OK this is as good a place as any to try to introduce myself.
I too am a Katarina suvivor. I lived in Covington LA which is about 40 miles north of New Orleans on the north shore. This was not my home town, the company I work for had transfered me to that area about two years earlier. My family and I along with most of my neighbors decided to stay and ride out the storm. My son and I did all we could to get the house ready. We did go and look at the highway and decided we did not want to get into that.
We were watching satellite pictures on the local news station when I looked at my son and said "you know, I think we are in the wrong place" that was when the electricity went out. That was it, we were in it now.
Well, we did survive and were able to help others. My son worked with the Red Cross to help feed people. One of my neighbors and I had chain saw's so we cut and the others moved the trees out of the roads so people could get out. I used a Sat phone to get in touch with my boss who informed me of my transfer to Arkansas, my office accross from the Superdome was distroyed.
We got away after four days and made our way to Fort Smith, AR hoping along the way that we might see some coverage on Television when we got there. We had one car, my wife and son and a big dog. All we had was what we could get in the car. I went back to work the next day and worked through the weekend getting our network back up and running, the whole time in shock.
I came away from this with more respect for hurricanes and a new level of knowledge of people in a survival situation.
We did get back to Covington to get the rest of our stuff but not untill after looters got the first pick. They took my chain saw and most of my tools, I really liked that saw but, we got everything else we needed. We now live in Arkansas and I think Im going to stay here.
Before Hurricane Katrina we had survived tornados in Alabama, blizards in Vermont and a nasty nor'easter in Maine.
I want to thank all of you for the information, wisdom and humor you have put in this forum. I have read almost everything here and look forward to more, I am trying to be like a sponge and soak everything up.

Thanks again for your insight.
Charles