OLD TOWN – As the forecasts for Hurricane Katrina became worse and worse on the day before the storm leveled New Orleans, 28-year-old Blanka Peridot made a decision that was as easy for her as breathing.

The University of Maine graduate-turned-New Orleans resident hastily packed a few bags, corralled her 7-year-old daughter, Sabbath, and hopped in the car.

“The gas tank was on empty, the car was breaking down as we drove, but all I could think about was saving my daughter,” Peridot said Wednesday inside the Old Town home of her best friend, Donna Fatum, where Peridot and her daughter are staying.

“I got into my car basically not knowing how far I’d make it, but I knew I had to get as far as possible,” she said.

Ten days and hundreds of miles later, Peridot and her daughter arrived Tuesday at the Old Town airport as the only cargo on what she called a “three-hour flight in a sardine can with wings.” The trip was arranged by Angel Flight Inc., a group of volunteer pilots who provide free transportation in times of emergency.

“It was his plane, he was volunteering his time, his fuel to do this. … He didn’t have to do that,” Peridot said solemnly about the pilot she knew only as Charles.

Peridot, whose parents emigrated from Poland when she was 5, has spent roughly equal time between Louisiana and Maine. She graduated from the University of Maine in December 2004 with a degree in forestry, but she admitted her passion was art. New Orleans was a place where she could explore her artistic dream, so that’s where she ended up.

She stayed less than nine months and said she doesn’t think she’ll ever go back.

“I don’t want to make my daughter vulnerable to anything,” she said. Besides, “before I left, I ran into a neighbor at one of the shelters and he said the apartment building was completely underwater. … There’s nothing left for me to go back to.”

Peridot and her daughter left New Orleans the morning before the hurricane hit. They were headed for Baton Rouge. Normally, that trip takes an hour and a half, but they didn’t reach Louisiana’s capital until 10 hours later.

Along the way, her Ford Festiva sputtered and sparked, but Peridot said nothing would have stopped her from getting as far from the storm as possible.

“I knew that if the car broke down, I was going to get out and look for the most decent-looking person and try to get in their car,” she said.

At one point, her car couldn’t go any farther without gas, but Peridot didn’t have any money.

“I wasn’t afraid to beg. … I asked [a gas station attendant] if he could spare a couple dollars’ worth of gas and he filled my tank,” she said, her boisterous voice shrinking almost to a whisper. “I’ve met more good people in the past week than the whole time I was in New Orleans. We play up the bad stuff, but the goodness is what really touched me.”

Peridot and her daughter found refuge in one of the many shelters in Baton Rouge. “At that point, we thought we’re going away for the night, we’ll be back tomorrow. That’s what everybody thought.”

They stayed for several days in shelters in Baton Rouge and then Baker, La. From everything that she had seen around her, Peridot worried about her daughter’s safety at the shelters.

“People were going around raping women and children, and even if my daughter wasn’t a victim herself, she would have had to see it,” she said. Luckily, they didn’t see any of that.

She eventually connected with Angel Flight in Baker.

Peridot realizes she is much luckier than others who didn’t have the means to leave.

“I’m upset for the people that couldn’t leave and I’m upset that there wasn’t a system in place to deal with this,” she said. “But I’m so blessed that my daughter didn’t have to see some of the sights that other children had to see. … I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I’m glad it wasn’t my child.”

Peridot admitted she saw the best and worst or people during the week she spent in shelters, but she said she sympathized with New Orleans residents who turned to looting.

“Would I break into a store to get food and water for my child? I wouldn’t hesitate,” she said.

Unlike many others, Peridot and her daughter got out before the destruction came. Now she only sees it on the news or reads about it in newspapers, but she said that’s important.

“The media is a good tool; it’s helping people relocate those that were lost and it’s helping to realize how big the scope of the situation is,” she said.

“The pictures are so heartbreaking. … This was so big that even if you don’t have a vested interest, it’s going to affect you. You realize that no one is exempt.”

For better or worse, Peridot and her daughter are in Maine for good, starting over from scratch. But they have no intention of sitting around moping or feeling sorry for themselves. Peridot spent most of Wednesday registering her daughter in school – she starts today – and looking for a job and an apartment.

“I don’t want to waste time, I want to get right back in the swing of things,” Peridot said, reflecting for a moment on her daughter, who had gone to get ice cream with her mother’s friend. “When you have someone else’s life to protect, you don’t mess around with that.”