In the Folds of Hurricane Katrina's Dress One Year Later...

In the Folds of Hurricane Katrina's Dress One Year Later...

This afternoon, a sad year ago, is when we grabbed what we thought we needed & headed to my In-laws to weather the massiveness of Katrina. Can you believe we had no idea? We'd been through so many of these, that we expected to be home the next afternoon like every other hurricane. We were lucky that at the end of their short road, on the Highway, there is a Volunteer Fire Department. That assured that the highway was cleared up to that point at least. Then one of our cousins brother, who lives across the street from my wife's folks, used his Bobcat to open up the short road - able to get there because the highway was clear, open. This allowed us to take a brief drive that afternoon (29th) & see what we could slightly north & south to the remains of our small town buried under trees & live wires... Then we went to bed early, using candles... in the horrible heat that never even tried to subside in the darkness of night.

The next day we were able to check on our little country road, which heads to our home. It was devastated. About the size of our driveway was partly open, traversed over much debris, before reaching a wall of large, fallen trees... Electric wires were all over the ground. It would have been 2.5 miles to walk in to check on our double-wide. We didn't. Or rather, my wife didn't want me to & i could see the wisdom of her words after my initial need to "macho it" across the debris. Being ill at the time, i would have been in trouble. BUT i wanted to see, wanted to know... In a few days, my brother-in-law did the walk/hike. He's a bulldozer driver, a truck driver, & a roofer, so has the strength to climb & crawl easily. My migraine condition's complications at the time really made me angry. i felt exposed, embarrassed, & weak. What they used to call "Pansy-Tansy" back home in the timber town i was raised in...

That afternoon, we left the parish & headed north. Spent 2 weeks up there before the electricity came on & we ventured back. We stayed at my in-law's for a single night before the electricity came on in our home. It was fortunate that the head of Homeland Security in our parish lives down at the end of our road. We saw many electric repair vehicles working on our road when we returned.

Then there was the 6 months of massive clean-up in our parish. The clean-up trucks, the waiting in line in our cars as they loaded the debris into makeshift trucks with a variety of heavy machinery, causing any drive to be extended by at least twice the time [so going to the neurologist was at least a 45 minute trek to only get to the office]. Giant stumps along the road became part of the landscape. Much of the dense woods on our little country road were gone. The many of thick trees lining the highway were gone. It's difficult to explain this even to myself... How a snapped tree, bent, forming a triangle with the ground has become my symbol for Katrina... How the stores, after they re-opened, were mostly bare. How 100,000 new people had relocated to our parish from the Diaspora parishes below the lake, giving us big city traffic jams & so many accidents... How stores in general & restaurants were only open for short hours. Many food joints closed for 3 or 4 hours after lunch. Often, this is still the case. Large signing bonuses remain the norm for being hired at a fast food joint.

How good it was to notice the helicopters slowly lessening from our skies - their black shapes & noisy barks formed lines of at least five, flying back & forth. How good it was to see the MRE & water lines go as well as the National Guard; plus the lifting of the curfew after many months... How good it was to see lightning bugs come out in the spring, making me feel normal.

It seems both like yesterday & a thousand years ago...

Looks like Ernesto is going to pound Florida by Mid-week, not us... this time. But then you worry about them. Along the Gulf, first you feel relief, then a sad kinship with those being crushed by another bite during hurricane season.

~08.28.06

(Photo © 2005 by j. m. Scoville)