Katrina Survivor Talks About Escaping Deadly Hurricane

SEATTLE - Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate from Hurricane Katrina, many of them left the devastation and were never able to return home because the storm wiped them out. Some of those evacuees like Mary Rennekamp ended up thousands of miles from home right here in the Seattle area.

Mary and her friend made it out of New Orleans just two days before the massive hurricane slammed into the Crescent City. 5 years later and it's still difficult for Mary to talk about Katrina.

"Reports of bodies tied to fences, because they were floating," said Rennekamp.

It's those disturbing images from Katrina burned into Mary's mind that still brings her to tears.

"It wasn't until those stories started coming in that it really started to sink in, the gravity and the magnitude of what was happening," said Rennekamp.

Mary and her friend Erin were two of the lucky ones to get out of New Orleans alive.

"The scariest thing was we couldn't pull ourselves away from the TV, we were so desperate to catch a glimpse of anybody we knew, possibly," said Rennekamp.

Mary's mid-city New Orleans home was underwater everything she owned destroyed.

"So, we knew in that span of that 3 or 4 days that we weren't going to be able to go back to New Orleans for a long time," said Rennekamp.

Mary's father got her a plane ticket to come live with him, she's been in Seattle ever since.

"And, I saw my Dad and I just lost it and I dropped my one little bag and literally just collapsed, he held me and I was balling in the middle of the airport," said Rennekamp.

The Red Cross helped Mary out then, she now works for the organization to help others trying to restart their lives.

"Being on the other side of charity was just it was life changing for me," said Rennekamp.

Mary knows she's lucky, she also knows she may see devastation like this again in her lifetime.

"Know it can happen anywhere, it's really scary, it's the truth," said Rennekamp.

Mary says she loves living in Seattle but, she will always call New Orleans home.