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Stan's Roll Call (Not a Military Blog)Roll call #19
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:03 AM
Have a little time this morn (Esther has the car) so will attempt to get this out.
Having a little trauma as my son, who I been depending on, has to return to Maryland Thursday.
Has been here since October 16th. Long time to be away from family/home/job, but he has been a God-send!!!
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Stan,
We have been spending one night in Metairie (due to smell), then one in BR; save on driving back and forth. They have finally picked up the mounds of debris from the gutted homes along Aris Ave.
Still slowly cleaning up; plan to remove kick boards at base of cabinets (kitchen & bathrooms), then selectively removing base boards to determine extent of mold growth. Plan on also trying to save bedroom furniture and dining room breakfront, both made of solid wood (?). May have a line on someone to remove wooden floors, which is prerequisite to moving back. We are in outage area for cable, which means no internet, and will have to wait to be connected (another PR). John (Iwachi
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Hey Stan, there are 3 houses for sale near me; # 4, # 6 and # 7 Ashley Court in Long Beach, MS are for sale. I live in # 5. All are 4 bedroom houses. Ashley Court is a cul-de-sac and does not have a lot of traffic. Would like to have some nice neighbors move in. If you are not nice, please buy somewhere else. ;-)
Theresa Anoskey (would look into it, but I am so stretched out, planning to get repair going, concentrating on that, then heading for Florida, then looking in about 3-6-9 months when things calm down. but am planning to come back (at this time?)
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Lu's Update
(MOM: PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL THAT YOU PREVIOUSLY EMAILED! THANKS, LUV U, LU)
Dear Everyone:
I have talked to some of you who got the email update from my mom concerning my return to New Orleans. Let me tell you in my own words how things are progressing.
I temporarily relocated to Indianapolis, IN during the month of Sept. I was informed that my neighborhood was going to be the last area of the city to open up for people to go and to check out their homes. Initially, the city was only going to open up Lakeview for 3 days. That is not the case now, but at the time I needed to hurry up and get down here in order to try to salvage things.
First of all, I do have pics of my apt., but I left the cords to hook up the computer at the apt. before the storm. I am going to get some new ones to pass along any pics if you're interested. Let me try to describe in words what exactly I witnessed.
First of all, I did not recognize my street. So much debris was everywhere and the landmarks were either missing or covered so I had to guess at which street was mine. I had driven down that street every day for 6 months, but could not recognize it after the storm.
I couldn't get in initially. A neighbor came over to see if I needed help, and I did. My bookcase had fallen in front of the door, blocking the entrance. Books were scattered everywhere and were waterlogged. The nice neighbor (whom I never met before this incident) took a piece of wood that was once a fence and tried to life up the bookcase out of the way. After about 20 minutes of this, I was finally able to get inside.
Let's just say that nothing, I mean NOTHING, was where I left it. My couches had floated to the middle of the room and were covered in mold that could probably cure any disease known to man. All of my furniture had fallen on its face, with the contents all over the apartment. I had to climb over a armoire that was rotting in order to get into my kitchen. My refridgerator acted as a flotataion device and floated on its back to the middle of the kitchen. All of the pics on the fridge were still there, like nothing had ever happened.
My bedroom was destroyed. Clothes were everywhere and my bed was covered in a nice molded rust that looked terrible. All of the floors were black and the smell could just about knock you out. It was incredible.
What I salvaged:
My framed Mary Lou Retton poster (vintage) that was hanging in the kitchen; a vase painted by my mother that she gave to me because she never really liked it; all of the Cambridge glass that I have begged my mother to store for me due to the fact that I move about once a year; a ring I got in Spain; my framed diploma; my painted pic of the farmhouse; a plaque that read "home" in Chinese that i purchased in China this summer; a wall hanging that a friend of mine gave me that simply said "Be Happy"; all of my long sleeved t-shirts that were on the top shelf of my closet; a anniversary present I forgot to give my parents this summer (it is "Happy Marriage" written in Chinese and is framed and in perfect condition); a North Face jacket that was on a shelf, wrapped in plastic to give to my mom for Christmas (now it will be my winter coat); and a statue that I bought in China the first time I went.
If I have not updated you personally, I am very sorry. I cannot explain how hectic my dailiy life is here. I have clocked a tremedous amount of hours at the restaurant I used to have as a second job. I am trying to make as much as I can while I can. There are not very many restaurants open and almost everyone had to throw out their refridgerators, so eating out is almost a necessity. My good friend, Ann, described New Orleans and the surrounding suburbs perfectly when she compared it to a communist country. You have to stand in line or wait for EVERYTHING. Going to Target takes a lot of time. All restaurants close at 8 and getting a table is extremely difficult. I know my restaurant has been having 2 hour waits just to get a table. And people are tired, and depressed, and uncertain, and sad.
I have had a wide range of emotions since I have been back. When I informed my mother that I was going to come back indefinitely, she was shocked. I had previously stated that I didn't want any part of rebuilding a city in ruins, but honestly, I feel I have nowhere else to go.
