Remembering Post-Katrina Days

Those post-Katrina days are all a blur and it seems I don’t really want to remember them. A few things I do remember – I “worried myself sick” – coming down with a hideous cold and felt as though I would just collapse. I called in sick to work on Day 3 after landfall. I was mad, but mainly felt despair for the city and for the people who were still stuck. I worried about the trauma of the situation and became very worried the frustrated survivors would burn the city to the ground. The confederacyofduncesusa blog was started on September 5, 2005, to try to contribute at least our outrage, and to stop feeling so helpless.

Outcome of our personal issues with Katrina:
• Parents boat in New Orleans, destroyed. Found a part of it in the parking lot of the marina where it had been placed along with bits of other boats into a convincing boat-like object. Didn’t even notice for a while it wasn’t all our boat, but this boat had stairs down to the cabin where we had a ladder. Further inspection revealed mast bits that also did not match. Happily, insurance paid out on the boat.
• Parents half-a-block-from-the-beach house in Biloxi, destroyed. House was still standing but had been “gutted” by the storm and also was missing some exterior walls, making it a tear down. You would have never known this house used to have furniture, sheetrock, etc. Dead pelican found in master bedroom. Large multi-family condo building across the street and a bit closer to the water disappeared completely, with spiral iron exterior staircase and slab the only indication of its previous presence. The condo on our side fared better, it was only 50% disappeared. Small house between our house and the condo, only a slab remained. No known deaths on this block but several people successfully swam/floated to safety as the houses collapsed around them. Bizarrely, the house was paid out on by the insurance “windstorm” policy and also collected a small business loan to rebuild. It is located outside the official floodplain due to the rise in elevation between the house and the beach.
• French Quarter condo, relatively unscathed. The door blew open in the storm but a non-evacuated neighbor mopped up the water and closed the door the next day. A month later some FEMA subcontractors were convinced to clean out the courtyard of debris and downed tree limbs in exchange for showers and beds for a few nights in the units of some evacuated residents.
• Mom’s childhood home in Mid-City, flooded and observed on animal rescue program. A dog was rescued from the porch roof and reunited with his owner. The animal rescue people had been targeting another address in the area but found no dog there so took pity on this one and broke into the house to retrieve him.
• Mom’s later childhood home in Lakeview, flooded and new owner missing presumed dead last we heard. Very sad story, he turned down boat evacuation offer after the storm but stayed to tend to the house which had only a few feet of water. He was never seen again. Family remains in Texas.
• Friends, other relatives, many destroyed or damaged houses but no injuries or deaths.
• Neighbor in the French Quarter decided to leave the city the day after Katrina blew through due to the forecasts of no electricity for weeks. He got into his low clearance sportscar and proceeded to drive out of the city, from the French Quarter to Baton Rouge and beyond, by taking River Road through Uptown to Airline Highway. The same city, the same Airline Highway, the same River Road, that the US Military and the Red Cross were unable to access for 4 more days. Perhaps the Reserves should trade in their Humvees for Porsches.