Just when the snow settles, God shakes our Globe again......or

[RoundEye]

........What happens when you freeze-dry a scrambled mind?

At this point, it’s hard to even think of where to begin. The following is the eclectic, often graphic, thoughts of just one person affected by Hurricane Katrina. Just imagine Ozzy Osbourne on crack. It’s hard at this point to finish one thought before another one come smashing into my feeble mind.

Earlier this week, I was asked by a friend who lives out of state “What is a Parish?”. I was born in New Orleans, which I’ll get into later, but I’ve never really given it a lot of thought. I’ll tell you what a Parish is to me though. Probably almost three hundred years ago now, French settlers where basically run out of area of Acadia, Canada. I’m guessing they traveled South until they hit the Gulf of Mexico, following along the ever twisting Mississippi River. They stopped here and took root. A group that now are called Cajun-French, many of which still only speak a unique language called Cajun-French. A group of people that made the city of New Orleans. They are deeply religious and hard workers. They do know how to party too, this year marks a 150 years of Mardi Gras, as many of you know a free party like no other. Now getting back to the Cajuns, Religion, Parishes and how it all ties in.

We have the oldest Cathedral in the United States, the St.Louis Cathedral. Right in the heart of the French Quarter stands a huge church that is photographed by every tourist that comes through this city. I’m not religious in any way, but it’s my understanding that each church serves a Parish and has a Parish Priest. I guess you would have to know a Cajun, but their minds aren’t easily changed and they don’t just pack up and leave easily either. So while the rest of the U.S.A. is on the county system, we have Parishes. With the exception of New Orleans, we don’t have Mayors. We have Parish Presidents. They are elected into office and fall right below our Governor in the food chain of politics. The church and some people have a huge influence over what, how and when people do things.

When I say “some people” I mean people like “Mama D” that I seen on the news, on one of our two working channels. It’s really a trip when you see it on TV, I can’t imagine what is going through the guy’s head, but he must be really freaked out over Mama D. Why do I think this? Because he won’t make her leave her front porch, like they could make so many others leave. The man I’m talking about is a war torn, well-built man, of the Red Berets, the 82nd Airborne. When we did get help, we got some bad ass guys in here.

Let’s talk Mama D and the man some. Mama D, she’s from another world. She looks like a voodoo priestess sitting on her porch, in defiance of one of the mightiest Armies of the world. Surprisingly well spoken, and stuck in her ways for certain. So what is the man trying to do? He’s actually negotiating a deal with Mama D. You see, she has influence, and loads of it. She knows where the people are hiding, how to make them come out, and how to make them leave. I’m talking about 1000’s of people too. At the end of it all, the man drives away in his amphibious vehicle bewildered. Mama D still won’t leave, but they struck a deal, she’s going to convince the elderly and handicap to leave. The man and his fellow soldiers are interviewed by the newscaster, they all mention that they have fought or have seen battle in Afghanistan and or Iraq. They are all stunned by the devastation caused by Katrina. They have been all over the world, seen some gruesome ****, and yet they are all still surprised by the death and destruction in New Orleans and the metro area.

There is a lot of death here, you can tell by the flies. There must be tons of rotting meat from people’s freezers, then there are bodies just floating around. Yes, our official death toll is low, but they have yet to begin collecting the bodies. Almost two weeks later, they are still in the “rescue mode”. Dead bodies are just pushed aside, to rescue or try to rescue the living. Out of all the petty things, these damn flies are driving me crazy.


I must admit, I slept through most of the storm. Every now and then, as a tree blew over and shook the house, I would wake up. I could still hear the wind, rain and my house moving. My house was speaking to me, almost in a Lord of the Rings way, it reminded me of the Fangor Forrest, I believe it was. It would shift one way with the wind, and let out a long groan, then with the change of the wind direction, it would groan outloud and settle down a bit. Every now and then, you would hear loud pops, which I think were Pecans hitting the side of the house about 130MPH. I think that’s why I slept. It was like a B horror movie. No electricity, all the windows boarded up, the rain going sideways, and no escape now, not even if I wanted to go.

