ALIVE!

I am alive!

This is my first blog entry in at least three weeks - interuption courtesy of KATRINA.

Where do I start?

My last blog entry was two days before the storm hit. I boarded up my house and left New Orleans around noon on the Sunday before Katrina came ashore. My safe haven destination was my Dad's house in Pascagoula, MS. I figured I'd be safe in Pascagoula - but I found I really had no appreciation for the SIZE of this storm. It was huge. The winds in P-goula were fearful. The shingles on my Dad's house blew off and a couple of the celings collapsed due to water damage. We fought wind blown water entry into the house like a U.S. Navy damage control party virtually the whole time the winds were whipping - and they were whipping for a long time. This storm happened in broad daylight - so you could see what was going on outside. Trees snapping like matchsticks - all the way over here in Pascagoula. My Dad lost power and didn't regain it for over a week.

As soon as the winds died down, I attempted to get on the road to get back home to check my damage. It was about 6pm when I began the trek westward on I-10. From Pascagoula, I got as far as Biloxi, MS when I was turned around by a Highway Patrolman. Reason? He told me ... quote ... "There's an oil tanker on the bridge ahead".

So back to P-goula I go. On the way back, I had I a hell of a time getting across the Pascagoula River bridge - where a segment of the bridge had been knocked sideways by a big floating crane that had been blown into it by the storm. The whole eastbound side of that bridge is now secured for repairs.

So the next morning, I set out for Slidell, LA via a different route - the northern route.

I took HWY 63 to Lucedale and jumped on west HWY 26 - took that all the way to I-59 South - which cruises right into Slidell. This route would normally take about two hours to complete - but it took me EIGHT.

First - HWY 26 was full of downed trees - which was slow going - but it was passable.

I-59 was a completely different story though. It looked like a nuclear bomb had exploded.

Huge pine trees - all over and covering most parts of the freeway. The northbound side was all but impassable. Northbound cars just migrated to the southbound side and turned their emergency blinkers on while they headed in the opposite direction of the intended flow of traffic. There wasn't a lot of northbound traffic though.

The southbound side of I-59 was impassable too - but National Guard troops were out and clearing it. So the routine would go like this - move 50 yards, wait for hours for NG to clear some trees - move another 50 yards and repeat the process.

But I did make it to Slidell...

But the police didn't want to let me into the city.

So after being turned away on the direct route to the city - I grabbed my map and found a very convoluted "back road" route to get to my house. This was a perilous route - and required me to get out of the car at several points to pull trees and debris out of the road - but I made it.

What I found when I reached the levy to my subdivision was ...

A LAKE. My house was in the middle of a LAKE!

Apparently the storm surge of Katrina topped the levy - filling my subdivision like milk in a cereal bowl. But this stuff, this stuff that came in - was not milk. This was a serious concoction of marsh mud, oil, and - my favorite - sewage! It filled my house with five feet of this black water.

So here's the damage assesment ...

My bottom floor was flooded out about 5 feet with this stinky water and mud. My upstairs was just like I left it - dry and clean - looked beautiful. Actual hurricane damage from winds was minimal. My dishnetwork dish was blown off, and I lost a few shingles and some of my vinyl siding became loose - but didn't come off.

That's amazing. In my subdivision, which was pretty much Katrina Ground Zero (I think only Bay St. Louis, just to the east of us got it worse) - not a single roof was missing - they all held. These homes stood up very well to the actual hurricane winds.

But the flood! Oh the flood! The mold started setting in immediately. As soon as I could, I went in with my family and we started ripping out the carpets and the padding. We ripped out the sheetrock on the walls and the insulation except for a little strip up next to the ceiling. We pressure washed the gunk out and bleached the studs. My house is saved - though it's a fraction of what it was just before the storm.

I had all kinds of hurricane insurance - but I had very little actual "hurricane" damage by insurance company standards.

Most all of my damage was FLOOD damage and - you guessed it - I had not one ounce of flood insurance. I wasn't required to have it - I didn't live in a flood zone. Nevertheless, I was planning on getting flood insurance before the storm - it was on my "to-do list". But it was just one of those things that you figure would be nice to have ... just in case - but that you procrastinate doing. I figured I had plenty of time - but then again little did I know that a HISTORIC record breaking storm was about to hit!

So there you have it folks. I've been working non-stop in my house ever since. Eating MRE's, wondering what day of the week it is and fighting off "carpet bagger" contractors who run through the neighborhoods down here trying to take advantage of the folks who have lost just about everything they own.

It's been damn hard - but you know what? In spite of all that I've lost - there is a positive side to this. First, my family is all fine. And second, something about a record-breaking natural calamity that, when it hits you right in the face, tends to wake you up to the facts of life. I have been moving for the past three weeks with an energy that I haven't had since I was in my twenties - if I even had it then. Neighbors that I barely spoke two or three words to a week - I now speak with on a daily basis. And the conversations are deep too - they're about survival.

I could write much, much, more on this storm - and I will - on another day. Right now I have to hit the rack and get some sleep. Got to work on the house again tomorrow. My goal is to get it "livable" by next week. Of course - no power to my subdivision yet - so "livable" kinds of takes on a lower definition if you know what I mean.

I am fine though! Alive and well! Don't feel sorry for me - I tend to believe that positive things eventually come out of stuff like this. But for the folks in New Orleans proper - pray for them. My experience was pretty traumatic. Theirs was horrific.

More to come later ....