LET IT ALL COME DOWN
NEW ORLEANS UNDERGROUND MUSICIANS TALK ABOUT WHEN KATRINA HIT

EVACUEES
Ratty Scurvics: I was barely aware of what was coming. The days before the storm hit I ran hard on a cocaine and crown bender with my housemate. Neither of us took it terribly seriously (at least I didn’t); I just drew pictures, taking breaks for bumps and to refresh my drink. Sometime after nightfall I was spent and swallowed a zanbar to crash. Around three or four in the morning a good friend of mine shook me awake and convinced me to drive out of town with her and her lover. Not really conscious of what was happening, I threw a book, a notepad and a T-shirt in a briefcase then jumped in the truck, falling right back to sleep. Like I said, I had no fucking idea what was coming.

Miss O: The first warning of the hurricane felt like a nuisance, a media event, an inconvenience. That was three nights before the storm. Kid and I had evacuated the year before when Ivan was supposed to hit, and after a 14-hour drive to Houston (5 hours normally), it passed right by. Not even a drop of rain. This time, there were warning signs that things weren’t right, that perhaps things were more serious. Every local hermit weirdo was wandering the streets, and the crack dealers on our block were lined up like never before, ¬¬as though people were stocking up just in case. We had been planning on going on tour for the past three months, and the risk of the car getting flood damage was worth the three-day excursion, even if we were just being paranoid. In the end, we decided we had more to lose by staying than leaving. We planned to go to Houston and come back for our instruments in a couple of days and start the tour out west. We ended up taking six people. Each had one small bag and some stuff to keep us busy for the next couple of days.

John Henry: When my girlfriend Heather Vinz and I watched the news on friday night before the storm we decided that this was the hurricane not to stick around for. I had been thru every hurricane season in the 11 years I spent there and I can attest to the fact that year after year they have become larger and more frequent. On Saturday night, Heather had to work her shift at Mimi's in the Marigny and I stayed at the Spellcaster, where we were living at the time, to help Miss Pussycat board up the house and load Quintron’s equipment into there van, he was out of town at the time. When Heather got out of work we grabbed a few things from the house and decided to head out of town before traffic got to heavy because the mayor had made an announcement that we should leave town if we were able to. We left around 3 in the morning on Sunday with a few friends and our dog in our van and headed to Memphis.

E.P.: When the hurricane hit my then wife (more on that later) and I left for Alabama until I found some work in LA and went out west.

RIDING THE STORM OUT
MC Trachiotomy: Just after most recently turning 80 years of age. They say the woist herracanne ever was gown hit Neworleans floods ever thang wind all‚at. Nah look here, I aint neva left fa no storm. I was trew betsy. I was trew Camille. I been trew all at. Ma dawgs was wit me anyhow. I help load up H.F.S, w/Stella & Man~Ting, mz.Fis wit her Doris, and Chris freaky fryer Hair dyer. Cause they was headed for the hills ya undastand. I was in. Where was I gwanna go anyhow?

Lefty Parker: I was right Here, at the Circle Bar, my new home. The storm didn't really affect us at all, and beside the lack of power it was quite comfortable ...for a while. It's downtown, and was on the trail of the looters, but relatively dry. We had food till Saturday, but, only made it to Thursday following the storm.

Continue to Lefty Parker’s account of remaining in New Orleans during Katrina

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