After the Katrina bomb, people start emerging from their homes and what ever shelter they could find. In all ironies, it’s a perfect day. Blue sky, not a cloud to be seen, and really not too hot……yet. They only problem is, every thing is wasted and I mean ****ing EVERYTHING. At this point, we don’t know how widespread it is. We have no TV, Radio, electricity, landlines and we are losing cell phones fast. Remember the Flintstones? Well, they were more modern then us at this point.

First you check out your own house, and other then the front door being a real bitch to close now, we did alright. I live just a few hundred feet from my parents, if you could get up the driveway. Now we have so many trees in our yard, we can’t leave unless we drive between the barn and shed, go through the neighbors yard, up his driveway to the highway, and back down to my parents. My parents lost the front porch and most of the shingles on the roof. All I really know now is what I can see, my family is OK but we aren’t sure yet how my wife’s family did. We finally get in touch with them, they lost a lot of stuff, with about two feet of water in their house during the storm. My Dad’s business is gone, the shell of a building is there from what I hear. At this point in is life, he’ll probably never open it up again.

Now that I think about it some, you know you live in a weird city when you need life vests and a chainsaw to save your life. Stop what you are doing for a second and look up. Just think, a lot of people drowned in their attics. With the water rising slowly and no place to go. Sounds like another B grade horror movie to me. Here’s where the problem comes in, It Isn’t. It happened. It’s still happening, and I’m trying to figure out how to live in it with my young son and wife. Again in my life. if it wasn’t for my Dad, I would be homeless. My wife and I have no idea when we can work again. Jefferson Parish is basically closed for the next three weeks. Dusk to dawn curfew, and if you get pulled over, they come at you with the guns drawn. I know this for a fact, because it happened to me on the way from the hospital.

“The Hospital” crap….I don’t even know where to start about these clowns. I’ve been three times in two weeks, ending in emergency surgery. I guess I shouldn’t say “ending’ because it’s really not over yet, I’m just home. The first time was for my leg and back hurting. I know that’s a really candy ass reason to go to the emergency room in a crisis situation, but read on. Turns out my leg was infected pretty bad, and I thought my back was from cutting up a tree (which if we hadn’t done, no electrical juice for the homestead here). A huge dose of antibiotics through IV, some to take home and some pain meds and I was on my way. OK fine. NOT. I was back in a couple of days pissing an moaning about my back, it was hurting in a big way. I know what pain is too. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve have five major bone surgeries, 18 pieces of metal put into me and ten taken out, I’ve also had a bone graft to fuse two vertebrae in my neck. Well I finally got their attention, so they did a cat scan and found a 5mm Kidney stone. So more pain meds and a “this too shall pass my son” speech and I was on my way. Also they basically told me not to come back. I don’t have insurance and the good ol’ boys at FEMA hadn’t authorized them to work on me anymore. Our free hospital is in New Orleans, which is flooded and will never open again. Fine…. I didn’t like your hospital anyway! Well I don’t care how bad passing a Kidney stone should feel, it doesn’t have to feel like you are dieing. I could hardly breathe and I felt like somebody was stabbing me in the back. So I convinced the wife to bring me to another hospital that just opened back up. They did another cat scan found another record breaking stone holding up the works. This one was 4mm by 10mm, yes I said 10mm. This hospital wasn’t letting me leave.

I stayed the night and in the morning they went in like Roto-Roter and yanked the thing out. Folks it only gets worse from here. The doc went in through the hole at the head of my prick. Your nuts hurt yet? No? Well keep reading. Turns out that stone was holding back the stone the other hospital seen. So they put in some plastic tube called a stint, and I still have to pass (read-piss out) the other stone. So as I type this, I’m drinking plenty of water and pissing out what looks like V8 tomato juice. I was told the blood is normal, but it still hurts like a mofo when I piss. Just one more stone to pass I keep saying to myself.

