Today's guest author is Matthew Mahler. This article has been edited and published with permission of the author. Although I work and live in Raleigh, North Carolina, I am originally from Houma, Louisiana. Many of my extended family members continue to reside in and around New Orleans. Over the years, whenever a hurricane would approach their area, they would flee to Memphis, return in 3 days and then clean up the damage that was done by the storm. However, on Monday, August 29th, 2005, things were very different. It was mid-morning. I was at my work place in Raleigh, but [...]