At 6:10am on Monday morning, August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina (Radar Image at right, showing Katrina as a Category 5 hurricane) slammed into the Gulf Coast near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, almost due south of New Orleans. Packing 125mph winds, Katrina then proceeded to savage New Orleans fiercely before moving on to strike both Mississippi and Alabama. For sheer size, she was the largest hurricane on record since 1960; for sheer destructiveness, nothing like her had been seen since the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928. Katrina left over $75 billion dollars in damages in her wake, with 1,383 dead and another 3200 people still missing and unaccounted for. Even Ryleh -- who had ridden out Hurricane Celia when that storm ravaged Corpus Christi back in 1970 -- was simply stunned by the sheer magnitude of Katrina's fury. Then, as the story unfolded further, he was alternately shocked, appalled and horrified by the subsequent events which played out both on television and in the newspapers in the days and weeks to follow.

The reason for Ryleh's distress is easily explained. Since that day in Y2K when the Louisiana Renaissance Festival first opened, Ryleh has been a frequent and faithful visitor to LRF. Without fail, the cast and krew of LRF has always been unstintingly friendly, generous and hospitable toward him. Without fail, they have always greeted Ryleh with a sincere and genuine warmth at every visit -- and always by name! Thanks in large part to their unwavering friendliness, Ryleh has developed many close and enduring friendships among the cast and krew of LRF over the years. In fact, he has now come to regard everyone there as far more than just "faire friends". So as Katrina bore down on the Louisiana coast with savage ferocity that August morning, Ryleh felt genuine fear and justifiable apprehension for the lives and safety of all the members of his extended faire FAMILY! Televised images and video clips from that time did nothing to relieve his anxiety, as they showed torrential rains, raging tides and banshee winds ravaging everything from trailer homes to oil rigs to modern skyscrapers. To make matters worse, Katrina also rampaged across the local communication grid, bringing down telephone lines with uprooted trees and turning communication towers into so many matchsticks borne on the wind. There was simply no way to make contact with anyone still remaining in or even near the disaster area itself after the hurricane passed. Ryleh's only hope was that -- as experienced stormhands -- his LRF family had made the right choices in dealing with Katrina. In the meantime he could only sit and watch the horrifying events unfold 600 miles away, worrying, with an utter sense of helpless frustration.

Fortunately, there was the Internet. Where telephones -- including cellphones -- failed, the World Wide Web came thru! Years before Katrina formed out in the Atlantic, management at The Louisiana Renaissance Festival had set up an exclusive online message board to communicate with its' many players, cast and krew. So those LRF players who still had power and computer access after Katrina passed began checking in to the board almost immediately, while those who had scattered before the storm slowly returned -- one-by-one -- over the next several weeks. Even so, it wasn't until the end of September that the last couple of players were finally accounted for. Fortunately, Katrina's damage was mostly limited to the property and pride of the LRF cast, with only a few injuries reported among all the many players. Even the faire site at Hammond itself was spared, with only a few shingles blown off a couple of roofs. Needless to say, Ryleh was simply overjoyed to hear such happy news! But message boards, emails and even phone calls can only go so far to reassure. Ryleh needed to actually see his faire family in Louisiana again, share hugs and Rennish handshakes all around with them and hear everyones' storm stories from their own lips. More than anything else, that would make this year's faire season especially meaningful for him, indeed. So it was with considerable anticipation that Ryleh looked forward to a joyous reunion with all his faire family at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival in 2005!!!

Standard Disclaimer: This webpage is strictly an *Unofficial* look at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival held near Hammond, LA in the Parish of Tangipahoa. All opinions expressed herein are strictly this author's own. Unless noted otherwise, all photographs are copyright ©2003-2006 by George Laking.