Helicopters sure are loud when carrying a 9000lb load. I know this because they start flying at sunup to sundown, over my house. Twin rotor Shwroskeys I think. (I can’t research anything because I still don’t have cable TV, internet or phone access.) From what I can see, they are busy fixing the holes in our levee system that caused so much death and destruction. They are dropping 3000lb bags of sand in the holes.
You can tell by the sound of the motors that they are loaded down, and the blades make a tremendous popping sound as they meet each other at the middle of the helicopter. I sure hope one of those bags doesn’t fall off. It would be a real bitch to survive the storm, only to be pile driven into the ground by a sand bag. Two helicopters have crashed already, luckily everybody survived, can’t say the same for the lineman from Oklahoma. That poor bastard was electrocuted to death. He was only trying to help us and got roasted.

I’m someplace where I shouldn’t be. It’s an odd feeling because I’m lying in my own bed typing this. I live in the city of Waggaman, in Jefferson Parish. There’s that “Parish” word again. Jefferson is the first Parish outside of New Orleans to the West. It’s also on the West bank of the Mississippi river. It’s quite a bit more rural then the East bank. I’ve only been here about two years. I grew up about five minutes from New Orleans on the East bank of the river. We didn’t even have a bridge over the river until the 1930’s. The good old Huey P. Long bridge. Built for trains, adding cars was an afterthought. Narrow as hell, and sways around as trains pass over it. There’s a lot of people here that refuse to cross it. Oh, and did I mention that when they built it they screwed up? Yep, it’s crooked and by the time they noticed it, it was too late. So they said “screw it” I guess and just finished the bridge.
Oh, and the reason I shouldn’t be here, Jefferson parish is closed for thee weeks. I’m a lot better off then my friend Billy. He and his girl friend lived in St.Charles Parish in the city of Chalmette. They managed to stick out the hurricane on the roof, and through a wild string of boats, helicopters, buses, and cars they are now safe in San Antonio, Texas.

St Charles Parish has been declared a total loss. Damn what destruction. It couldn’t have been any worse if you dropped an atomic bomb on it. Over 60,000 people are now homeless. Some people can’t go back for at least six months. An oil tank burst and soaked everything with this heavy crude. Y’all that stuff isn’t even really oil yet, just a thick black tar. I have other friends there that’ll probably never see or hear from again.

In a few days, I’m going to be 40. I feel like a 100, yet I think I’m retarded, I’m stuck in a loop at the age of 15. This is mentioned because I born after the last great one. That is Hurricane Betsy in September 1965. Glad I’m not a girl, because my mom was going to name me Betsy. Sorry to all you Betsy’s out there, but that a cows name for Christ’s sake. Was crack around in 1965? I guess the high winds affected my mom’s head. Everybody born after me has heard horror stories about Betsy. Well sorry folks, my Katrina just stomped your Betsy’s ass into the ground. The hospital I was born in, in New Orleans, is never going to open again. Charity hospital was a free hospital, and I was born there because it was one of the few places still operational after Betsy.

Man my head is being bombed again. It’s 2:30 in the morning and now I have to bring my son to the hospital in the morning, he’s sick now too. Damn, there is sickness, death, destruction and mind numbing crap going on all around me. Just promise me one thing, will ya? If I fall asleep, please don’t let the clowns eat me, OK?


I still haven't gotten to FEMA, body counts, looting for fun, or trying to find food and help.

[minir]

Hi RoundEye


Damn Man my hearts goes out to you & your Family. A terrible crisis most of us can't begin to imagine.

The only reassurance i have here is that Your a Tough SOB and if anyone can overcome this ordeal, you can.

I do hope your Sons okay and its nothing too serious.

Your All in my Prayers Tobey and I'm asking the Lord that everything will work out for You over time.

God Bless
--

minir

[drdoug99]

Wow....I hope things can get settled down soon...best wishes for you and your son, I know being sick on top of everything else isn't what you guys need right now.

I'm going to save what you wrote RoundEye, it's really "eye opening" I guess you could say. Even though I really can't imagine it, no matter how many pictures or news clips I see....hell I am surrounded by a home, with a car...work my jobs, goto school...life is boring and normal as ever...while you and countless others their lives have been changed forever basically. It's not fair or right...I wish there was something more I could do besides donate money and blood....

