Hurricane Katrina...

[black_biff_stadler]

...made landfall in the Louisiana/Mississippi area on a Monday six years ago today. It remains the most tremendous event I've endured in my life. Although my family, friends, etc. were fortunately almost completely spared from all the traumatic severity of it, the weeks that followed were turbulent, uncertain and felt several times longer than they actually were. Seeing all the structural damage on Veterans Boulevard and in areas surrounding the neighborhood I lived in at the time left a painful lump in my throat as I feared the worst as we neared our homecoming a good week after the storm had blown through.

Once we got home the initial anxiety of all senses registering what had occured was a little much to take in at once. The dank smell of mildew for one, also realizing how many possessions were now waterlogged beyond repair in addition to knowing the vast majority of the greater N.O. area was under a strict 8 p.m. curfew didn't provide any comfort. That meant that since our house was uninhabitable we'd once again have to head to my grandparents whom lived an hour away but it'd take around four hours to get there considering the logjam created by contraflow.

After just going through 4 or 5 days without electricity relations were becoming strained with the grandparents (nighttime indoor temps reached 90^oF at times) and in the interest of peace my immediate family headed to Houston to stay in an affordable hotel for a week. Upon returning we stayed with an uncle where once again my extended family's dysfunction surfaced causing yet another week in Houston. After that, Metairie (my homeland since 1989) and most of the greater N.O, area was finally open and the rebuilding process entered its infancy.

Unfortunately the restaurant I was working at was operated by a self-serving unsympathetic businessman whom in our beloved state's darkest hour continued to make "business decisions" by not reopening a restaurant that had merely taken on less than a foot of water and rather than dipping into his (literally) millions of dollars to hire professionals to get the place open once again as quickly as its now-cash-strapped staff desperately needed it to, he instead offered us the king's ransom of making about 50% of what our usual salary would've been since we were waiters earning tips.

All that aside, I had the good fortune of ending up with a friend's uncle and learned how to finish and repair furniture which for a brief period of time paid my bills very adequately. During this time I helped my folks pull out old sheet rock and hang new, paint almost the entire inside of the house (ceilings included), mount new cabinets, and other things I can't remember. My step-dad on the other hand did about 50-100% MORE than I even did by repainting the outside of the house solo, pulling heavy-ass waterlogged carpet out to the street and many other chores. It took about a year to finish everything during which I averaged 25-30 hours a week on top of my full-time job and ol' step-dad probably averaged 80-90 hours total between work and home productivity.

My folks now live in North Carolina as they weren't embracing the idea of handling Katrina II should it occur in our lifetimes and unfortunately I'll only see them about a week out of every 6-12 months for the rest of my life unless I manage to become far more financially comfortable and have a job that's relatively flexible about unpaid leaves or if they unexpectedly move much closer to home which is far from a likely scenario.

This is definitely a good 250 words into "tl;dr" territory by now but I felt compelled to be thorough in my historical catharsis and lack the editorial objectivity to make this journalistically concise. For those of you who make it this far, thank you quite sincerely for hearing my story and if any of you have your own Katrina story then feel more than free to post it as I'd love to discuss this with you.




Thanks,

black_floyd

[bout to crash]

Damn. Thanks for sharing. It's amazing how much this is still affecting so many people every day.

My story is that I was very detached from it for a long time until my friend told me he was organizing a trip to Louisiana to do some work. That trip and the two in the years following it truly changed my life and the way I look at the world. I met so many amazing people in such shitty circumstances who refused to give up and had experiences/conversations/saw things I will never forget. There will always be a huge place in my heart for that region and those impacted by Katrina. I suppose I am one of those in a different way.

[black_biff_stadler]

Damn. Thanks for sharing. It's amazing how much this is still affecting so many people every day.

My story is that I was very detached from it for a long time until my friend told me he was organizing a trip to Louisiana to do some work. That trip and the two in the years following it truly changed my life and the way I look at the world. I met so many amazing people in such shitty circumstances who refused to give up and had experiences/conversations/saw things I will never forget. There will always be a huge place in my heart for that region and those impacted by Katrina. I suppose I am one of those in a different way.

That's one way of looking at it but trust me, if you've contributed ANY of your reources to helping this area you're definitely held in very good regard with the locals. There is a very grateful attitude outsiders whom have helped out in the recovery process but I'm sure you've gotten to witness that first hand

[Gadough]

Floyd, you know based on where in LA I live that I didn't experience the worst of the hurricane directly, but there were definitely repercussions. I'll be honest, I was in 8th grade when it happened, and I didn't fully understand what was going on and why. All of a sudden we had "hurricane kids" from Nola "clogging" up our schools. That's a horrible way of looking at it, but being immature little shits, that's what we thought. We didn't understand the severity of how these kids lost their homes and all their possessions. All we understood was that our classrooms were now 2x larger and we would have to give up our seats to evacuee kids. It made traffic hell because of all the extra people in the town, and I remember that all the hotels in like a 100 mile radius were completely booked for a long time. My point is that I'm ashamed of how I viewed the whole thing as a nuisance when in reality, it was much worse for them and couldn't be helped.

