11.8.14

ouragan


Hell or High Water: How Cajun Fortitude Withstood Hurricanes Rita and Ike, by Ron Thibodeaux is a good book. He covers the "forgotten" hurricanes in Louisiana. Rita was overshadowed by Katrina and Ike came through a few years later and also did a lot of damage but it didn't get much attention. Holly Beach was destroyed by Rita and many people lost their homes. He interviewed people there and got their stories told. It was a bad hurricane, Rita, but it followed Katrina too close and New Orleans received the most, if not all, the coverage. 

Up here hurricanes don't affect us too much.  You have to worry about tornadoes more than anything. We go without power and stores close down but it's not that bad. 

Katrina did nothing up here. I was living in Ville Platte at the time and worked in Alexandria at the library. I went about my day as usual. Now for several weeks afterwards we spent 99% of our work helping those people with FEMA applications and other services. Many New Orleans area people went to Alexandria and Ville Platte. I also worked part time at the Evangeline Parish Library and we did the same there, including working on weekends due to so many people needing help. 

I left Ville Platte with friends for Rita and stayed with them in Norco with their family. We watched TV coverage until power went out and we listened to tornado warning sirens go off. They would blare whenever high winds blew. 

Came back to Ville Platte and stayed without power for a day or two and things got back to normal in a week or two. 

For Ike, I was living in Pine Prairie and working for a beer company. I slept when 
Ike passed. There was no power except texting and job said to stay home. It was hot and boring but no real damage. Many stores were closed and a curfew was in. During the day many people ignored the curfew, including me, and I drove around to look. I saw a beer truck at the Y and told them I didn't hear about work. They said only some trucks were running and you could work if you wanted. I was bored and wanted money so I followed them in my car and we delivered beer around the Y and in Mamou. A few days after that we delivered in Eunice, going to whatever store was open and delivering whatever beer we had on the truck.  People thought we were crazy because it was mostly public safety workers and the National Guard out and about. And us, the beer men. People appreciated it though and the company sold a lot of beer. 

But that is nothing compared to what happened in the southern parishes. It's a good book and I checked it out at the Eunice library. 

Evangeline Parish French Creole Heritage

That's it for me. It's been real. I used to talk about this subject on forums and with people and several found it annoying. Evangel...