New Orleans, Louisiana

From the Fort Myers’ (FL) News-Press of September 3, 2005

Woman escapes New Orleans, returns home

Rhonda Mandel hates guns.

But then Hurricane Katrina sideswiped New Orleans on Monday and the Fort Myers woman was suddenly stuck in a French Quarter hotel.

Two days later, Mandel found herself and about 75 other guests preparing to drive an armed caravan of abandoned cars out of the city.

Mandel's driver — a hotel employee armed to the teeth — stopped to show her how to use a handgun.

"I told him no," Mandel said. "I didn't want to."

The engineer looked her in the eye, deadly serious. Just blocks away, the people of New Orleans had already started to loot and rob and kill each other.

"He said, 'What are you going to do when they shoot me?'" Mandel recalled.

She didn't have a good response. "OK," she finally answered. "Show me."

(Much more)