Former KMTV Reporter Recalls Katrina's Wrath

Former KMTV reporter Laura Shelton moved out of New Orleans nine months after Katrina hit.

Former KMTV reporter Laura Shelton said a few people wished her "Happy Anniversary" earlier this week, recalling it was a year ago that Shelton escaped the wrath of Hurricane Katrina by fleeing New Orleans.

Shelton was working for Fox-affiliate WVUE at the time. Rather than stay in New Orleans, Shelton and her husband, Chuck Garfield (another former KMTV employee), evacuated to Mobile, Ala. They got out just in time.

WVUE was knocked off the air hours later when its transmitter was flooded. Fellow staffers who had stayed behind were evacuated to a local sheriff's office when the first floor of the station began filling up with water.

"I lost everything on my desk, including all the stories I've saved in my career," Shelton said.

Shelton stayed in Mobile for two days - providing wall-to-wall coverage of Katerina - while sleeping on the floor of the station. Eventually, she returned to New Orleans but with a plan to look for work in a city less vulnerable to Mother Nature.

Nine months later, Garfield and Shelton ended up in New York City. He works for a digital media company in Midtown Manhattan and she freelances as a producer/writer/editor with CBS Newspath.

"(New Orleans Mayor) Ray Nagin compared the 'hole in the ground' at Ground Zero to the slow progress rebuilding New Orleans," Shelton said. "Some people in New York were offended, but I thought it was a good comparison. The progress in New Orleans will be measured in years, if not decades, but not in days or weeks."

Shelton, who co-authored a book titled "The NeXt Revolution: What Gen X Women Want at Work and How Their Boomer Bosses Can Help Them Get it" with her mother, Charlotte, continues to do promotional tours and book signings.

"I've also been busy speaking at conferences about the book and that's been a lot of fun, Shelton said.