Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

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March 2006                                                                            Volume 10 - Number 2

Perspectives...

Katrina Personal Experience
By: C. Gabriela Ubay

When Katrina hit the coast of New Orleans I was on vacation in Cancun.  When I saw the destruction that Katrina had left in its path the first thought that came to my mind was did Margot get out.  Margot is one of my good friends and was living New Orleans working towards her PhD at Tulane.  When I got back into DC I immediately call a friend, found out that Margot had left New Orleans on Thursday before Katrina made landfall.  

After seeing the devastation and the pleas for help I felt that I needed to do something to help the people of New Orleans.  When the call was made for federal employee volunteers I volunteered to be part of the relief effort.  Although, I was not officially called to duty, through my office I was able to assist.  During the week of October 24, 2005 I had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans with two others to assess the Hurricane Katrina damage and provide a report on the status to two Natural Gas Processing Plants.

Traveling to New Orleans I was not sure what to expect and nothing could have prepared me for seeing some of the things I saw.  We all see the pictures and video documentary on TV, but it does not do it justice.  It was very shocking to see the destruction that Katrina left in its path.  The feeling that came over me as we were driving through the outskirts of New Orleans was a feeling like I had never experience before and to this day still cannot put into words.  The city streets were all abandon and destructions all around, houses were in horrific conditions and cars were in the middle of the street.  Boats of all sizes were in the middle of the roads along with homes, there were few roads that were accessible.

We traveled to St. Bernard’s Parish we hardly said a word.  We were all looking with disbelieve to all the destruction the hurricane left in its path all around us with no end in sight.  We went through a few check points were only badge personnel were allowed.  We arrived at the processing plant and discussed the status with the staff. The gas processing plant workers all lived in St. Bernard’s Parish most had nothing left of their homes except for the foundation and the house completely destroyed.   I was amazed at the spirit of the workers to get their plant up and running and provide the natural gas needed to produce electricity to the utility companies to avoid an electricity disruption to our daily lives.  I was amazed in talking to the workers that they were ready to get their homes rebuild and bring their families back to the area.  

When we drove back into New Orleans we were all still in awed, but were in a better state of mind to discuss the sights were observing as we drove past the devastation.  The experience has made a huge impression on me that I want to be able to assist others in future disaster events.  I am currently taking the steps to become a first responder and be part of the key personnel tasked to get the critical energy infrastructure back online.

Although, there was been progress in New Orleans the surrounding areas are still in very terrible condition.  I was thankful to have gotten the opportunity to see the relief efforts and I thank all of the volunteers for their hard work and dedication to get the city functioning back to a state of normalcy.