Hurrican Katrina

Talon Ford

3-3-11

English 12

Tuesday August 23, 2005

Its 5:00 p.m. and I’m watching the news in my New Orleans home, the news has a weather interruption about the formation of a hurricane. My first thought is to panic and call everyone I know and try to keep them safe. They are naming the hurricane Katrina, saying it could be a very deadly one to the area around the Gulf of Mexico. I decided I would just tell my mom when she got home. She tells me don’t worry it will miss us completely but I don’t got a good feeling about this. I guess we will just wait and see...

Thursday August 25, 2005

Couple days go by and it’s still building and getting stronger. I’m watching the news again tonight. Hurricane Katrina is striking down on the southern tip of Florida. At this point I’m freaking out just a little bit because it could very well come this way. I don’t want to lose everything I have or possibly lose a friend or family to the massive hurricane.

Saturday August 27, 2005

Hurricane Katrina is reaching a category 3 on the intensity scale. By this time officials were demanding a voluntary evacuation for all the residents in Louisiana. At this time I begin to freak out and am running around the house grabbing up all my personal belongs that I can fit in a pack back. Nobody knows when or even if it will strike down again but I got a bad feeling about this and want to get out of harms way soon.

Sunday August 29, 2005

This could very well be the last time I write in my journal. Hurricane Katrina reached a category 4 on the intensity scale at 12:40 a.m. I cannot sleep at all, way to nervous of what could happen. Its morning now about 7:00 a.m. and I’m scared at what could happen to me will I live another day or day today. It’s an uncomfortable feeling but what else is there to do. I got my personal belongings and I think I am far enough away that I should not be affected by this now category 5 hurricane, I guess only time will tell…

Trojan War Diary

Today I was at a marriage ceremony between gods in Troy and they forgot to invite one god who became very angry. She came in the door with a golden apple and said that this apple was for the fairest lady in the building which Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all three went for the apple which was strange because I believed that Hera was the fairest. But Paris got to choose because he was the “most beautiful man” of this time and for some reason he chose Aphrodite. Aphrodite promised him the fairest lady in the land which was Helen of Greece so he left to steal her away. I knew this was a big mistake for him because my country would take Troy over for this.
Odysseus

Today I was back in Greece and found out that we were going to set sail for Troy to get Helen back because Paris succeeded in taking Helen. I tried to get out of this war by acting insane but that dang Palamedes caught me on faking it so I had to go. Cinyras was supposed to make all 50 ships for us to take to Troy and he made one, with the other 49 being toy ships. I personally thought this was kind of funny because he was making a joke and I really didn’t want to go to war. Then thankfully a few people made Diana mad and she calmed the seas so we couldn’t leave to Troy. The only way that we could set sail for Troy was if Agamemnon was sacrificed, so they did that and we then set sail.
Odysseus

Over this next span of time I am going to talk about we set sail and landed by Telephus to get Helen back. The people here said that they did not take Helen but for some reason we took their city over anyway. After this we returned home and the king of Telephus had been wounded by Achilles. The only way he could be cured was if Achilles cured it and so in return for curing the king he told us where Helen was which was Troy. Once we got to Troy I had to go talk to the people of Troy to ask them for Helen and the treasures back. The people refused so we waged war on them.
Odysseus

The next nine years were the consistency of the Trojan War. We realized that Troy was getting supplies from their neighbors and so we took them over and stole their goods so Troy was shut off from all supplies. One of the most important parts to our army in Achilles was killed by Paris himself which really angered me. After this we got Achilles’ son to fight in the war and I led some men into Troy to take the Palladium. The next part is the best yet, we got the bright idea to make a Trojan horse and say it was a gift for giving up in the war and we were leaving their land, but really it was a way for us to get all of our soldiers into Troy to take their city over and get Helen and the treasure back. This succeeded and we were able to return to Troy with Helen and all the treasure but a loss of many good men including Achilles. Odysseus

