In the wink of an eye, everything was changed
High floods surged and cancelled out projects prearranged.

Fiend Katrina, the hyena devastated shores and land,
It’s a warning,- hell is real, heavenly host protect defend!
Fiend Katrina, the hyena exited her pit,
Spread apocalyptic wings, sniffed the air and hit

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<*********>>>>>>>>>>>>

Big Easy New Orleans is water filled,
Submerged and drowned by fiend Katrina’s wrath,
When will brave men be able to rebuild
What she annihilated on her path?

Without a break toils many a rescue team,
But efforts in such great catastrophe
Are limited, -the stricken victims swim
Along the streets now covered by the sea.

And Disconnect complete - what awful strain!
No cell phones and - no electricity,-.
Brave souls make efforts order to maintain,
And to prevent collapse and anarchy.

<<<<-<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>

Disastrous storm and Hurricane, with surges wild and high
Brought devastation, death and bane, and debris hurtling by.
Gone is private property, and those held dear are lost,
Katrina brought them to their knee and killed the blooming coast.

Wasters stink, filled with waste, and creatures drowned that float,
Coffins too and foul ballast, that halt some rescue boat.
Out of mansions people swim, into avenues,
Dixie music sounds no more, nor famous jazzy Blues.

Homes are split up to the roof, while giant surges roar,
And the only traffic sound is the beating oar.
Superdome’s frail elderly perish one by one,
Feces on the walls tee - hee, while helpless oldsters groan.

Lo! they fight for food and drink, stand for it in line,
Toilets overflow and stink swimming in urine,
Raping is the favored sport of some hooligans
It’s Big Easy’ s Superdome, with no veto bans.

Alligators, swimming by, rear their ugly head,
From the roof tops many a cry comes from those gone mad.
Waiting for some rescue team, but alas, in vain,
Fear and desperation grow, and thirst and hunger’s pain.

Nightmare! - In the parking lot, where new fine cars had stood,
Under water, assets rot, in the filthy flood..
Alligators lift their head, as they swim and pass,
Sewage build up in the flood smells of toxic gas.

Awful is Katrina’s trail, as she wastes the lands,
And some wonder if this all not the End portends.
Looted stuff in pilfered carts, rolls and strains the wit
With the town in floods submerged, where are they taking it?.

Thugs beat up, shoot at and curse the rescuers and police,
Shoot at pilots, doctors, nurse, and the doomed hospice.
Efforts fail, bald lawlessness, renders efforts nil,
Chaos, chaos, anarchy and thugs that loot and kill.
.
Valiant efforts came to naught, for the hoodlums shoot,
Thugs and riff-raff triggers press, deal drugs, and steal and loot.
Push before them looted stuff, and through sewage wade,
But find time to beat and rape, the widow, spouse and maid.

Out of the buildings people swim in sewage water foul,
Survival hopes are slim and dim, in Delta’s water bowl.
Devastation struck the town, Big Easy New Orleans,
Where in filth the people drown, and grim reaper gleans.

High tide’s floods and fires rage, yet some dare not escape,
Cling to roof tops, while marauders pillage loot and rape..
Thousand of evacuees know not where to go,
Seem to look into abyss, while bureaucrats are slow.

Why not staff the Superdome with engineers of old,
Resurrected from old Rome, savvy cool and bold,
They would never shelter seek, in the Superdome,
And the roof would have no leak, - they were smart in Rome.

Big Cloacas Maximas the Romans would have built,
Though they had no Mardi Gras, their engineers were skilled
Have created arteries , conduits or canal,
With some flues to take the waste off in ducts withal.

Under refuse piles and dross crawl some elderly,
Not aware yet of their loss, and great calamity.
Lashed by fiend Katrina's knout, who knows naught but to kill,
On the high ways overpass corpses lie so still.

In the famèd Superdome some hoodlum havoc wreaks,
Ruffians control the scene, while the roof top leaks..
Death, destruction everywhere, all along the coast,
toxic, fetid flood and air, death is lord and host.

In Casinos no more games, nor bright neon light,
Only desperate hungry men who for food will fight.
Chaos reigns and anarchy in flashy New Orleans,
Those that can, pack up and flee,- the others rue their sins.

Anarchy and disconnect, hammers New Orleans,
Gone is comfort‘s luxury, in hotels and inns,
Hapless hungry masses stand, lost and indigent,
Wait for busses patiently for days and without end.

Texas in it’s Astrodome, shelters the prostrate,
Offers them with love a home, - Praise the Lone Star State!
Lone Star State Magnificent ! what magnanimity!
Pulses through the Lone Star’s heart for those in misery.

But can it hold the thousands that crowd in the Astrodome?
That’s the question to be asked and to be loud rung home.
Why not send from ancient Rome some savvy legionnaire,
To stretch out more the Astrodome,- Old Rome had savoir-faire

Praise heroic Baton Rouge, opening arms so wide,
Sheltering preys of the deluge, people in their plight.
Mississippi hit, - her towns and her homes lie flat,
Roofs are to the four winds blown, towns lie desolate.

End of Part 1
by: Elizabeth Dandy