This is one of my Katrina stories (and first ever diary). I kept a diary during the weeks that I was in New Orleans last October, and this is it. First, however, some background:
I grew up in New Orleans. I don't live there anymore, but the rest of my family did. Most of them evacuated ahead of Katrina, except for my younger brother J. He is a weather-chaser, reckless type. He has a tattoo of a hurricane from way before the Thing. He stayed in his home in the Lakeview neighborhood with some friends. His cell phone was out of service beginning on Saturday afternoon, and he didn't contact us for four days, so we had no idea how he had fared. If you are familiar with the neighborhoods in nola, you know that Lakeview flooded very heavily. He and his friends slept on the roof on Monday night. They had dragged up a bunch of food and supplies from the kitchen. They made a make-shift stove and cooked sausages and chicken using roof tiles for fuel.
The next day they spotted a submerged boat at a neighbor's house. The boat was attached to a truck and mostly submerged, only its tail sticking up. One of my brother's friends had some kind of military swimming experience, and he jumped in the water and freed the boat from the truck. They "commandeered" the boat (that's local for stole), grabbed the ax and spent the rest of the day rescuing people. One man was near death; another was an elderly man on a steeply pitched roof, and they almost dropped him. All told, they saved about 50 people that day, dropping them off at the boat put-in on Veterans Blvd. I posted to Craiglist and the ham operator's website. I called his cell phone company, his friends. On Tuesday, I swear I saw him on a video broadcast at wwltv.com. He was in a small boat with about ten people, wearing his ubiquitous purple LSU hat, and he smirked and waved at the camera. It was far away, so I couldn't be sure, but it gave me hope that he was alive.
As night approached, the gunfire started. My brother decided it was time to leave, and hitched a ride to Gonzales with a family he had rescued (people know to park their cars on high-ground before a storm, so this family had a car available). He finally called on Wednesday morning letting us know he was alive. He is pretty sure it was him on video.
The rest of my family stayed in Baton Rouge for the storm, then traveled to various relatives' homes for the next month. We knew that three out of the four households had flooded based on the Google satellite map, as well as news stories. No one was officially allowed back into the city until the end of September, although my older brother F works for a refinery, and his car tags convinced the authorities that he was "official". He was able to go to my mother's house and pull out the worst of the wet stuff. You can't let the studs stay wet for too long or they will rot. He was the only one around for several weeks. One day a group of soldiers came by to ask if he needed help. He regrets not having his camera.
When the permission to return to the city was finally announced, I made plans to meet my mom in New Orleans to clean up her house. She managed to find a used car in Atlanta, which was in very tight supply. She drove there, I flew, and we got to work.
Note - my mother's house flooded, but it was in one of the areas that got 1-4 ft of rainwater and drained quickly. This is why there were businesses and banks open. Most areas of the city were not like this.
I don't diary in complete sentences... this exactly what I wrote.
Oct 1st, 2005
First day in New Orleans.
I arrived at 2pm. F picked me up at the airport and took me to his apartment. We sorted the pictures he took - my first glimpse of the damage. You couldn't tell from the pictures how bad it was.
We went to the house around 4pm. Awful! The house looks like the shed. I was really surprised, but actually adjusted quickly. Mom and Uncle E traveled 10 hours from Atlanta via Birmingham to I-12 to Causeway (the long way). Mom was shocked, but handled it well. B called, finally "getting it". We drank warm beers then headed out for food. Found the Fox and Hound. Great find! We drank wine (too much), Mom and I cried, and we went to bed.
Oct 2nd.
We took E to the airport. Went to Sav a Center and Rite Aid for supplies. Found ice!! Unloaded the car, saw M - he looks like hell. Abandoned effort to turn on power. Nice backyard lunch at noon.
We got very organized in the afternoon - set up dining room as "staging and storage". The weather cooperated, breezy and only moderately hot. I found my old paintings... they're not too bad! I think I'll keep them and frame them. Mom met the neighbor's son and he turned out to be an Entergy engineer! He turned on the power and AC and now we are in business.
6-oclock knock-off time. R came over and removed the troublesome branch. We were so tired... ate a little pizza. Mom in bed by 9 and me by 10 (after watching Supervolcanos. Neat!) I slept 10 hours. Best sleep in over a month.
Oct 3rd.
Mom thought she lost her FEMA checks, but it was a false alarm. We will stop by the bank, the post office, and the drugstore on the way over. Plan for the day: pack the china, critical bleaching, and first found of triage. Later... the lines were SOOOOo long, but we met a lot of nice people in line. Patience is the order of the day.
