Photo NASA

Photo NASA

Photo on left http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/ Photo on right http://www.flickr.com/photos/tidewatermuse/

Lucky: A story about Hurricane Katrina Components of this story were first published in "Do You Feel Lucky?", NJ Star-Ledger Oct. 2, 2005 Photo: NASA Music: Frenchy's Stringband "Sunshine Special" funfunfunmedia.com via Publicdomain4U

The first thing a disaster victim tells you is how lucky he is… Photo: NASA

Lucky to have family left. Lucky to have family to go to… Photo: NASA

My mother and 92 year old grandmother owned a home just off St. Charles Avenue. They still had a home to return to. Lucky. Photo: NASA

So now, the memory of their seven-day post-Katrina ordeal seems far away and unbelievable, even to them. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigberto/ Photo: NASA

After the levees broke, with no car to leave the city, my family was trapped at my mother’s house with no electricity or running water . Photo: NASA

They ran out of fresh food, washed dishes in water saved in the bathtub, rationed the precious bottled water… http://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/with/7008299683/ Photo: NASA

Every day that week, I spoke to my brother…we discussed how bad things were… Some people say you make your own luck. That was never truer… Photo: NASA

It was unbelievable to me that in a country so wealthy and powerful, ordinary Americans like my family were left to their own devices to survive. Photo: NASA

Miraculously, my mother’s cats were alive and well. One of them is even named Lucky. Photo: NASA

Was my family lucky? Oh, yes. But in the United States, should luck have anything to do with whether your family survives a man-made disaster? http://www.flickr.com/photos/cizauskas/ Photo: NASA