Thursday, September 01, 2005

Fred's Hurricane Katrina Adventure(s)

I was about 12 years old the last time I witnessed something nearly on the level of this here Hurricane Katrina mess. It was 1992, and Hurricane Andrew ripped Florida and Louisiana, leaving my hometown without power for two weeks easy and devestating a lot of things around me. I was too young to fully understand the damage that Andrew wrought. Now, I totally understand because another, more powerful storm, has done far worse than any storm has ever done along the Gulf Coast.

Just imagine a gumbo consisting of 9/11, the tsunami and scenes from the "Mad Max" movies...if you can imagine that, well you've probably got a decent picture of what's been going on after Hurricane Katrina (the baddest bitch) paid south Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast a little visit Monday...

Well, this story starts Saturday. I was in New Orleans with a friend, a police officer, and she told me to get out of the city before 4 p.m. because that's when they were going to start the contraflow to allow people out of there. Well, I got on the West Bank and about 4.5 hours later, I was back in my Baton Rouge home (FYI: BR to the NO is about 75 miles).

I had this sick feeling in my gut that something bad was going to happen. The howling winds that broad, the hurricane, peppered the house with Monday should've been a harbinger to something much worse. I didn't know it was going to be as bad as it is now.

In case you've been chillin' with Osama bin in a cave, you know what went down in these here parts. Scenes from Biloxi/Gulfport of buildings taken off their foundations look like someone scraped them off like they had a wire brush cleaning off a barbecue grill. The NO, known to me as "Whoadieland" is a submerged wasteland filled with desparation, lunacy, anarchy and that almighty primal sense of self-preservation.

I have a friend who's from Slidell, a major suburb north of the NO. I haven't heard from her yet. I just heard from my police friend for the first time since I left the N.O. Saturday. She lost her house, only getting out with the clothes she had on her back and her laptop that she took Sunday when reporting for duty.

Oakwood Mall on the West Bank (right off the N.O. Connection Bridge in Gretna/Terry/Algiers) has been burned down by looters. Dead bodies are being strung up to poles just to keep them out of the way/floating away. Looters are shooting at officers and getting shot by officers. Despite the situation now, she said she's going to continue living in Whoadieland.

Work has been in conditions that would make Spartan seem like crashing at Oprah's guest house for a week. The office just had power restored Wednesday, so writers had to write their stories longhand and give stories to clerks to type. I haven't done that since I let my cousin type a report...my junior year of high school.

One of my best friends from college, along with my brother, experienced a lesser form of Katrina in south Florida. My brother's house needs a new roof because of the number of leaks and my homeboy couldn't get back to his place for two days because of fallen trees. But they're alright, like my officer friend, and that's good enough for me...

It's funny that this "Apocalypse Whoadie" is sort of like a prism to me now: you can see all shades of the human spectrum once you look into it.

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