From the rubble of Katrina a Fire is born: Brenda Darr witnesses the best and worst of humanity while riding out the killer storm and its aftermath (PHOTOS)

Brenda Darr lived in New Orleans for 16 years before opening her restaurant Fire in an old abandoned firehouse on Annunciation Street just outside the Warehouse District.

She opened the eatery in June 2005.

Two months later, Darr, along with the rest of the Big Easy, was faced with the news that a Category 5 hurricane named Katrina was headed straight for them.

Under mandatory evacuation order, many in the city fled. Many with no means to leave, stayed.

Darr made the choice to ride it out.

The decision would forever change her life and eventually lead her to South Walton.

“I had put everything of any value in that restaurant, and I was afraid if I left I wouldn’t be able to get back in. Although there was a lot of pressure to get out, I felt comfortable about where I was,” she said.

For more photos from Katrina and her aftermath, click here.

Her third-floor condo was also in an old building in the central housing district and had weathered a lot of storms.

With no staff to help her, Darr boarded up the restaurant and did what she could to protect the inventory.

With frantic pleas coming in from family and friends, Darr finally relented and made a last-ditch effort to evacuate.

“I finally said, ‘OK,’ packed my car and my Chesapeake Bay retriever and drove five or six miles. But when I saw the line waiting to get out, I said, ‘screw it,’ and drove back home,” she said.

Parking her car in the highest elevation parking lot she could, Darr walked back home, turned on the TV and went to bed.

“The air pressure made us sleepy, so we didn’t have any trouble sleeping,” she remembers.

When the lights and TV woke her up as they flickered for the third time, she thought, “This must be it.”

“I took Lou and his bowls and went down into the concrete stairwells. We heard the winds and noise like the building was falling in. When it let up, I went up to my balcony and looked out. I saw trees down and trashcans were bouncing up and down the street.”

Then all went quiet.

But not for long.

“Then the winds reversed and came back down the other side of the street.”

When the winds subsided again, Darr went out and luckily, there was no damage to her condo except for a few shingles that had been whisked away.

“It was very eerie. Not a lot of people moving around. Just the fire department and some people in the French Quarter,” she said.

She walked the several blocks to check on her car. It was OK, so, she drove to her restaurant to see if it was still standing. It was.

“There was just a little water inside and I began sweeping it out with a broom.”

Dodging trees and debris in the road, she walked down into the French Quarter.

“It was an eerie feeling to see the French Quarter calm and quiet except for people trying to break into the ATM machines. That started immediately.”

With the city on lockdown, Darr “just hung out” for four days in the aftermath with no water or electricity, sleeping on her condo’s balcony due to the heat.

“I had food, but I could see the water beginning to rise in the streets, the looting, and marshal law being implemented. I witnessed a shotgun being held to the head of a man just outside my condo. I decided maybe I should leave; maybe I wasn’t safe. I had mixed emotions about leaving, but realized there was nothing else I could do there.”

Packing her car with all she could cram into it, Darr and Lou headed for Atlanta.

“I went out the back way across the West Bank. When I crossed the bridge and saw the line of rescue vehicles stretching for miles and miles that were coming in — and seeing all the devastation — that’s when I realized how bad things were. That’s when I broke down and cried,” she said.

Traveling north through Meridian and Jackson, Miss., to Birmingham, she finally made it to Atlanta. 

She remained in Atlanta for two weeks, watching the news unfold on TV about her city, until she saw an explosion and fire that was only steps from her condo.

“My heart sank,” she said.

Against the urging of family not to go back, Darr felt compelled to return home.

“I filled the car up with non-perishables, drove back and stayed.”

Water and power was still off, but fortunately, neither her home nor restaurant had been looted, even though she was located only three blocks from the infamous Morial Convention Center, where a sea of humanity congregated and begged for help.

“I ate food from the Red Cross and Salvation Army,” she remembers. “The city was destroyed, but it was so quiet and peaceful. You could walk anywhere with no fear. Everyone was so helpful. Everywhere you went, people asked, ‘Do you need anything? Are you Ok?’ I will go to my grave remembering that.”

Fifty-three days after the storm, city officials finally OK’d power being turned back on. And Darr reopened Fire with a crew of five.

Server Mario McNally was packed and ready to move to Napa Valley, but Darr begged him to stay and help her.

Bartender Carl Schaubhut, sous chef Chris Mongogne, and server Stuart Graham stayed, with Schaubhut going into the kitchen as chef.

“Business was unbelievable. We only got deliveries once a week, but we were full with first responders and insurance people looking for a hot meal. Everything had to be done on paper and we couldn’t run the dishwasher. Water was only supposed to be used for flushing toilets. For all other uses it had to be boiled. You weren’t even supposed to bathe with it.”

“That’s when everything went downhill. We lost a lot of business and security in the city was not what it used to be. I finally said, ‘I can’t do this.’ My pockets weren’t deep enough to ride it out,” said Darr.

Darr had visited South Walton through the years and several of her customers in New Orleans came from the area.

Seventeen months after Katrina, Darr and all the staff who wanted to join her, formed a caravan that traveled down I-10 to a new life at the beach. Two 36-foot trailers carried all their belongings, including everything she could bring from the restaurant. 

On Friday 13th, July 2007, Darr and staff opened Fire restaurant at Grayton Beach.

“Business has been good,” she said. “I love it here.”

As for regrets, she has none.

“I have no regrets of my decision to stay and ride out Katrina,” she said. “There is no doubt I would stay if I had it to do over again. The only thing I would change is I would have more batteries.”