KATRINA: A Coast Guardsman’s Narrative

August 2005…Hurricane Katrina pummeled the city of New Orleans and the coast of Mississippi in a show of nature versus human persistence. Coast Guard teams swept down from their inland locations to affect rescues as their motto, Always Ready proved to be true to life. The conditions endured by both victims and first responders were atrocious. The city levees failed just after the hurricane passed, and the sweltering heat and humidity were minor obstacles compared to the brutal flooding that followed. Some clung to life in a literal sense, a few managed to exist in the deplorable conditions, and others…slipped away from those who loved them.