Coming Home

This is a long overdue update on the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, as I've spent the last few weeks trying to digest all the information, battle a nasty head cold which kept me down for several days - which I'm sure was the result of the emotional stress I was dealing with, and being inundated at work.

My parents and grandparents returned to Abbeville on Tuesday, September 27. My parents' house had had between two and a half to three feet of water in it. All the furniture, appliances, and electronic equipment were destroyed. The flood left behind a couple inches of marsh mud in the house and a couple feet of it all over the flood zone. I'm told the smell is unbearable. Luckily all the irreplaceable items were safe, either hung high enough on the wall or kept upstairs.

In Henry, the devastation was much more severe as the tidal surge was estimated to have been between ten to fifteen feet. My grandparents' house and most of its contents was heavily damaged as well as houses belonging to my great aunt and uncle and cousin Madeleine and her husband Jeff. After salvaging is completed, these houses will have to be brought down.






Jeff built his house himself over twenty-five years ago. Bart's house sustained major damage downstairs but the structure should survive, as well as his father Sammy's house, which took on about half a foot of water as his house is built ten feet up.

Our cousin Jimmy lives in the Delino House, my great-grandparents' old house, and he is trying to save it.



My parents have been racing to save their house. All the walls have to be taken out one foot above the water line and the insulation removed. A solution is then sprayed and has to dry for several weeks to make sure no mold is growing. The contractors completed the removal of the walls the other day. My parents are living in the travel trailer, which they had purchased only weeks before the storm. How's that for timing?

My grandparents are settled in the assisted living place in Abbeville. It's a nice facility and the staff takes good care of the residents. My grandmother is having trouble adjusting as she's used to living with family members around her and the church just being a stone's throw away. She was very happy when my mother found her rosary beads and cleaned them up for her.

Everyone is really pulling together down there. The cousins from Metairie, who had fled Katrina, then Rita, returned in their trailers to help out. They set up two Coleman stoves under Sammy's carport and have been cooking dinner for everybody. It's been the gathering spot every night. My mother's birthday was a couple weeks ago and they made a big pot of gumbo and had a cake for her. There is also a Red Cross truck around the corner at the school that hands out meals, water and ice.

Another challenge has been dealing with FEMA and the insurance adjusters.

My mother told me she and my step-father consider themselves lucky as it could've been a lot worse compared with the damage in Henry and points further south. It is estimated that 6,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by floodwaters in Vermilion Parish alone. The economic future for most of the people down there is bleak as the sugar cane crop, which was near harvest, was destroyed. Farmers were also hard hit as a result of the high death toll of cattle. The next big worry is what the salt water did to the crawfish ponds and what will become of that harvest come winter.

I'm glad everyone is safe but it has been an exhaustively on-going journey for everyone down there and I sometimes feel overwhelmed with sadness over what happened.