shit right now.

I just want my house to be ok. I doubt school will be able to start for at least a month or so, especially considering how close it is to the lake.

You know what, fuck the stupid city. Florida did NOT have problems of this magnitude after being hit by FIVE hurricanes.

They actually abandoned the pumps, which are not working, so, since we live in a bowl, the water is still stuck in the city. They just FORGOT the pumps are not automated.

What the hell.

Anyway, I'm ok for now, I'm in the hospital where there is at least internet access.

I-10 is completely covered near West End where the ditch is. I don't know about further down. Canal ... is just....

ugh. No matter what the news says about 'it's not as bad as it could be', it's still really terrible. Add the fact that the politicians can never help us with anything, and the fact that in many hosptials they are keeping people alive by MANUALLY PUMPING AIR into ...

I can't go on.

Yesterday I was trying to get a new layout for this tabulas.

Right now I am waiting for the hurricane to hit New Orleans.

The eye of it will probably pass through here.

I'm still in the city, just in a hospital where my dad works

Well, wish me luck. I hope there will be power later, cause there are patients here. Dunno when I'll be online, though. Call me if you can/want.