Tweet
Hurricane Katrina 'message in a bottle' comes home to New Orleans, nearly 8 years later
By Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune
on August 21, 2013 at 4:47 PM, updated August 21, 2013 at 5:00 PM
...
On Sept. 21, 2005, a park ranger with the National Park Service?s response team working on South Lopez Street noticed a plastic bottle with something inside it and called to Rob, the team leader. The men opened the bottle and pulled out a rolled-up sheet of looseleaf paper: a handwritten note from a 14-year-old girl. It was dated 8/29/05, 9:15 a.m., Uptown New Orleans.
...
In it, the teenager wrote that she has gone through Hurricane Katrina and was in her house looking outside at ?a mini Lake Pontchartrain.? She had been praying that her friends and relatives were OK and that she and her family would survive. She said her grandmother was pacing back and forth, saying, ?Our roof is gone. Our roof is in the water.?
She ended by writing, ?I guess I?ll have to wait and see what happens next. If anyone is reading this, keep me and my family in your prayers, and I will keep you in mine. God Bless.? ...
Rob tells the family that he couldn?t get the letter out of his mind.
?For me, it put an exclamation point on the storm and gave it a human face,? he says. ?You became our symbol.?
...
Full text:
By Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune
on August 21, 2013 at 4:47 PM, updated August 21, 2013 at 5:00 PM
...
On Sept. 21, 2005, a park ranger with the National Park Service?s response team working on South Lopez Street noticed a plastic bottle with something inside it and called to Rob, the team leader. The men opened the bottle and pulled out a rolled-up sheet of looseleaf paper: a handwritten note from a 14-year-old girl. It was dated 8/29/05, 9:15 a.m., Uptown New Orleans.
...
In it, the teenager wrote that she has gone through Hurricane Katrina and was in her house looking outside at ?a mini Lake Pontchartrain.? She had been praying that her friends and relatives were OK and that she and her family would survive. She said her grandmother was pacing back and forth, saying, ?Our roof is gone. Our roof is in the water.?
She ended by writing, ?I guess I?ll have to wait and see what happens next. If anyone is reading this, keep me and my family in your prayers, and I will keep you in mine. God Bless.? ...
Rob tells the family that he couldn?t get the letter out of his mind.
?For me, it put an exclamation point on the storm and gave it a human face,? he says. ?You became our symbol.?
...
Full text:
