After I returned to DC what I saw in Katrina finally sunk in and left me in a state I had never exprienced before. I felt numb. I felt guilty. It was so easy for me to leave there physically, I was flown out on a chartered jet with others from CNN. It just seemed
We wound our way through downtown along the way dropping off evacuees from the hotel at a shelter a few blocks away. We then made our way to 90 west which took us across the Mississippi River. It turned out to be a pretty easy ride, but that was hard to tell when standing downtown
The next morning I got up an hour early by accident. Adaora and I thought about going down to visit Karen to see how they were holding up. We were never able to confirm if they had evacuated the 1,000 people — 200 patients the rest staff — staying there. I’m so exhausted I decied
We got into the crew car, emptied out the car we had to abandon and left for the hotel. We kept hearing that the water was still rising. We had had a difficult enough time getting to where we were, how could we possibly make it back to the hotel? We drove straight on I-10
The rides to the Superdome stopped coming. Frustrated people — almost all poor african-americans — were walking by. Some asked for water, some asked for food, or about transportation to the dome. I felt conflicted. I gave a few bottles of water away quickly so others wouldn’t see. I didn’t have enough to give everyone,