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After driving around the city, seeing the homes of Big Pere
and his daughter Julie (my sister-in-law) and also the homes
of friends, I thought things would not/could not be worse.
I was so very wrong in that thought. Things were
worse.
Sunday morning we got out of bed and made our plans to leave
and return to North Louisiana but first we wanted to drive
???down the bayou??? to Bonfouca or Bayou Liberty to see if any
family was still there and how they had fared. We knew that
water had destroyed many homes down the bayou and that many
family homes had water so high that everything inside was
destroyed. The family members and residents of that area
had time to grab a few items and make their escape. It was
impossible to take everything. I can only imagine the
feeling as each one grabbed a treasure to take with them and
a few clothing items to last for what they thought would be
???just a day or two??™ away from home. I can only imagine the
fear they felt in not knowing what they would face when they
returned.
As we drove down Bayou Liberty Road, I realized that what we
had seen the day before was just a tip of the iceberg. The
devastation here was unbelievable. At this point, I need to
add this comment: ???Please don??™t say I know how horrible
everything looked because pictures do not show the real
picture of what has happened.??? I thought I had seen enough
pictures that showed the total destruction wrought by
Katrina. A picture is worth a thousand words according to
what I read. When viewing the aftermath of Katrina, I
realized that pictures can never show the destruction, the
despair and the smell of the things that remained.
There was a bright spot at the edge of the bayou. The St.
Genevieve Church had been flooded and looked ruined but
outside under the trees that remained, a congregation was
standing or sitting and attending mass. I could hear them
singing and a feeling of awe came over me. To think, these
people had lost so much but they were attending church and
singing. They were not defeated; in some cases they had
lost everything but they were singing. Across from the
church, the marina that stored the expensive boats of the
wealthy was filled with huge globs of mud and debris. I
don??™t know how anyone expected to be able to get the boats
out but the people who were attending the mass were
singing. They were praising God that they had been saved
and worrying about homes, boats and other possessions were
unimportant for the moment.
There is no way to describe or understand the things we saw
last weekend. There is no way that anyone can know what
really happened there unless they see it. There are no
cameras capable of showing the destruction that was the
result of a hurricane called Katrina. I felt I was
witnessing a war zone as we drove through and looked at
spots that had once been beautiful and full of the joy of
families laughing. Slidell and Bayou Liberty will never be
quite the same again but the spirit of the family members
will survive and at some time in the future a drive ???down
the bayou??? will again be filled with the joyous sound of
families laughing.
?© Doris B. Fandal
November 12, 2005 |
