As many of you know, I am nolalily. NOLA from New Orleans, Louisiana and LILY as in my favorite flower. It is also the name I would have given my daughter, had I had one. I have written a few diaries and a lot more comments about my experiences since Katrina. I have also refrained from writing more as Katrina is one thing I am still coming to terms with. In many ways, I have made my peace. In many ways, I am still not there.
My husband rarely posts here but when he does, he posts under the name, bigbenbob. He wrote, what many of you considered, a very touching diary back in April of 2006.
For those of you who might need a little background in order to understand this diary, I will tell you that, since Katrina, we have been battling many unforeseen hardships.
We considered ourselves doing well before Katrina for a couple of people who didn’t start to earn any substantial income until we entered our mid-40s. I am now 56 and he’s turning 52 this month.
Our house incurred wind damage from Katrina. A tree fell into the back of our house. The ceiling fell in in one of our bathrooms. Many slate shingles flew from the top of our house and left room for water to damage all but two of our rooms. When we returned from our evacuation, we lived at a friend’s home and than at a neighbor’s.
We interviewed 11 contractors before settling on one. He came through a solid source and his references all checked out. By that time, we felt pressured to get our house repaired as there was danger of termites and mold. The contractor ended up being a crook. He took all of our savings and my husband’s inheritance from the recent death of his father and hit the bricks. We are not alone.
The Road Home Program was erected to help home owners get back on their feet. At first, my husband and I didn’t think we qualified for any money so we didn’t apply. But, after a time, we heard that many of our friends had applied. We have spent months looking at other houses get rebuilt as ours sat in mid-construction. We have had to save every extra penny to perform what repairs we could afford ourselves. That meant that one month, a shower stall was built, not enclosed, but at least roughed out. Another month, three windows were framed in and two doorways were replaced. The front of our house has been demolished and reconstruction has stopped halfway through. We have no railings around our front porch or on our front stairs. The columns have not been boxed and sit, unpainted and exposed, to the weather.
For the last two years, I have washed my hair in the kitchen sink. Three weeks ago, my husband finally installed a sink in one of the bathrooms. Up until then we had a bathtub and a toilet. Many have much less than we do.
Last year, after filing for a criminal case against the contractor, I decided to try for a Road Home grant. I went online, listed my name and received an ID number. I never filled out the rest of the form. My depression overcame me and the tasks at hand overwhelmed me and felt too urgent and confusing.
For the last two years, I have had bouts of sleeplessness and great anxiety. I have often awoken with intense anger that turns to tears. Once in awhile I have strong feelings of danger and having to get away with the inability to escape – what? My therapist is helping me as I hope, I am helping others.
My house is a mess. Most of our belongings are still in boxes having nowhere to put our things. We have no shelves. We have no closets. The mantles to our fireplaces have been torn out of the walls and the antique tiles broken into shards by the negligent crooks that ran off with our money. I got a tip that one of them is currently incarcerated in Tennessee. Heads up, Tennessee. For the record he goes by, "Roger Hicky".
About 2 weeks ago I got a call from The Road Home program. I never completed my application with them because no more money was being funded to them. Almost everyday I would read that there wasn’t enough Road Home money to take care of all the grants that had already been filed. But, having gotten an ID number seemed to be enough for them to include us as being eligible. I set up an appointment for our first meeting. It was this morning at 9AM.
I was unable to attend as I had two clients scheduled. So, my husband went alone.
Last night we compiled all the necessary paperwork: Mortgage papers, home ins., flood ins., any ins. payments we may have received and, well, you know, all the rigamaroll they want. We went to Kinkos and put together two copies each of all the necessary evidence. We had a colossal fight on the way home. The argument was over something miniscule but the emotions were about something else.
So, this morning, we get up. My husband goes to meet with the Road Home people and I head up to my office. I finish my first appointment. As I’m waiting for my second appointment, I check the day’s local news. I don’t usually do this because I learned awhile ago that it is usually bad news and just too depressing so, in self-defense, I ignore the local news as much as possible. But, this morning it was different. This morning I find out that 3Billion dollars was just granted Louisiana for the Road Home program.
Apparently, our money has been attached to the defense Budget that Bush was going to veto because it didn’t contain enough money for his war. But, for the first time, Republicans worked with the Democrats to overcome the usual "Bush-block" and the bill was passed.
I would like to thank those members of Congress who personally fought for the passage of this bill. From Wednesday’s Times-Picayune:
Landrieu credited Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who heads the subcommittee overseeing the Community Development Block Grants, for helping to make sure the appropriation got into the final version of the bill.
Today, that bill passed.
WASHINGTON -- In what Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., called a "$12 billion day," the Senate last night approved a defense bill with $3 billion to close a gap in Louisiana's Road Home program after earlier overriding President Bush's veto of a water bill authorizing at least $6.9 billion for coastal restoration and flood control projects.
Of course, there are things I don’t like about the bill. There’s a lot of defense money tied to it, but not the amount Bush was asking for.
The House passed the defense bill with the Road Home money earlier Thursday by a vote of 400-15. Bush hasn't said whether he would sign the bill into law, but expectations by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are that he will because it contains much of the Pentagon money he had requested. It also keeps the government operating through Dec. 14.
400 – 15. Republicans and Democrats working together to make it happen.
Some of you may call me a turncoat for looking at this positively. All I can ask is that you try to imagine.
My husband called me this morning while I was on the phone doing a session with a client who has had to relocate to Virginia. I usually don’t answer his calls or any other for that matter when I am in session but, minutes later, he called me again. This was unusual for him and I knew he was at the Road Home meeting so I asked my client if she would mind if I called her back. She understood perfectly.
I called my husband. When he answered the phone, I knew by the tone of this voice that something was wrong. I asked him and he sounded remote, vague. He said, "Oh, I’m OK". But I knew he wasn’t. I told him I knew something was wrong. That’s when he told me that it had happened. It had hit him all at once while he was interviewing with "Sharon" at the Road Home.
He said, "I did it. I did it right there. I broke down. I broke down right there. I couldn’t help myself. Going through all that paper work, it just hit me, all that we’ve gone through."
I love my husband, dearly. It breaks my heart to hear him cry. Our fight last night was not about each other. It is times like these that bring you to fully understand what is important. Thanks for listening. I can’t help but hope that we may be on our way to getting our life back.
I'll keep you posted as to when, if and how long it takes and what it takes to receive some money. So far, it's been almost two and a half years.
Thank you, Congress, for giving.