Our House, In The Middle Of The Street...

Our House, In The Middle Of The Street...
Originally uploaded by Gna42.

An update on Parents, siblings, and my state of mind.

My middle sister returned to our old house in Arabi LA two days ago. She hasn't internet access and so was stunned by the degree of destruction to the neighborhood where she grew up. As she drove under downed power lines she noted houses that looked liked they had been hit by a tornado. She noticed places where others had simply disappeared.

"It's destroyed, it looks like a war zone," she said, and "The whole place will have to be bulldozed under."

I can't describe the sound in her voice.

Denise actually entered the little blue house that day. Ignoring warnings about dress, she simply wore jeans and tennis shoes and carried a small camera. She snapped pictures.

The front door was cracked in half, and the windows were blown out. She found the few things she was looking for, but only because she knew exactly where to look... the interior of the house being a single mass of muck and debris. The smell was overpowering but worse was the heat.

As she exited the house she left inside her shoes, jeans and top, and continued in her underwear to take pictures of the house and the surrounding area. She said she was the only person within miles and the silence was unnerving. She left the area for home and a much needed bath.

I know this because I called her on her cellphone as she was leaving Arabi and she filled me in on her adventure. The sound in her voice and the use of the word DESTROYED pretty well summed it up for me. To never again walk up the street to visit my Aunt... to never be able to revisit that place where the neighbors got along so well. New Year's Eve parties and playing behind the levee... gone, all gone... forever.

The area will never be the same and, truthfully, it never was. The "Parish" of the seventies faded long ago, but that will not take away that feeling to walk that familiar street just one more time.

My parents still want to move down south from Wisconsin, funny isn't it? You can take the people out of The Parish (by an act of God) but...

So long Arabi.

Big Easy come, Big Easy go.

Sportsman's Paradise

Sportsman's Paradise
Originally uploaded by Gna42.

Quick "Return" update. Dad does NOT wish to return to Arabi, not even to just sneak a peek!

My middle sister is still going to go check things out and get some photos which we can use to reassure my parents that they are making the right choice.

From the looks of this photo even everything in the attic will be gone. Ah, for the good old days of Betsy, when 8-10 ft. of water was all you'd get.

God Bless Pop!

Urban Marina

Urban Marina
Originally uploaded by Gna42.

Fishing anyone? Last night I viewed over 400 photos while trying to get an idea of what has happened to Arabi, LA, the suburb I grew up in. While the photos were interesting (Showing more grusome damage than what is being seen on T.V.), the comments from local officials and the National Guard troops serving in the area were much more helpful. After working in Arabi for the past week one young Guardsman, Curtis, said, "This was a normal town, It looks like a bomb hit it."

On the Official St. Bernard Parish web site residents of Arabi are being urged to return to the neighborhood for a few hours to "See what's left of their homes." Some reports say the water reached 20-25 ft. in some areas. The area is a swarm of mosquitoes, muck-covered, with windows blown out and clothes and worse hanging in the trees. Homes have been washed from their foundations and some , like ours, sit in the middle of the street (I've a feeling the bulldozer has already cleared it from the road).

To gain entry one must... well, take it from the official web site...
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Preparation to Return:

When preparing to return to St. Bernard, the following personal precautions are recommended:

1.     Tetanus inoculation or booster,

2.     Hepatitis A inoculation or booster,

3.     Hepatitis B inoculation or booster,

4.     Wear coveralls – preferably disposable to be thrown away when exiting St. Bernard,

5.     Wear gloves – thick rubber,

6.     Wear boots, and

7.     Wear a respirator – to protect from air-borne contaminants

8.     Wear eye protection

 In addition, it is strongly recommended that you exit St. Bernard before nightfall.  Electrical power, water, and sanitation have not been restored in St. Bernard.  Moreover, presently there is no gasoline, food, water or building material available.  Thus, please plan accordingly.  You should be totally self-sufficient with generators, tools, etc. to enable you to accomplish your planned tasks and sufficient gasoline to exit St. Bernard when you are finished.

 Because St. Bernard Parish Government does not have sufficient life sustaining supplies to support the general public, we encourage you to make arrangements to sleep outside of St. Bernard Parish.
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Sounds fun, huh? Why would anyone want to return to such a place at all, much less to live? Just ask my Dad and older Sister, who plan to do just that.

Oh, and yes, I do plan on trying to talk them out of it.

LOOKING UP

LOOKING UP
Originally uploaded by Gna42.

Heard the President's speech tonight on KRLA radio. Nice. Very encouraging. Capitalistic and inspiring. I especially liked the proposed "Federalizing" of the rebuilding effort. After Katrina hit, a Congressman from Louisiana said, "Half the city is underwater, and the other half is under indictment." Truer words were never spoken. Without outside help New Orleans will barely plug the leaks much less prepare for the future. I lived there too long to not notice the rampant corruption. No money to sure-up the levees but lots to build casinos.

Once again, even those who didn't vote for George Bush will benefit from his steady leadership. Once again, even those who don't like the President will reluctantly agree that he is the right man for the difficult job ahead.

It is also good to hear that the Mayor of New Orleans will be letting residents back into some of the "dry" neighborhoods over the next two weeks to retrieve some of their possessions. Maybe my Sister will be able to rescue her cat. I know the city Will return... in some form.

