Some SWLA Residents Share Their Hurricane Rita Memories

When I found out the Rita was headed toward Southwest Louisiana, my wife Julie and I made the decision to load up our family van and follow my parents to Little Rock.

My uncle housed my crew of six, my parents and their dogs, and my grandparents. One house with ALOT of characters! Fun times. Days had past and the laughter turned into stress and worry of the unknown. Did our homes survive? Community? What will life be like IF...? All these thoughts.

The day came where it was time to venture to our house in Sulphur. My home was one of the fortunate ones! Our only loss was the fridge. My neighorhood looked like an explosion went off in a forest because there were knocked over trees everywhere. Long story short... life didn't return to normal for many of the local residents of Southwest Louisiana for quite some time. But I am happy to report... ten years later... it did.

How did that hurricane from ten years ago impact your life for the better?
Are you closer with your neighbors & loved ones? A new respect for city officials and law enforcement? Any crazy story you'd like to share?

Heather Courville We stayed at my dads in Tx for 8 weeks because my stepmoms house had the main breaker (or whatever it's called) for electricity and it was destroyed. Then for 2 days once we were finally back we plugged into our neighbors house for power. Lol. And from the time we got back until Jan we became a house of 6 adults and 3 kids and 3 dogs. My stepsisters trailer had black mold so she needed a place to live with her family until they built their house. Before we were a house of 3 adults and 3 dogs. I would do it all over again. And it took us 18 hours to get to my dads when we left. When normally it takes 6 because we stop to eat and use the bathroom.

Lois Parker We stayed here south if Singer my husband and I and our son .. Our Vehicle was running bad and the traffic was horrible on 27 plus my in- laws wouldn't leave so we couldn't leave them behind. It was scary my mother- in-law window pane kept blowing out all night that was one night I though it was never gonna end was happy to see daylight to see if my trailer was still standing. Thank god all was good just alot of trees down no lights for 16 days. But all that matters we Survived. . Don't care to have anymore of those storms...

Nathan Hoskey It made me realize how precious and valuable life is when I gave my 3yr old daughter a poppyseed mre cake for her birthday and you would have thought it was a million dollar cake the way her face lit up with joy as we all sang to her I'll never forget that moment as long as I live also I remind her of that often she will turn 13 Sunday the 27th