“It was pitch dark and we huddled in the middle of the house listening to the trees fall. Suddenly the toilet made a strange gurgling sound and within just a few minutes, we had five feet of water in our house. Everything we’d stored to eat was floating, ruined. We ate nothing but crackers for three days.”
People in southern Louisiana talk about Katrina and Rita like bad relatives who visited and left a mess on the floor. They tell their stories knowing wearily that more relatives will be coming soon.
Almost a year later, the damage is still clear in the land and in the people. Talk to anyone more than 10 minutes and they will mention it.
“I lost my house, everything, All my underwear, socks, bras, all of it. Didn’t miss a day of work, though. Just kept going. When you work for the power company, that goes with the territory. Folks need you. You get your family to a safe place and then you go to work.”
Copper-skinned men with thick muscles, tired faces and Cajun names warmed up as they talked about the experience of working the storms.
“Us linemen slept on the floor here when we got any sleep. We worked in some pretty dangerous weather. It’s like we have a responsibility to people out there. They depend on us. Katrina hit us hard. Rita just insulted us.”
“I had a broken leg and just wrapped the cast in a garbage bag and kept working. Everybody here takes a lot of pride in what we do. And our pride was on the line. Our neighbors and families were on the line. That’s why we’re called linemen. When it’s all on the line, we’re right there.”
Several women talk more easily about the brutality of Mother Nature.
“People at work showed up at my house and just started cutting the trees off of it. I had pines slicing all through my living room and bedroom. They just drove up and started working. My husband is a quiet man but that got to him. He said he’d never seen people who didn’t even know folks help people like that.”
“Those hurricanes ripped everything up down here. But they also glued us all together. Funny how that works, ain’t it?”
People at a small store talked about the future storms.
“Nobody will ride one of those out again. I will just get my family and get out of here. I don’t ever want to see anything like that again.”
“It’s really odd how we all acted. We lost so much, but I feel like we gained something big. When Mother Nature turned mean, even some mean people turned sweet. Folks helped each other.”
“It’s hurricane season again. I used to say I’m ready. Now I know that you can’t be ready enough.”
“I know who my friends are now. Maybe I thought they were my friends before. But now I know who they are. They are heroes to my family.”