[jitterbug13]

I hope everyone who will be affected by Rita will be OK. I'm still praying for those affected by Katrina.
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Vocalist Kelly Price barely escaped the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. The song stylist was in New Orleans taping an appearance for 'Gospel Dream,' the 'American Idol'-like reality series she judges for the Gospel Music Channel.

"My husband and I could not get out of the city because there were no flights, every rental car had been taken, no buses, no trains -- having money meant nothing. You couldn't buy or sell anything. Even if you had a car, if you didn't have gas you were out of it. Gas wasn't available for at least 100 miles outside of New Orleans," explained Price.

The Atlanta-based artist thanks New Orleans minister Bishop Darryl Brister for making her escape from the city possible. Only a few months ago, Price had sung during a revival at Brister's Beacon Light International Baptist Cathedral, which is now under water.

"It was Sunday morning, and we had already received instructions, there were survival instructions that the hotel had slipped under every occupied room on what to do when the winds got so high they busted your windows open. They anticipated that! We were running water in bathtubs and trying to get our personals and essentials together," she remembered.

Price continued: "The Lord really showed us what it meant to have favor on that weekend! The Lord touched the heart of the man of God, and he called us on Sunday morning and he told us, 'Get your things together and meet me in the lobby of your hotel in 15 minutes.' He put the keys of one of his personal vehicles in our hands and he told my husband, 'Take your wife and get out of the city.' "

Price said their journey from New Orleans to Atlanta wasn't an easy one. "Literally, by the time we got on the road, we were dodging tornados. We had to pull over in Mobile, Ala. and sit for a while because there were three tornados on three different sides of us. The National Weather Service interrupted all radio and said that if you were in a car, to ditch your car and go find a hole and get in it if you couldn't find a building and get in a closet and away from windows. A drive that normally would have taken seven hours took sixteen hours because of evacuation traffic, but God was really merciful to us," said Price.

The singer hopes that fellow hurricane survivors will take this opportunity to strengthen their relationship with God. "They need to know they were spared for a reason. God could have allowed them to perish but He didn't," she said. "My message to the people is that God has not forgotten you! Know and understand that in everything we are to give thanks. There is a greatness that I think is going to come on the back end of this!"