Garrett Engelbrecht
Instructor Laird
11:00/English 1301
Downtown of Destruction
During the Gustav hurricane it took everything that I had to keep people from
looting my store. I know that the people that are trying to steal from my store are
probably doing it for the good of their families. In some cases they are not, they are just
robbing the place because of the perfect opportunity to do so. I now have to use violence
and threatening signs to keep looters out of my store and protect my wellbeing.
The day was August 29, 2005 when hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast and New
Orleans fell under. I own a little supermarket downtown. I knew at that very moment
when the levy’s broke that our little town of New Orleans was going to be a pit of total
destruction. My store was flooded about one and half feet deep and the windows were
broken from the high winds. After my store was totally destroyed I sat and waited for
the first robbery.
About a day later after the city was destroyed, the town was in total chaos.
Everybody was in a dead rush to get out of New Orleans. After a while everyone started
to realize that they had to fight this one out. All the residence had no running water and
little food. I knew for sure that they would be at my store at any time. The night after the
storm hit and the city was flooded I was in for a rude awakening. The next morning I
wake up and go downstairs to see that almost half of my products and merchandise had
been stolen. I knew the next step was to start using violence to keep these looters to out
of my store. I made signs with vulgar remarks to keep them out. I had a shotgun in my
store for security reasons, and now I was going to have to use it. After about two weeks
of fighting off looters, they had finally gotten the message. Most everybody that I had
threatened new came back to see me. After about three months everything started to clear
up and the...