Home sweet home after hurricane

NARRE Warren hurricane survivor Ashley McDonald arrived back in Melbourne on Monday and said he was glad to be home.
But the 30yearold brake press operator and factory worker at ShearForm Construction in Dandenong said he was not looking forward to the ribbing he would receive at work.
“I think I will cop nothing but flack about the whole thing for a few days from my workmates.
“But I am still looking forward to going back so I can make more money to go back over there (America) again,” he said.
Mr McDonald attracted the country’s attention early this month when his family reported him missing amid the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.
He had flown over to America to visit his Tennesseebased sister just days before the hurricane hit but had not made contact with his family before the disaster.
Both his parents and sister feared the worst in the coming days but news eventually surfaced that Mr McDonald had been in a Louisiana jail, following his arrest for a minor drinking offence.
Upon his release from prison he spoke of his struggle to survive as he shared prison cells and exercise yards with death row inmates, murderers and rapists.
Mr McDonald said he had recently received an email from an inmate called Robert, who he had met in prison and had only been released last Tuesday.
“He said that everyone was still being held in the same place and only a few people had been released,” he said.
“Just to think that I could still have been in there instead of being out and spending time with my family.
“Robert said he had returned home and his whole house was gone.
“I am lucky in a lot of ways particularly because I was the first to get released.
“I think if it had not have been for all of the media attention I may have been in (prison) there for longer or even still be there,” he said.
Mr McDonald said his mind still drifted back to his prison experience but he was amazed by the attention his experience had attracted.
“Sometimes I am sitting on the couch watching CNN and bits and pieces of Hurricane Katrina come up and I think I was there in the middle of it,” he said.
“It is all a bit peculiar to me and still brings this strange feeling.
“All of the media attention has been pretty unbelievable too.
“When I got off the plane I was not expecting camera crews — it had been two weeks and I thought they would have forgotten about it by now.
“Like I said I am just an ordinary taxpayer.”
Mr McDonald said he now hoped to spend the next few days catching up with family and friends and sifting through all his newspaper clippings.
“Some of my family is coming down from the bush on the weekend to see me and have recorded lots of videos of the news,” he said.
“My aunty has also made a scrapbook with all of the clippings in it.
“I typed my name into MSN as well and my name came up about 1000 times and is all over the Internet.”