Well, there was not enough bubble wrap to deal with the china, so instead I worked on the dining room floor - mopped it three times and looks like you could host a dinner party in there. That is where we will store packed items. In bleaching the trouble spots, I discovered the mold was growing aggressively at the water line. I sprayed it down as best I could (given my hands), but it needs to be thoroughly wetted down. The sprayer contraption made me nervous. Mom worked on cleaning the china. T came by with J's car. Where will we put that? We can't leave it outside with the debris and the trucks coming by. We'll need to deal with that.
A walgreen's truck came by and the guy asked for directions - said he had to inspect a location. He showed me his map, and I was like "man, you can't go there". I don't even think the water was down yet.
We went to dinner at the same place, same waitress! Place was full of troops. Neat! I've never seen soldiers before.
Oct 4th.
9am. Today is groceries, Triple A, packing material, and china. Also, a little more triage. We've mostly been throwing things out rather than working on salvage. Also, more mold intervention. Tonight we'll cook.
10pm. We found a storage place around the corner, they had an ample supply of packing materials. We ended up concentrating today on remediation. I bleached most of the kitchen contents and Mom and I re-bleached the walls. T stopped by again. I did not realize he has a home in Mid-City with renters who refuse to leave. His house is getting worse and worse. He was very calm and cool. His children are scattered with their mothers and they might not be back. Sad. He also has J's truck, which apparently was borrowed and returned a few times. Whoever borrowed parked it in a different spot each time. They always left the keys, though. I wonder what that story is.
My hand's hurt so bad I can barely write. Random observations: Mom's neighborhood is very lonely at night. Thank god for Rite Aid. I must thank them. We got phone and fax today. So many helipcopters overhead and strange trucks. I've never seen so many kinds of trucks. And this is just Jefferson. Tomorrow Lakeview is opening. All commercials are hurricane-related.
Oct 6th.
Yesterday was kind of wild. Another good night sleep for me, but Mom was up at five. My hands were swollen and painful this morning. I iced them and it was a little better. Tuesday, Mom tried to reach Triple A and was on hold for hours, eventually draining the battery on her cell phone. No luck. So we went to the library to apply online for assistance in towing her car. (She had evacuated with my sister and parked the car at her townhome, which also flooded. The landlord was demanding she move it). The library was great: easy access, checked Mom's email, applied for towing ($75!), looked at stocks (should I buy GLD?). Looked for gas, many empty stations. Found it at Shell. Worked in the house for a short while (finished bleaching, yah!), and then the call came for the tow so we took off. B's neighborhood was such a mess. We had trouble getting there because of trucks and equipment blocking the streets, but we managed. I gave the driver the wrong directions and ended up running around the streets looking for him. I eventually found him and led him to the car. Two guys, friendly, one told the story of two elderly women he knew who lost everything. One was scammed by her own son. Another tried to pay him for past work, as he was trying to give her money. B's neightbor was nice too. Another guy we talked to - his elderly mom wanted to come home and he was trying to get her to understand that there was nothing left.
We led the tow-ers to the apartment (very slowly). Once there, they offered to get a salvage guy they knew to come pick up the car, so then we waited for that. Turns out the salvage guy lived blocks from my Mom and had 4 feet in his house.
The car is now gone, finally. By this time it was five o'clock and we just decided to call it a day. We missed the gas guy when we were gone. Hopefully he will be back today.
B called with a crisis. Lots of calls today. We appreciate it, but we are busy. M headed back to Tennessee for a week to rest and get more supplies. J called last night, we'll see him Saturday. I can't wait to see him and his house. Mom got through to the public works on Thursday and begged them to take the tree.
<snip>a few more days of the same </snip>
Oct 9th:
J arrived yesterday. Yippee!! L drove him down from BR. L lost everything, as did his whole family and most of J's friends. They went to see his house in the afternoon. J is in good spirits, L more negative. He kept telling my Mom how lucky she was. His family has gone crazy, they can't handle it. They aren't dealing at all, just getting drunk.
F was here today. I helped him for awhile on "Nail duty" (pulling nails from studs) and sweeping up after his demolition. Hard work! I sure better lose a few pounds.
J picked me up at the apartment to watch the LSU game and visit the quarter. I wore my fleur-de-lis t-shirt and Mom's tiger scarf in my hair. We watched the Tigers (GEAUX TIGERS) kick ass at a bar in Metairie. Met up with J's friends. It was fun, but unbelievably smoky. I lost my voice again. TR's mom is Anne Rice's personal assistant. Oh my GAWD! TR said I could send her my books to get them autographed.
