Ashley Nelson lived in the Lafitte housing project of New Orleans' Sixth Ward. She says that her friends and relatives in New Orleans still can't get out.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Police in New Orleans are going house to house today, trying to coax the      last people still there to leave.  Eighteen-year-old Ashley Nelson knows      one of the neighborhoods well:  the LaFitte Public Housing Development,      where she lives. She even wrote a book about it as part of a student      project.  When the hurricane struck, she was staying with her father in      nearby Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.</s>Ms. ASHLEY NELSON: We were the looters that they were talking about on      TV. We didn't steal clothes or DVD players, like they said.  You know, we      didn't do that.  We took stuff that we needed to survive--getting water,      cold drinks, junk food, anything to feed me and my family.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Ashley Nelson made it out of New Orleans after the storm and      is now with some of her family in Houston.  There she saw some familiar      faces on television.</s>Ms. ASHLEY NELSON: When the news media started flashing their cameras over that      project, like, I knew everybody standing on their balconies screaming for      help.  I knew everybody swimming in the waters, trying to get to the      Superdome.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: As she watched those images on TV, Ashley Nelson was thinking      about the family she left behind.</s>Ms. ASHLEY NELSON: I was trying to find my family.  I was trying to find my      grandmother, my cousin, Anthony, who I didn't--I don't even know where he      is.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Eighteen-year-old Ashley Nelson--she's since located her      grandmother.  She's still looking for other family and friends who stayed      in New Orleans.