Another Slidell Family Blog

I ran across this blog today by Ned and Linda, a family in Slidell, who are dealing with the daily struggle of cleaning up and rebuilding. Their struggle is SO much more difficlut than ours. I do not know them personally, but I am so glad they are able to share their experiences in their blog which was created to keep their family and friends up to date. They give a detailed account of digging out their flooded home and also having to deal with an army of trees that collapsed onto it and other family member's homes as well.

They write, "It'’s Hard to Remember What Our Lives Were Like". It's so true. I've talked to many people with similar circumstances to theirs and it's heartbreaking at the sheer numbers of folks dealing with it. Spending several days helping my friends gut their flooded house really gives perspective on what is involved. Linda writes about the ridiculous cost of tree removal services (I have to agree that it's outrageous!) and the stench of freezer sludge and the removal of flooded belongings. She talks about the huge pile of debris in their front yard and says that, "There is no house in our area that does not have a pile just like ours in front of their house."

She's sure right about that. Almost every neighborhood has those huge piles of debris, and in some neighborhoods I've seen, the piles are almost higher than the houses. Even our neighborhood (which took much less damage by comparison) has huge piles, although nothing like the flooded neighborhoods. The garbage trucks come by and remove the bags of household garbage, but they leave all the debris. Like everyone else in Slidell, we are all hoping that someday the bulldozers will show up to haul it off "somewhere". I don't know where there is a hole big enough for this much debris.

Right now it's raining thanks to the new hurricane in the Gulf, Rita, and all that debris is getting even wetter. It's such a monumental amount of garbage, that I don't even know where they can begin.

I gotta hand it to Linda though for keeping her sense of humor through all of it. I loved yesterday's blog entry where she writes about a dead baby alligator they found in the driveway and it's subsequent burial. She cracked me up. The photos of their damage are amazing, and she keeps up her humor throughout with captions like "the new atrium in the kitchen". Good for her. She's not letting her spirit down despite the monumental clean up job they still have before them.

I just sent them a note about some volunteers at Grace Memorial Baptist Church in Slidell who have come with chain saws and are helping people remove trees for no charge. I don't know if they are still available, but it's worth checking out.

In their photos they also posted a collection taken at the cemetery next to their house. I now have a much better understanding of why the cemetery I wrote about earlier has not had any attention yet. There are obviously many MANY small cemeteries just like this that have been suffered devastation, and it's just going to take some time to get to them all.

Keep up your spirits Ned and Linda. Your account is inspiring.