I only hope New Orleans will not rise again, but rise anew.

St Bernard Parish

St Bernard Parish
Originally uploaded by Gna42.

This is a recent photo of Arabi Louisiana, not far from the Mississippi river, just north of New Orleans proper. A railroad track runs down the vertical dark strip in the center of the photo, now covered by water from the two paralell canals running along each side. The dark blue strip to the far left is Benjamin St, where my parents have lived and raised four childern over the last fifty years. The family home can be seen at the very bottom of the photo, in the middle of the street.

A Warning, 40 yrs. Old

A Warning, 40 yrs. Old
Originally uploaded by Gna42.

Katrina was different, worse than any hurrricane to hit St. Bernard Parish in it's history, including Betsy back in November of 1965. Over the years residents were able to push the unease aside and "look sideways" at that unpleasent possibility of evacuation and destruction, but one can dodge a bullet only so many times. How many people really took the lessons of Betsy and Camille to heart?

How does one tell people about the utter devastaion left in Katrina's wake and have them really believe them, I mean have it REALLY sink in? Maybe pictures are needed to help people, especially survivors, come to terms with the vast nature of this particular storm. Please click on the links to the left, especially the Arial Views link, to get a better idea of what has really happened.

Update on my parents and oldest sister. From some unknown prompting my parents decided, the day before Katrina hit, to stay uptown with my sister Susan at her second floor apt., thinking the storm would drop a little rain at most. As you know the levees broke and their neighborhood was flooded with 12-15 feet of water. If they hadn't left, they would have drowned. As they wouldn't heed any advice to leave before the storm hit, I actually left them a message saying "goodbye," thinking I would never see them again.

Well, they survived uptown with only 6feet of water surrounding them, no electricity, no phone service, no working plumbing and no fresh water. The keepsakes they took with them they had left in their cars, which were now submerged. Here they stayed a week with a kind neighbor bringing them food and water when he could get to them in his small boat.

We heard false rumors that my Mom had been taken to a hospital and my Dad and sister had been flown out of the city... not so! In fact they stayed the entire week in the apt. until my sister and Dad got fed up and waded out to find help. Another local with a boat picked them up and dropped them off at a nearby police station where they were told they couldn't stay as the station wasn't a refugee camp! The neighbor who brought them stood up for them and the police finally relented and let my parents and sister sleep in some lawn chairs out behind the station, in the parking lot. Taking pity on them (my parents are both 77) an officer brought them some ice, water and some jambalaya someone had made for the police.

After this they were dropped off at the New Orleans Convention Center, a hell-hole where there had been murders and rapes and bodies were piled here and there. My mom said the stench was over-powering and the place was "Hell on Earth." Thank God they were some of the last to arrive there and thus near the fence gates when the military arrived. Only four people were allowed to exit the gates at a time and the pushing from behind was "crushing." Well, they got through and boarded a helicopter and were flown to Jackson(?) Airport, where a family from Benton, a town near Shreveport LA, offered to have them stay with them. This family was a true blessing. The Father was ex-military and able to arrange a free flight to my youngest sister's home in Wisconsin. My sister is still in Benton until she can hook up with her fiance' who is buying a house in Houston, never to return to New Orleans. In fact most of my relatives have stated, much to my relief, that they will never return to New Orleans.

I fear that the most deaths will come from the Parish where my parents, us kids, and many friends and relatives lived and grew up. The end result, at least for us, is that everyone is safe and I finally got a good night's sleep last night.

Hello all survivors. Just a little post to test my blog settings. While I'm here I wish to give you all a bit of hope through something I found in a good book.

"Put your heart right, reach out to God... then face the world again, firm and courageous. Then all your troubles will fade from your memory, like floods that are past and remembered no more." Job 11:13-16 (GN)

With this blog I will attempt to link resources concerning the long reaching effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As a child of three I went through something very similar via Hurricane Betsy and at seven years old went through Hurricane Camille. Believe it or not I have suffered the effects of these experiences ever since, sometimes severely. I wish this site to be a resource for "kids" who went through Hurricane Katrina, especially those whose parents might return to New Orleans to live, and might need to seek help. Having been through such a disaster I can assure you that living with the yearly threat of it repeating can and probably will cause long-term problems, especially for the very young survivors. I am not a doctor or professional health worker, just a fellow survivor who feels a need to reach out in this way. I hope to have the links up soon and will include photos and personal stories.

Well, to get up to date on the immediate "local" stuff, My family are all alive and staying in various locations outside of new Orleans, some cousins even out of the state. Thank the Lord most will NOT be moving back... EVER. Why did it happen? Every local knows that New Orleans politicians are notoriously corrupt and inept. I also note many of the locals were unprepared even for a mild hurricane and even then DID NOT heed the evacuation orders. Many blindly assumed that The Storm would simply put a few inches of water in the streets and blow over a few sign posts. Well The Nightmare I've dreamed of for years has finally happened. Again I thank the Lord for my family's survival and only hope that survivors fully realize the possible long-term effects of such a Hellish event. That's it for now. The storm IS passing over. Be grateful, have faith... Look up to Christ. - Earl Ellis