[Randy]

wow! I dont know what to say.

I only ever met 1 person named katrina and she was a real beyatch.

I truely wish the best for you and your family.
with all the environmental and uknown health hazards I would definately relocate my family for at least a year. Nobody knows what kind of long term damage can happen to people who have an over exposure to a major city that has turned to soup. why be a guinea pig?


forgive me if my advice seems underthought.

will be thinking of you and your family

concerned, Randy

[downhill]

Roundeye...you already know that if there's anything we can do for you, to let us know.

We've talked about them stones and yes..whey they rotozip them, it hurts to even think peeing for a couple of days cuz of that damed stint. The stint? Oh man...the Doctor didn't tell you did he? They don't put you to sleep to pull it out. Don't look when they insert that tool. Just grin like hell and don't pass gas because that doctor is gonna have at least one good looking nurse there, collecting all the warm water they use for a lubricant.

My god, I can't belive the first hospital missed that first stone. It's huge.

My heart goes out to you, and your family and all of the people of New Orleans.

As soon as things get back to somewhat normal around there....your going to get one dinner on me. I've promised it and I do keep my word.

Toby, stay safe and keep your family safe.

John

[Chris]

Kinda reads like Alice in WOnderland.

So RE, are you Alice?


Or the Mad Hatter.







Be safe big guy, and hold that family close

[Illini25]

Damn RE! Just try and keep a positive mental attitude towards things and it will improve. I know it's easier saying that from my position..but try and do the best you can.

Prayers and thoughts!

-Chris

[Ghosthunter]

I just read the entire post now and wow, really sorry to hear, dont know what else to say.

[Debbie]

I just read RE's post.

I'm speechless.

[MissTynker2]

Round Eye,

That was magnificently written, and writing things out can be such a healing process for you too. I cannot even begin to imagine the horrors you are living in..just watching some of the documentaries puts me in a state of total disbelief...and I am no where near the area.

The unknown an uncertainties are the ultimate of wicked foes. My heart and prayers are with you and yours. Please let us know how your son is doing...and do not forget to take care of you as well my friend...you have been to hell and back more times than most people could bear. Angel Blessings!!!

[Spammy]

Damn RE! Just try and keep a positive mental attitude towards things and it will improve. I know it's easier saying that from my position..but try and do the best you can.

Prayers and thoughts!

-Chris

Yeah Roundeye Things ill get better for you , and I will also continue to pray for you and your family aswell as all the hurrican victims.

Respectfully
Sammy

[thepieman]

Dude I hope things get better for you guys quickly. I hope everything turns out well for your family and friends.


Pie

[RoundEye]

A correction and some random info.
I was thinking about the mayor/parish stuff. The city of Harahan in Jefferson Parish has a mayor, they even have a small police force. So I don’t really know how the parish system works after all these years. OK, so I’m a dumb ass. DOH!

There were winds gust measured as high as 195MPH during the storm. I didn’t think
there’s any man made structure or levee that could have withstood that, but some did.

There are also reports that the mighty Mississippi river actually flowed backwards during
the storm surge. Yea, Katrina was trying to leave a lasting impression for certain.

Back to the story………….

Riding around today trying to find an open doctor’s office and one that would take my son’s insurance was a futile effort at best. He’s a bit horse when he talks, but other then that he’s fine. No fever or anything. Otherwise I would’ve been kicking ass until somebody treated him. Just goes to show there’s nothing here, not even decent medical care.

There’s just piles of trash, tress, and the contents of people homes everywhere. It’s mind blowing to me still. As many people all over the world know now, we are a low lying city. Drainage canals are everywhere, and you can smell them for a long ways away now, a combination of smells to please the neighborhood. It’s kind of a raw sewerage, natural gas, rotting meat sort of stench. Real pleasant to be around if you are a “sticking your head up goatse’s ass” kind of person.

The roads are mostly clear, but working traffic signals are far and few inbetween. Lots of car wrecks all over, and if you think you are going to find a cop to help, good luck. There better be brain matter on the windshield, maybe they’ll stop then. They are busy you know, catching the likes of looters and stuff.

