he lives in new york, now, but his family is still very much in the nola.
they're currently stranded in their 3rd floor home on the shores of lake ponchatrain.
here's a snippet from an email he sent this week.
The rents got in touch with me yesterday...My dad started crying on the phone - he's going stir-crazy and, mama's boy just like me, is upset because he's been unable to reach my grandma who is safe with other relatives but temporarily unreachable due to the cell phone/504 situation as well. It was hard to take, and of course that made me lose it at work. My mom says that she saw a body and that it was pretty traumatic for her. She also watched a nearby business burn down to the ground/water line, and no one could get to it and/or cared. It was a helpless moment for her. But, on the bright side, she says, she was interviewed by a passing news crew for the Today show. She hopes someone taped it. Yup, that's my mom! She's also looking forward to getting new carpets. This is how she deals.
Cops do know that they are still there because looters climbed the fence of the condo and were caught trying to break into some of the other apartments. Turns out that one other tenant did stay and he's taking the martial law thing very seriously. He has guns and is not afraid to use them, even offering my mom one of them for protection. My mom declined. He sounds like the Tim Robbins character in War of the Worlds, if you saw that. Anyway, he and some cop dude and my dad boarded up the spiral staircases with some old wood to help slow down such characters. I'm sure it made me dad feel very butch and useful, which was good for him. Terrifying to have to worry about getting killed or attacked by people at a time like this.
Those little rickety lakefront seafood places - Joe's Crab Shack, Jaeger's and the like - they can see where they USED to be... But without electricity, they haven't seen any of the devastation on TV or whatever past their neighborhood. They only have the battery-powered radio so who knows what they're picturing in their heads with these dramatic (yet fairly accurate) reports: "This is our tsunami!" I don't have the heart to tell them that the reality is probably just as bad if not worse than their imagination.
The pool is on a raised level and they are flushing the toilets with pool water. Very glam.
They know they have to leave but they don't know how or when this is going to happen. They assured me they have plenty of provisions. Paw Paw told me, though, that he's getting a little concerned that they're just about out of liquor. At least the old man's in good spirits. I didn't realize it, but my mom cooked all of the perishables like a mad woman as the storm approached. If nothing else, this situation has helped to remind me how much I enjoy the words "perishables" and "provisions."
As you can see, I'm trying to remain in good spirits as well. What else can you do? I'm not gon' cry like Mary J.
our lives are so small. and so important. and so terribly scary. but it's all we got.
give what you can.
their lives are all they've got.
posted by brett @ 11:57 AM
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