August 2005 is a month I am not likely to ever forget. That month I witnessed the effects of Hurricane Katrina-the worst natural disaster ever to hit America-both from afar and closer then I would have preferred. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and Louisiana one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded. The damage caused by Katrina was wide spread and so extensive that repairs are still being made today.
At the time I was stationed at Fort Drum, New York. My platoon and I knew about the hurricane and were watching it closely because one of the soldiers in the platoon, PFC Simmons, had family in Jefferson Parish. Everyone expected it to be bad; in fact, PFC Simmons was denied leave because the Army deemed it too dangerous to let him go. The day the hurricane hit most of my platoon was gathered in the TV lounge watching the news. We sat in the cramped lounge on the threadbare furniture for hours, most of us never even leaving the room. By the end of the day, it looked like the hurricane had come through the lounge, furniture all out of whack and pizza boxes were piled everywhere. I could not believe what I was seeing, I had never seen flooding so bad that entire neighborhoods were swallowed by the water. Looking over at Simmons, I could tell it was killing him not being there for his family. He was so out of it he did not eat and looked like a zombie watching the TV refusing to leave the room for anything, hoping beyond hope that he would see his family on TV safe on the road. Last he heard his family was stuck on Interstate 10 trying to get to family in Pensacola, Florida. It would be nearly a week before he heard that they were OK.
The next day I woke up to complete destruction in New Orleans. We all stayed glued to the TV that day as well watching people drive boats over houses, the National Guard airlift people off their roofs. And just absolute chaos at relief centers like the Superdome, no one even tried to go to PT or work. By the end of the day...