And only New ORleans people can understand this craziness. New Orleans is home; it is like no other place on the planet. It is dysfunctional and backward and stressful, and that is why the people are so laid back. Otherwise, we'd all be dead from stress. After moving from city to city after the storm, I have decided that I can only live in New Orleans; I don't know how to live anywhere else. After all, I am the same girl who told her mother when she was young that if she didn't live in New Orleans when she grew up, she would come back for Mardi Gras every year.
I do see signs of hope in NOLA. Businesses are slowly reopening, and at every corner the same discussion is being had. "How did you make out with the storm?" and the conversation progresses from there. I have told complete strangers my story and have had tremendous outpouring of hope and faith that I just don't think I would experience anywhere else. I am not saying that other cities are not generous. New ORleans people have all had to depend on others for support during this time. But being a New Orleanian is like being a part of a secret society or a fraternity; we are all in this together. And we will all make it together. And what other city can say that it was able to preserve its history while making radical changes at the same time?
I know that some of you are down on our politicians, but they understand how New Orleans works and they are trying to bring together a city that looks like Baghdad. Racism is a critical issue and it is hard to navigate around. There are no simple solutions. You must be here to see the devastation. Driving into New Orleans is just plain scary. Whole portions of the city are completely abandoned. It is like a bad movie.
But I love it. And I had to come back to have closure if I do decide to move on. I don't know how long I will stay. The daily stress gets to me sometimes so badly that I feel like I can barely breathe. And don't even get me started on how wrong a hand I was dealt by New Orleans Public Schools. I will just leave my feelings about all that with, "I will NEVER teach in Orleans Parish Public Schools again," and it breaks my heart.
I am going through so much right now that I don't know how to express myself. If my dad were able to use the internet, he would be disappointed that his hard earned money went toward an English degree and his daughter is speechless. But my life used to change by months before the storm; now it changes by the hour. I am not used to so much instability. I am a planner, and this beast is unplanable.
So to all of you who have prayed for me, listened to me, donated items to me, given your money to me or who have done this for any other person affected by Hurricane Katrina...Thank you. We don't know how to express our gratitude because some of the generosity cannot ever be returned, but please know that you keep us going. And we must keep going in order to survive.
I love NOLA and always will. I am just not ready to let go yet. I might be able to some day, but I can't promise anything.
Of course, you can try to reach me by phone @ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
I love you all.
Luetta Marchant (She really puts in words how I have been going on this daily up and down feeling/stress)
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Stan:
Good work with the rollcalls keep them coming. So far have not seen anything about Evie Gregory or Paul Hammes. Pass along anything you hear.
Jim Findlay (I think there was something on Evie, but nothing on Paul)
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hey stan, carol herr here. could you add me to your list. randy never tells me to well after the fact about your emails. my address is xxxxxxxxxxxxx margie lamb is at navo working. she lost everything, she lived in pearlington. carol (Herr)
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Stan. Just heard on the radio that some insurance cos. will not pay the home owner money so he can arrange for repair, rather they are giving the money to mortgage lenders and banks. When the owner presents the banks etc. a receipt for repair or for material, the bank pays the bill. So, if you get ,say, $20,000 for repairs, the money is sent to the bank . You present a bill for $5,000 the bank pays it and keeps the remainder in escrow and invests it in short term CD's. This is illegal in LA as it should be the homeowner that can invest the money as he chooses as long as it is used for repairs. I don't know if this is legal in MS or not.
If this is true, some companies are protecting their sit down spot and the public gets screwed again.
Larry (Sower)
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Dear Stan:
About two weeks before the Katrina, I switched to BellSouth dsl and thus got a new address. I sent out notices to everyone in my address book giving the new address but evidently you didn't get it. I didn't particularly notice before the storm that I wasn't getting anything from you but I was having problems with the service and didn't notice a lot of things. After the storm I figured that you were probably off the air due to damage or no internet service. Don Tayman finally made me aware , so I am sending you our new address as follows " xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "
Sorry to hear about your damage; we got hit pretty hard ourselves. Four of those big 70foot pine trees hit the house and did quite a bit of damage. Quite a bit of structural damage to the roof and two rooms got pretty well wiped out bu the rain pouring in until the ceilings came down. We were without power for 16 days and without phone service for 25 days and it was a mess. Fortunately our two boys came home to help; one from Birmingham, ala. and the other from Sacramento Calif. The two of them with the help of Don Tayman and myself managed to do the structural repairs to the roof and the resheath with plywood and then cover with tarps until I was able to get a roofer to reshingle. At least we are now secure on the outside but still a lot of repairs neede inside. The material we were able to get for the repairs was terrible but still top price. It did make the work a lot more difficult and time consuming. However we consider ourselves lucky when we hear about so many others. We did get a hell of a scare riding this one out. I don't think we'll try riding out another catagory 5. Attached is a phot giving you an idea of what it looked like when we came out.
Regards
Nelson (due size picture not included)
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~G: Phone numbers and email addresses replaced with x's to protect the innocent.
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