Our House Photos

Here are the photos of the exterior damage to our house. These are not photos of death and catastrophic destruction. It's just the external damage to our house which held up very well considering a category 4 hurricane passed right over it. Once the power is back on, and the basic infrastructure of the town is restored (food, gas, drinkable water), then we will have no problem living in the home while we make repairs. We feel very fortunate. We will use these photos to help with the insurance claim, and I know my family wants to see these. After seeing the pictures of some of the nearby damage, I really don't know how we got so lucky.

Yesterday I noticed something in the emails from various friends and neighbors in Slidell. In three different messages people were writing how they were eager to get back home again. A few days ago, it seemed like no one ever wanted to go there again. Now they can't wait to get back and get back to business as usual. I just thought it was interesting.

Many of our friends and co-workers have lost everything they own (most notably in New Orleans) - homes, cars, pets. I have many other friends whose homes are salvageable, but have damage that is so severe that they will not be able to live in their homes for months. I cannot write enough about what everyone says about the stench.

Good news: Some of the utilities have been starting to come back on in Slidell. We have been watching the local paper's website at Nola.com and we now see that the power is on in Covington and the WalMart and Lowe's have opened up. Our neighborhood will probably have power soon since our power utilities were all below ground and will not be too difficult to repair. The St. Tammany Parish school board has hopes of having school started again in a month.

The stories of murder and death over in New Orleans are too much for me to see and read. I have not watched TV in two days, and we don't get the paper. A cousin of mine has offered to save the New York Times papers from this week for me to read sometime. I wish I could have the Times-Picayune too (the New Orleans Paper), so if anyone knows where I can get copies of that, please let me know. I'm not ready to read them yet, but I know I will be soon.

I just want things to feel normal again. It sounds like Slidell is working hard to do just that.