Speaking of looters, there are two kinds the way I see it. People who are just trying to survive by taking food and something to drink. Don’t eat for four days and see if you don’t bust out the glass at you local donut shop. Then there are the other idiots. The city is flooded, no electricity and you and your friend are walking up the street with a new VCR and an air conditioner. Good going Einstein, I hope you are standing in knee-deep water when you plug you new VCR into a faulty A/C socket.

The looting got so bad that the president of Jefferson Parish, Aaron Broussard, came over the radio and declared that Jefferson Parish had succeeded from the Union. At that point we no longer belonged to the United States of America. Why was this done? So that we could declare martial law, set up a curfew and to instruct the cops to “shoot to kill”. All said and done they shot eight looters. We had no backup from the National Guard, and no idea if and when the military was going to arrive. It was bad, bands of looters that were well armed driving around in large trucks, just looking for their next hit. You should see the banks and ATM machines around here. Those guys showed no fear or mercy.

They sad story is about the New Orleans cops (N.O.P.D) a bunch of them left, not to be seen or heard from again. People were trying to overrun the police stations and kill them! Two of the cops committed suicide, overwhelmed about the fact that their families where killed in the storm, so that could go to work and help protect their community, and a third was shot in the head by looters. I got to give to the ones who stuck it out, it took balls of steel.

This leads into those absolutely useless, waste of skin and souls, dip****s called F.E.M.A. When they came in to “save” New Orleans, the only place that was close and not flooded, was a small stadium in Jefferson. They thought they were in total control, but our sheriff Harry Lee showed them. As hard as things were, F.E.M.A. decided they needed all of our resources. They commandeered gas supplies, they also cut the antenna wires on the police station transmitter towers and put up their own antennas. Why? Because the police in Jefferson we smart enough to have large backup generators, F.E.M.A. seemed to have forgotten their generators at home. Man did that ever cause the **** to hit the fan when there was no comm. link for our cops, plus they told the J.P.’s (Jefferson Police) they couldn’t have any fuel without written permission from Washington. F.E.M.A. changed their minds real quick about that when Harry Lee decided to pack up his S.W.A.T. team and drive over to the gas station. Keep in mind we still didn’t really belong to the union at this point, and we weren’t taking any crap from any Feds. I guess you would have to know about some of Harry’s antics to understand him. Years ago he ordered the streets and bridges department to put up some heavy duty barricades, the problem is it was across some main streets that crossed from Jefferson Parish into New Orleans Parish. His reason, if New Orleans couldn’t control their criminals he wasn’t letting anybody in his parish. He refused to take them down for about a week, but he got his point across.

I was just watching the news and good old Harry set up another barricade at the parish line. This one is stirring up a lot of ****, in a big way. In New Orleans there’s another bridge that crosses the river, built in the 1960’s, I believe. When you cross the bridge you leave New Orleans and enter Jefferson. In all the chaos that was happening Harry wasn’t letting anybody in, not even if you lived in Jefferson. He had attack dogs, cops with semi-automatic weapons and shotguns. Full riot gear, S.W.A.T. team cops. Of course people didn’t like this, but he was trying to maintain order in a world of total chaos and pandemonium.

Turn around and walk your ass back. Sounds cruel but what are you supposed to do? One wise ass decided he was going to climb on the roof of a multi-million dollar mall and set it on fire. When he was caught and arrested the crowd got really nasty. Depending on who’s side of the story you listen to, “a shot” or “many shots” were fired into the air. 1000’s of people were about to attack the cops, I guess the cops were just trying to stay alive at this point. People got the hint and backed off quick. The guy burnt to the ground the only large mall we had on the westbank.

Another odd little fact to note, out of all people, the actor Stephen Segal has been a Deputy in the Jefferson police force for about 15 years now. You can see him, in full police gear, at Harry’s side during T.V. interviews. He won’t talk to reporters, I guess he’s there to protect Harry.

