Voices of Katrina

 The author lived in New Orleans before and after hurricane Katrina, and was witness to the distruction after the fact. She saw a bright blue sleeping bag leaning against the highway divider on I-55 North at the 10 mile marker, and noticed the outline of a human face as the wind from passing cars pressed against the sleeping bag. She read a newspaper article about a footlocker found with a dead body inside. Neighbors told her of two different people abandoned in Metairie by relatives: an elderly woman and a retarded man who struggled to stay alive after the hurricane without food and water until each was found by National Guard soldiers. She also witnessed the aftermath of the Gulf Coast devastation. These stories were a way of dealing with the horrors she witnessed all over the city.