It was only seven years ago that Hurricane Katrina tore through the city of New Orleans and surrounding cities including the state of Mississippi. Seven years to the exact day, August 29 the residents of those areas prepared for the worst.
This year Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal took no chances with Hurricane Isaac. Jindal declared a State of Emergency and encouraged Southeastern residents to evacuate the state. But Louisiana is not the only state in path of disaster. Mississippi has also faced extreme flooding in Biloxi.
The storm left nine dead in Haiti when it hit on Saturday, August 25; it left the country in shambles due to the fact that it was recovering from the 2010 earthquake.
Cuba got off easy, the storm only passed through, leaving no deaths or injuries.
Isaac began as a Tropical storm on Tuesday, August 21 with winds of 35 miles per hour. Since then, the storm wind speeds have only increased receiving large speculations of the damages it will cause once it reaches areas.
Isaac was suspected to reach the New Orleans area Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. with 105 mph winds. But do to it’s stand still off the Gulf coast, there was a stall.
On Wednesday at 2:00 a.m. the storm strength was at 80 mph and 70 miles away from New Orleans. Speculators have mentioned Isaac being just as powerful or even more powerful than Katrina. The wind speed is not as dramatic as Katrina at this point. One of the main concerns have been the levees strength.
President Barack Obama has been very vocal throughout the ordeal. “Now’s not the time to tempt faith,” he expressed. “Listen to your local officials.”
In the eyes of the tigers, Grambling State University has opened their arms students from Xavier University. The university would accommodate their emergency medical treatment, shelter and any other needs at the West Campus of GSU.
Students from GSU who are New Orleans natives, expressed sincere interest and thoughts about their families who are in New Orleans.
Sophomore Kevon Roy a kinesiology major from New Orleans said, “For Katrina we went to Humble Texas. My parents are both in New Orleans working and they are going to Atlanta for Hurricane Isaac. I hope that it is a category one and that it does not have a pause in the Gulf because that’s what Katrina did.”
Being a resident of 7th ward New Orleans he felt the wrath of Katrina and is just as nervous about Isaac.
“As far as La Paz being only 20 minutes outside of New Orleans, we get the same damage as New Orleans, we flood we lose electricity, it’s all the same,” said junior Shantell Silvestri a therapeutic recreation major from La Paz Louisiana.
“Since Katrina my siblings reside with other family members in Houston. “My father does not evacuate, he will stay and protect his house no matter the condition,” she expressed.
Tears filled Silvestris eyes as she began speaking about her Katrina experience in 2005. She explained that she was without water and electricity for a week and didn’t know what her city looked like.
“I looked outside my house as Katrina hit, I watched cars fly, roots fly off and trees hit houses. It affected me in a really different way my school that only had a capacity of 600 people had doubled.
“When I finally saw my city it hurt, even until this day,”she said.