We headed to the quarter and stayed til closing. It was unreal. Trucks, horses, and military everywhere - more troops than civilians. I think we saw about 300 or so regular people. The cops and soldiers were soooo nice to us. We'd say "Lakeview" and they immediately understood. We all got drunk, except L who doesn't drink anymore . We sang "Down by the Riverside" as loud as we could by the river. J and I danced in the streets and made giddy fools of ourselves. For some reason I thought it would be funny to flash the troops as they passed in their humvees, but since I only showed my white fleshy belly, they must have thought I was crazy. I guess I sort of was.
The drive home was surreal - seeing the dome roof torn off, zero cars on the road, radio blasting, windows down, scary scary scary dark stretches of city.
Oct 10th.
Today was our day off. I feel like crap today, I really can't handle being around smoke. Okay, I guess the drinking also was a factor.
Today was depressing because I thought when I left the house would be empty and clean, and its now clear that we wont' meet that goal. Oh well, we've done the best we can.
We headed to Lakeview around 5pm. I don't really know how to describe except to say that everything was dead. It reminded me of Chernobyl - no birds, no bugs, no grass, dead trees, no life. Just hazmat-geared workers and people like us driving around and taking pictures. I wonder if they'll pipe in music. No birds - no doves, no mockingbirds, just helicopters. It was devastated. And so dusty, you know that dust must be toxic. Mount Katrina - blocks of debris three stories high. I made a huge mistake today - forgot my shoes and I was walking around in flipflops, can you believe? J's house (like all others) had the spray paint on the front. They visited on Sept 9th , no dead bodies inside. If only they knew the individual stories. J said there was stuff in his house that didn't belong to him - it must have crashed through the windows.
A has been to MS coast and it is obliterated. Like a bomb. I wonder if there are birds there.
We drove out of Lakeview before we got to see the vanished restaurants that played such a big role in my families' lives. The whole thing made me nervous - I didn't like it, I felt vulnerable and exposed with no mask, no shoes. What if we got a flat tire or stepped on a nail? It was scary. It took awhile getting out. Leaving Lakeview onto Vets all of a sudden it looks ALIVE. Jeff is normal, out of the dead zone. So bizarre. It's like a black and white picture goes to color. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Oct 11th.
My hands are so blistered that I lost all the skin on the insides.
<snip>a few more days of the same </snip>
Oct 14th:
Last working day! Today is my 10th wedding anniversary. Mom and S are cooking up something, they keep exchanging surreptitious phone calls. Maybe flowers?
I got started washing studs when a florist arrived. Gee, are those for me? They're gorgeous. I start to cry and call S leave a sappy message. I don't reach him until later. We take pics with the flowers in the wrecked kitchen and also in the trash mountain. What a juxtapostion. F wants me to get in downed oak tree, but the flowers are too heavy. Finally talk to S and thank him. I love him so much and really miss him.
Oct 15th:
Mom and I stopped by the house on the way to the quarter. The only furniture left in the house is my piano, because it is too heavy for us to move. I play it one last, sad time. I can't bear to see it go in the trash.
F is at the house today. We brought him a nice lunch, then left for the quarter. It was creepy.. driving down Canal to the quarter. We saw almost no one. The quarter was a little quiet, a little sad, not the same in broad daylight. I didn't like it.
Aug 4th:
I didn't write any more after that. A lot has happened since then. J's home was demolished a few weeks ago. My mom turned out to have an extremely damaged foundation unrelated to the storm. She is still living in a small apartment (that's considered fortunate) and life is still a daily, frustrating grind - calls to Fema, insurance, DMV, permit office, you name it. Paperwork, delays, run-around. Does she have to raise the house? Today, yes, tomorrow no.
I think back to our friend L, who kept insisting to my mom how lucky she was because the house was salvageable. The only thing he managed to save was a photo of his grandparents, that floated on top of a book about the Titanic (weird!). I wonder what the displaced would say to L - how lucky he was that he had resources to be back in New Orleans. I think about the people who died.
Here's another small piece of the narrative. I have other stories, of friends who fared much worse, and others who won't be back, of my drive across the gulf coast, and my New Year's Eve visit. I've written a few songs. I think about nola constantly. I feel guilty for not being there. Thank you, wmtriallawyer.