Many reasons caused Nick Norton, 48, and 20 of his neighbors and friends to remain in the French Quarter. Some had weathered bad storms before, so they all believed that since New Orleans would not be directly hit that they would be safe. Also, mandatory evacuation was not announced until the day before the storm and many had no transportation.

During the storm on Monday, August 29, everyone huddled together in the hallways and occasionally looked out windows. They saw 100-year-old oak trees being tossed, bent and uprooted. The group relied on their ears and not their eyes to understand what was happening; they were in complete darkness.

At the peak of the storm, they heard the upstairs balcony being ripped off as well as the sound of all the windows shattering. Every time the wind blew the walls would sway back and forth. The group then tried to squeeze into a small closet; one person prayed.

"We saw two roofs blown like peeling layers of an onion from the adjacent two apartment roofs," Norton recalled. "The glass and slate shingles were extremely dangerous like pointed, oddly shaped missiles exploding."

Norton did not realize at that time that surviving the storm's fury was only the beginning of a prolonged nightmare for him. He would soon find out.

After the storm passed and the winds died down, apartment residents saw their building was surrounded by water and knew they needed help. The radios confirmed that the levees surrounding the city had broken, and it was evident that conditions were rapidly getting worse. The city would soon be flooded.

After enduring Katrina's wrath, Norton ultimately decided to evacuate the ravaged city via the Superdome, which was the place of last resort and three miles away. With two pieces of luggage, he began the three-mile trek.

Norton saw looters, snakes and desperate people all along the way. Not only did Norton wade in the toxic water, but he was unable to take the shortest path to the Superdome because streets were too flooded.

Once he reached the Superdome, he was forced to swim to the other side in order to get in the massive checkpoint line. "The checkpoint was to ensure evacuees did not have any drugs, alcohol or weapons," Norton said.

After waiting hours in that line, Norton finally entered and waited in another long line for what he thought was a seating assignment. But after many more hours, he found out he was in a food line and got out. Frustrated, Norton searched for someone to sit with, and a group of mentally and physically challenged people welcomed him. He remained with that group for the next six days.

During that lonely and frightening time, Norton starved himself in fear of having to use the restroom facilities. An unthinkable stench of feces permeated the Superdome. As disgusting as the restrooms were, Norton vowed to only drink water to keep from dehydrating. Fearing for his safety, he urinated only in the upper level of the dome.

The temperature inside the Superdome was approaching 100 degrees, and the roof had several gaping holes where rain would pour inside. Twice Norton heard gunfire on the football field. He heard about a bus hijacking and rapes and molestation taking place. The checkpoints were not effective because Norton saw people peddling large sacks of prescription medications and alcohol inside.

"I saw looters bring in large bags of Sax Fifth Avenue clothing, and they even sold cigarettes anywhere from 25 cents to $1.50 each," Norton said.

Youth gangs vandalized the skyboxes and vending machines. The few National Guard that were around came inside the Superdome only twice a day to pass out food. But they stayed on the perimeter outside the Dome the remainder of the day.

The 20,000 people were hoping and praying for rescue. "Each day, rumors were spread that the buses were coming.a lie in my opinion only to control the crowd," Norton believed.

Chaos was refueled when everyone inside heard radio reports stating that Mayor Ray Nagin had said that the Superdome had been evacuated. People panicked in fear that they had been forgotten.

Thursday night, Norton witnessed a gang of youths firing guns on the football field. He also saw the gang set the end zone on fire, which led to the 20,000 evacuees being pushed out of the Superdome.

Rumors were spreading stronger about the buses really coming this time. Norton waited outside for 30 hours in a huge crowd of survivors, but the swaying of the crowd, the heat and lack of food made him vomit repeatedly. But all he had to vomit in was his luggage bag of clothes. He then stepped out of line to get to the nearest ramp because he continued to feel sick. Members of the crowd shouted at Norton, claiming he was breaking line. A man threatened Norton's life by saying he had a gun and would shoot him.

"I just kept my head down and hoped I would get on a bus to take me. anywhere from there. I didn't care where it would go," Norton said.

On Friday, four days after the storm, the time finally came when Norton boarded a bus, and the first thing he noticed was the air conditioning. The bus drove non-stop to Dallas, and Norton stepped off of it wearing only a t-shirt, shorts and socks. Texans applauded the victims as they got off the bus at a rest area. Norton was told he had an infected foot by one of the medical assistants. The 24-hour volunteer crew, who were cooking barbeque, contacted each victim's family within hours.

Norton spent his first night in Texas in a local jail cell, a temporary shelter housing evacuees. In the jail, the evacuees could not use the phone past 10 p.m. , so it was important for Norton to plan his next move quickly. Within hours, Norton's mother was contacted, so she called him. Hearing his mother's voice, Norton cried for the first time during the tragedy. The next day he borrowed money from another evacuee to get a discounted room at a nearby Holiday Inn. Katrina survivors were given a discount on rooms at that time.

Once he was evacuated, Norton was left to fend for himself without any money or assistance to get to the airport. His mother arranged for his flight to Jackson . Luckily, Norton had a distant relative in Dallas who agreed to drive him to the airport on his way to church.

When Norton stepped up to the Southwest Airline ticket counter, he received his boarding pass and cried once more. But after all he had endured that week, Norton did not seem to mind that he looked like a homeless man on his flight back to Mississippi .

The experience was so painful for Norton that he was unable to talk about it until now, eight months later.

"Telling this for the first time is like a veteran coming from war not wanting to tell what they went through," he said.