Also for those of you who think we shouldn’t have the right to own guns, keep this in mind. Criminals will always find a way to arm themselves. We had no help from any body for days, the only way to get food and water was to find a store where the owners had the smarts to buy guns, and had the balls to stand up to looters. My family and neighbors were all well armed and we all watched each other’s backs. In fact the police caught a stolen truck with about 15 armed looters about two miles from my home. We actually seen the guys drive by and just knew there was no good coming from this.

Just keep in mind, at that point we were living in wild west, third world conditions. No electricity, no water or food, no communications, and no idea if and when help would ever arrive. It was an every man for himself, survival of the fittest type situation.

………and it still is along most of the Gulf Coast.

I told y’all, the New Orleans metro area is a wild place to live. I wonder if we (Jefferson Parish) joined the Union yet.

Just when the helicopters let up some, the planes start. Right about sunset they fly by at tree top level. So weeks after the storm, my house still shakes now and then. The flies and mosquitoes have gotten so bad that the military is spraying the whole city. I don’t know what kind of planes they are using, but they come by low and fast, and again it’s quite loud.

Another note, I don’t want y’all to think I’m complaining about this. I’m just writing about it, in some ways I guess this is my way to deal with it all. I’m lucky, my family is OK and I still have a home. Some people have lost everything that they and their families have worked generations to have. –POOF- you family history is gone for generations back, now that is tragic.


.......more to come.

[minir]

Hi Tobey

Thanks for the further info Tobey. Hopefully it will act as a catharsis for you as well. Your mind must be reeling from all that's taken place.

Stay strong and know a lot of good Folks have you in mind and are Praying for your needs to be met.

---

regards

minir

[thepieman]

Just like in Florida when hurricanes hit, all the shiesters came out, there were contractors taking the peoples FEMA money and taking off with it. I wouldn't be surprised if 50-70% of those looters were there from other states and aren't even from NO or even Louisiana. I bet every creep from thousands of miles away went there specifically to loot just like they did in Florida.


Pie

[blebs]

Damn Roundeye, there are no words.

My wife shared in your rotorooting session. She just had her stent taken out at the end of July. I know, kind of stupid to put this here in light of things, but maybe it'll take your mind off of life for 5 seconds?

[RoundEye]

Update: While not denying shots were fired, the police state that they were trying to maintain order while getting busses. They found a bunch of busses from where ever they could and drove people to the evacuation center at the airport. Makes me feel better knowing people were not just abandon on the bridge.

Also some parts of New Orleans is letting people back in, depends on what zip code you live in. Don’t expect to have water, electricity, food telephones, cable T.V. or any modern convenience though. You need an I.D. proving where you live and there will be searches for drugs and weapons as you come back in. The mayor, Ray Nagin, gave a very stern warning to criminals trying to get back in also. There is a zero tolerance on crime, and many people are being shipped straight to Angola, our state penitentiary. A very high percentage of people who walk in there never make it out alive.

He also stated that after all of this, the N.O.P.D. has a very intimate relationship with the city and they “will not take any crap from anyone”. He’s been quite blunt and hasn’t held his tongue during this. He also noted that along with a well-armed police force is the U.S. Marines, ready with fully automatic weapons and bazookas for the guys who think they are really tough. I think at this point there are about 1200 N.O.P.D and over 14,000 military personnel securing the city. Their not playing any games in N.O. kids, it’s a war zone.

…..and the saga continues.

A cloud with a razor sharp silver lining. A friend of mine finally called me back today. I’ve been worried about him and his wife and must have called them a million times. For one, their house is in N.O. and secondly, he’s a captain in the N.O.P.D, homicide division. He’s one of the guys that stuck it out. They lost everything they owned except for their two cars, which some how made it through all the crap while parked at the Superdome. At one point the very top of his house was two feet under water. He still can’t get to his house, not even with a Zodiac boat.

He and his wife stayed in abandon hotels, then an abandon retirement home for a while and now he just got to some place with electricity. Convincing the wife he was safe, he finally got her to go stay at a friend’s home in Baton Rouge.

