Hi PureSurvival,

The Sat phone was borrowed from one of the rescue organizations two days after the storm hit us. My boss was really glad to hear from me as I was the last person to report in. He was great, he called our helpdesk and my parents to report that we were all OK and would be moving out soon.

I had a 70 year old neighbor who's 90 year old mother lived with her. A tree cut their house in half. Our first goal was to get them out of the neighborhood. I am so proud of the people that lived around us. Everyone pitched in to clear the street so they could get their car out of town.

I do contract work for DHS/ICE and at that time Northrup Grumman had the contract. They have a very large presence in the New Orleans area, I was just a very small part of that. Northrup Grumman did a fantastic job of taking care of all of us IMHO. I did get paid for the time I was hunkered down and like I said, I went back to work the day after I got to Fort Smith, AR. I had direct deposit but, Fort Smith did not have a branch of my bank. I opened a checking account here and transfered money electronically. It all worked.

Northrup Grumman did not help with a new house or the relocation as it really was my decision to move to Arkansas. I can't complain about that. They did help with insurance and a counslor and was very understanding with everything. The house in Louisiana was a rental so I didn't really care about it, the owner made a killing when he sold it.

Northrup Grumman lost that contract and I am now working for a different company, same job, different paycheck. I dont think this new company would be as caring.

Thank you for the welcome, I am looking foward to the fire and yes I did have a frot row seat. Never again will I flirt with a hurricane! However, this was not my first disaster or survival situation.

It could be a fire, a flood, a tornado or giant rocks falling out of the sky. Everyone needs to be ready!