The headlines are filled with the news that it has been 10 years since Hurricane Katrina.

At the time of Hurricane Katrina I was a Regional Senior Director of Marketing with Pinnacle Entertainment. My job was to oversee the marketing operations of Boomtown Casino New Orleans and Casino Magic in Biloxi. I would also travel to other properties and help solve their toughest marketing problems in properties from Indiana to Reno, Nevada.

The Friday night before Katrina I was making sure large screen TVs had been installed in the bar outside our steak house. My intention was to run a football promotion there. At the time we had an intern, who is now the top Social Media guy in the gaming industry. I appointed him Unofficial Director of Casino Football Operations – he was beaming. Little did we know what was to come.

I managed to evacuate with my family but had to be back at work four days later in a City and a Parish that was under martial law. We returned to the property in New Orleans via a boat from the back bayous of Des Allemands. I traveled at the time with our then General Manager – we were both shocked at the devastation. Our beleaguered crew that stayed behind was in need of relief.

Arriving at the Property we immediately went to work offering relief and cleaning. It was odd to clean walk-in coolers to burn the food not knowing if the coolers would ever be turned on again, or if you even had a job going forward. I remember digging trenches to burn spoiled food and wondering if there was enough money in the bank to meet the mortgage payment for an extended period without a job.

We ended setting up a base camp at the Property to house energy related workers as they were previously housed at nearby Oakwood Mall but they were the subject of sniper attacks and looters had tried, somewhat successfully, burning the mall. In the same time period we started housing out of state Sheriff’s Deputies. They arrived like the Cavalry with a tractor-trailer of supplies from the owner of Dixie Chopper Lawn Mowers.

At one point I went to my office, about a mile from the property, to see what could be saved. I guess I stayed a little too long loading the truck with what I could salvage as I ended up being held by the National Guard at gunpoint. Thankfully we were able to clear that up. Our law enforcement guests had put up signage showing the number of times they discharged their weapons during the day and the number of bodies they’d come across. It must have been difficult for them as every night they would play poker for ammunition and drink us dry. My job was to secure all the alcohol and dispose of it. One night some men, I didn’t recognize, had a bit too much to drink and tried to get a little too friendly with a female reporter, again my job was to intercede. Don’t think I’ve ever been hugged so tightly since.

While this story could go on for pages of all the things I saw and experienced it’s best to end it now, as I can’t face any more of the memories. There were positive ones, like the Catholic School in Morgan City who took my two oldest boys in or the fact that Touchpoints Marketing & Advertising exists today because of Katrina.

Without the Hurricane I wouldn’t have had the desire to leave the parts of the casino business I didn’t like and join my wife in starting a business that emphasized the parts I did: the marketing and especially the advertising side.

I am very grateful and thankful to our clients over the past nine and a half years and the opportunities they have offered me and my family, as well as all of the Touchpoints team members who have passed through our doors. Even today we still have members of our original crew with us.

We are still the leading specialists in casino advertising but have since expanded into hospitality, automotive and many other areas.

Thank you to our clients, team members, and friends… how about we all agree not to relive this at 15, 20 25 years etc…

Ben Gravolet