After talking to him for a while, it makes me ashamed to say I’m from New Orleans. The police were targets, shot at on a regular basis. Even the rescue workers in helicopters were shot at. I get the impression that many dead bodies were found with bullet wounds. While talking to him I told him I was worried about him too, he said “don’t worry, when you are crazy, 56 years old, and carry a M-16 with three extra 30 round clips in your pocket, you don’t have too many problems”. He hasn’t put that gun down for almost two weeks.

Our phone called ended with his beeper going off and his Nextel ringing, “sorry man, I gotta go, stay safe”, and that was it. If y’all want to pray for somebody, pray for Juan, his family and the N.O.P.D. Military presence or not, those guys are living in Dante’s Inferno.

Why can’t I get help? At this point I am screwed for any financial help from the government, local, state or federal. Granted I didn’t have to leave my home nor did I lose everything I own, but my wife and I haven’t worked since the storm. I don’t have a clue when the place I work at is going to reopen. I don’t know where the owner lives, and the manager lives across the lake. He has to cross the Causeway Bridge which is 24 miles long, and it’s only open to emergency traffic right now. My wife’s work is destroyed, no telling what’s going to happen with that.

So what’s the hold up on financial help? I tried to start my own business a couple of months ago, even though most of my income is from working four days a week on motorbikes. F.E.M.A. is going to send me a packet on how to get a loan from the small business association. How in the **** am I going to get that, we don’t even have mail service. So far I haven’t been approved for any financial help from F.E.M.A.

As far as the state goes, they don’t pay unemployment to people who own a business. Keep in mind I haven’t shown any profits yet and a lot of my stock was lost when a tree smashed the shed to pieces.

So if you are rich, you should have enough money to hold you over for a while, if you got evacuated or lost your home, everybody in the world will give you money (which you damn well deserve). So if you are just a middle class working stiff like me, bend over you are getting it dry and hard. Don’t get me wrong, I am VERY grateful for what I have, but I got bills to pay too, and no way to get any money. Jefferson Parish is closed for three weeks, remember?

Well I got to get some sleep now, tomorrows going to be another long day. Got to go hit up the Red Cross for some more food, try and find a new doctor for my son, and see if I can get food stamps so that I can get something to eat other then mostly M.R.E.’s.

Y’all take care, and keep an eye out for clowns for me.


The vultures are coming out already. You know, the other group of soulless bastards called lawyers. They filed two multibillion class action lawsuits against the major oil companies, stating that oil drilling and exploration caused damage to our wetlands resulting in the flooding to New Orleans. Give me a break, ABSOLUTLY NOTHING could have prevented what happened here. My God, that storm was massive.

The oil companies lost almost all of their drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and now this, don’t expect gas to ever come down to a reasonable price anytime soon.

Speaking of the St.Louis Cathedral earlier, that’s what Bush decided to use as a backdrop. He was in front of Jackson Square, which is the courtyard that leads to the front of the church. I’m glad we are getting help from the feds, but I feel bad about it. It’s kind of like borrowing money from a friend, because you went on a drinking binge and can’t afford to pay your bills now. I just don’t know how the U.S. is going to be able to afford this and the money being spent in Iraq. I just feel like we have become a burden on the rest of the world. What else can we do though? With the damage we have, it’s just too much for us to work our way out of it.

Thank you world for saving our collective asses.

[Croc]

Unbelievable stuff RE. All of it. Don't know how so many survived all of it.

Stay on top of it RE. Our thoughts are with ya.

[Croc]

At the moment here we are watching Opra Winfrey's visit to NO.
Everyone should try to watch this show.
Blowing me away.

[RoundEye]

Another birthday come and gone. Yep, I’m the big four-oh. This one was like a birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all rolled up into one. My mom was going to throw a surprise party for me, but with some of my friends scattered all over the United States, and others M.I.A., we just had dinner at my mom’s house. Plus I had my very own thread at SpeedGuide.