My viewpoints changed when I met two brothers from Nola, Christian and Trey, who were evacuees. We bonded one day in class over music, at the time I was really into bands like Slipknot and Korn, and so were they. We became friends based on that. They showed me before-and-after pictures of their house and their street, and it broke my heart. It definitely made me look at it in a different way, because all of a sudden, these guys weren't just uninvited guests, they were my friends. From that day forward I told myself to look at it from the eyes of those directly affected, not my own eyes.

Luckily for me, the family of those two guys never moved back. They're still here in Ruston. Their mom is actually a 4th grade teacher along with my mom who's also a teacher, so they've become family friends as well. Their accents have gone from cajun to redneck (which, I must say, is hilarious. Both of these guys sound so different now than when they first got here). But they're both great guys and I admire their strength because of what they've gone through.

Here's a status update on Facebook that Trey posted today:

"Happy Birthday Dad! Also Happy 6th Anniversary Katrina! You took away my friends, high school, house, video games, clothes, neighborhood, and car but I'm trucking hard and working towards awesome goals in my life I never thought I would. "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

Powerful stuff. Stay strong Floyd.

[bosk1]

I remember going to NOLA for the first time about 2 1/2 years ago.  We made sure to see the parts of the city that were impacted, and it was definitely a personal growth opportunity actually seeing those things so that it could become more "real" for me instead of just being something you saw on the TV way far away.

[bout to crash]

That's a cool story, Gadough. Glad you gained that perspective.

That's one way of looking at it but trust me, if you've contributed ANY of your reources to helping this area you're definitely held in very good regard with the locals. There is a very grateful attitude outsiders whom have helped out in the recovery process but I'm sure you've gotten to witness that first hand

Oh yeah, I met people who were willing to give us the shirts off their backs even while they were so in need. I'll never forget our friend Pete's seafood feasts in Buras and Port Sulphur

[black_biff_stadler]

That's a cool story, Gadough. Glad you gained that perspective.

That's one way of looking at it but trust me, if you've contributed ANY of your reources to helping this area you're definitely held in very good regard with the locals. There is a very grateful attitude outsiders whom have helped out in the recovery process but I'm sure you've gotten to witness that first hand

Oh yeah, I met people who were willing to give us the shirts off their backs even while they were so in need. I'll never forget our friend Pete's seafood feasts in Buras and Port Sulphur

Louisiana: come for the Cat-3s, stay for the catfish.

[bout to crash]

 

I didn't even eat any catfish. All the ones I caught were too small

[black_biff_stadler]

Sashimi?

[KevShmev]

Unfortunately the restaurant I was working at was operated by a self-serving unsympathetic businessman whom in our beloved state's darkest hour continued to make "business decisions" by not reopening a restaurant that had merely taken on less than a foot of water and rather than dipping into his (literally) millions of dollars to hire professionals to get the place open once again as quickly as its now-cash-strapped staff desperately needed it to, he instead offered us the king's ransom of making about 50% of what our usual salary would've been since we were waiters earning tips.

It really is amazing, how different people can act in the wake of a terrible tragedy.

I had two classes at college on the day 9/11 happened.  My teacher for American History came in and spoke for about two minutes about what had happened (this was about two hours after the crash into the first tower) and then let us out of class.  My teacher for Biology came in and taught class like nothing had happened, never saying a word about it, and keeping us for the full 80 minutes.  I remember being absolutely shocked at that. 

[black_biff_stadler]

Unfortunately the restaurant I was working at was operated by a self-serving unsympathetic businessman whom in our beloved state's darkest hour continued to make "business decisions" by not reopening a restaurant that had merely taken on less than a foot of water and rather than dipping into his (literally) millions of dollars to hire professionals to get the place open once again as quickly as its now-cash-strapped staff desperately needed it to, he instead offered us the king's ransom of making about 50% of what our usual salary would've been since we were waiters earning tips.

It really is amazing, how different people can act in the wake of a terrible tragedy.

I had two classes at college on the day 9/11 happened.  My teacher for American History came in and spoke for about two minutes about what had happened (this was about two hours after the crash into the first tower) and then let us out of class.  My teacher for Biology came in and taught class like nothing had happened, never saying a word about it, and keeping us for the full 80 minutes.  I remember being absolutely shocked at that. 

That is kinda awful. He probably ratrionalized it in his head as "Gotta go on and be strong. They'd have wanted it that way" instead of using his 67 IQ to realize the magnatude of the situation. Regarding the dude I was talking about, he's dead now. Justice was served. Karma doesn't take kindly to coke-addicted botox enthusiasts whom have dangled the needy by their feet.