Great Chicago Fire

October 8, 1871
Today a horrible event occurred. There was a great fire that started in the barn of one of the residents of Chicago that hit the hay and took off running. Luckily the fire did not burn my house but for a lot of the people in Chicago they aren’t so lucky. It lit up the night time sky like a candle and from what I can see 10 houses have been burned down but I am going to bed and see what has all happened in the morning.
October 9, 1871
Today I woke up to a smoke smell that has filled the air of Chicago. I went outside and noticed that with all the smoke in the air it has blocked the sun and there is hardly any sunlight that can be used. You see people walk around outside with pieces of clothing over their faces and hope that the piece of cloth acts as a filter as they breath. The day goes on and the smoke gets thicker and I wonder how in the world we are going to put the fire out. As I get set to go to bed I notice that the sky night is not as bright as the night before so I start to think that the fire is starting to go down.
October 10, 1871
Today the fire has finally went out and people are trying to figure out how much damage has been done. As I stroll down the streets I see people crying in front of burnt down houses and barns. I have also noticed that there are people dragging out dead bodies out of homes of where old people had lived. It has been said that more than 50 people gave gone missing since the fire has started. There are people trying to figure out how many people have been killed, how many houses have been burned down, and the amount of damage that has all occurred.
October 11, 1871
Today the people are trying to figure out what started the fire. They have decided where the fire had started but can’t answer the question how it got started. People believe that there was a lantern in the barn and that a cow had knocked it over. Then with all the straw on the ground the fire took off and burned the barn down. Then the fire went from the too a near by house then the down caught on fire. That is how people believe that the Chicago fire happened.

Trojan War Diaries

August 26, 2005
Even though it has only been one day since the storm all new reporters have determined that there will no longer be any storm action. It isn’t necessarily safe to revisit New Orleans because of all the flood waters, but there is no need to worry about any aftermath parts of the storm coming in. My family and I decide we want to return to see what damage has been done to our property and everyone else’s. As we get to the outskirts of the city we see tress plowed over, houses completely torn down, and people walking around crying and wondering where to start. We keep driving and finally arrive at the destination where our house once sat. It too had been torn to shreds just like everyone else’s. We had no idea what to do. We had nowhere to live, and nowhere to go. Everyone was very helpful. We picked up tree branches and pieces from our houses and started stacking them. We had to get rid of this mess and clean it up somehow, so that is where we started. All of our neighbors were crying and wondering what they were going to do with their lives. Many questions arose, should we pack up and move somewhere else? Should we go visit some family in Colorado for awhile while this mess gets cleaned up? Should we stay and help? No one knew what to do. My family and I were fair enough off that we just decided to rent our hotel room for the next half a year through all of the reconstruction. We helped clean up and start our lives over. We basically had to restart from scratch.

August 25, 2005
As we sit in our hotel room, we are watching the news channels. Every single one of them is showing all the destruction that is being done to my beautiful home town of New Orleans, Louisiana. The waves from the Gulf are over 20 feet tall. They come crashing down on the beach homes, and crush them to pieces. Every once and awhile we see people running around like crazies. Knowing we did the right thing, we must just sit and watch as this horrible disaster takes place. It was hard to think of what the town was going to look like when we revisited. Building would be shattered, would it ever look like a town anymore? All we could think about was the reconstruction that would take place afterwards. The news announced that this hurricane, which the named Katrina, was a category five hurricane. It was one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the coast. This moment in time would forever go down in history.

August 24, 2005
The thundering rolling and the lightning striking kept me up for most of the night. These weren’t just your normal thunder and lightning storms, they were much more powerful. I started to get a bad feeling about the way things were going to turn out. In my fifteen years of life I had never heard anything like this. The rain started pelting the roof of our house, the winds were howling up to one hundred miles an hour. I could only imagine what would happen next. My family and I all rushed to the television to see the 6am news. The news reporter was warning everyone that this storm had gotten much larger and much more powerful as it traveled through the Gulf. The news reporter was telling everyone that the must leave as soon as they could. This storm was powerful enough to take the lives of many people. My family and I packed all of our essential belongings and traveled north to safety.