My wife somehow found the stuff to bake a cake. In a world that milk, eggs, bread or anything that has to be refrigerated is virtually unobtainable, that’s nothing short of a miracle. We have some small stores that are open, but you better be standing in front of the right store, at the right time to get what you need. Another good thing that happened is that I can officially go home, although I never really left. The city I live in has been declared safe to re-enter, although the rest of the parish probably can’t come back for one to two weeks. It’s still hard for me to imagine packing up some clothes, leaving town for a month, and just hoping my house is here when I get back. We still have a dusk to dawn curfew though, don’t leave your house at night because you will get stopped and questioned. If you don’t have a damn good reason for being outside, off to jail you go. There is no Land of the Free around here right now, we will be under martial law for months to come.

Like the flies, the chainsaws are driving me crazy. Now that people are coming home, they are starting to clear their yards. It starts early in the morning and last most of the day. I guess it bothers me so much because even sitting in my own home, it’s a reminder of all the destruction just outside my front door. Speaking of cutting trees up, a crew of professional tree cutters seen one of trees blocking our driveway and asked my dad if they could cut it up. He said “OK, but I’m not going to pay you for it” He had planed on cutting it up later. It’s a pecan tree probably over a hundred years old and about twenty feet across. I think they were curious if they could do it. After about half a day and some badass chain saws, they gave up. They did put a good size dent in it, but the tree wore their ass out. We’re talking about a crew of about 15 pro tree cutters too. Tree 1 - Pro Guys 0.

Another old fixture in New Orleans is the WWL TV station. They have been broadcasting for so long that they aren’t even required to use four call letters like the rest of the radio and tv stations in the U.S. do. There are a few exceptions, but depending on what side of the Mississippi river you are on, you have to use either K or W the beginning of your call letters. So we have radio stations like WRNO and KKND. Anyway back to the story, last night about one in the morning they were showing footage of the city. It was from a helicopter during the day, and it lasted for about two hours. No talking, all you could hear is the helicopter engine running. Man that did ever make things hit home as they flew over the city and the surrounding metro area. Destruction and mud everywhere, you couldn’t even see the streets in many areas because of the mud or water. Every now and then I could see a landmark that I recognized but everything around it was gone, completely devastated or still flooded. The world as I knew it will never be the same again.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more like a horror movie. It’s not bad enough that the rescue workers have to deal with snipers, packs of wild dogs, snakes and alligators coming in from the swamp, now caskets are starting to pop up from the cemeteries. In New Orleans we have buried people above ground for centuries. That’s what gives us those unique haunted looking cemeteries. This reason for this is because of flooding and the low-lying water table, it causes caskets to pop up from under the ground. I guess in more modern times some people have forgotten about this, plus they buried people in areas that never flooded before. Well Katrina dealt us a new hand. Almost as in the Korn song, “Dead Bodies Everywhere”. Now the coroner has to ID bodies that have been shot, drowned in the storm and have been dead for years. I don’t know what New Orleans did wrong, but as they say in the voodoo world, “somebody done put a gris-gris on us”.

Talked to another friend of mine today finally, he lives about an hours drive outside the city in a very rural area. In fact they only have one little store and one red light. He was telling me about a lady that got shot in the leg for a bag of ice. I just don’t know what to think of people anymore, it’s not just New Orleans either, you can bet you ass that the same thing would happen anywhere in this country. Just take away everything people worked their whole lives to get, don’t feed them for four days, cut them of from communicating with the outside world, and see what happens. I not trying to justify what happened in any way, but desperate times call for desperate (but stupid) measures. He had a house full of people who had evacuated, and at that point nobody left the house alone or unarmed.

I’m starting to feel like I’m living in a Mad Max/Day of the Dead movie. I REALLY wish this were all just a bad dream. No dice, it’s all too real. A lot of great people from the military and police forces from all over the world, and just ordinary citizens have done some heroic things, but still to this day if you don’t watch your ass you’re gonna wind up dead.

*Just a little note, writing this in some ways helps my head get a little better, it’ll never be right….it never was. (I’m sure the rest of the world is getting tired of the media blitz) If y’all are ready for me to stop all this nonsense, just shoot me a PM and I’ll keep it on my laptop.
This will also come to you in an IMAX film one day. They were down here staging rescues for an upcoming film on Hurricanes right before the storm hit. I seen the director on TV and he said all that is scrapped now, they have more real rescues and tragedy then they ever dreamed of. I guess be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.