A year after Katrina--what it's like in St. Tammany Parish

The roof looks much better than it did a year ago

A single 'Valentine' rose was blooming against our wall when we returned

We hope we don't have to evacuate again

The traffic was really bad for several months, i.e., you had to allow an hour for a fifteen-minute trip. That problem is gone, but there is another kind of traffic problem: Many of the people who moved here after the storm are inconsiderate and careless drivers. I do not have many good things to say about the residents of this parish overall, but they do tend to be considerate drivers. Now we are afraid to drive during peak hours because of the recklessness all around us.

We are also able to get merchandise again; companies are able to make shipments to stores. Some stores and restaurants continue to have limited hours, though, because they do not have enough employees.

The pine beetles, as I mentioned already, are tearing through the parish, eating our trees, and there is no more recycle pickup, plus no more recycling of anything but newspapers.

Many people are still living in trailers in their relatives' yards. Yesterday, a man came here to do some work. His house was destroyed and he is now living in Opelousas, near Lafayette. In addition to suffering from house and job loss because of the terrible wind damage Katrina did here, and the flooding caused by Rita, a significant number of St. Tammany residents also lost their jobs in New Orleans. Some were put over the edge by having ten to twenty people come and live with them for a while. Others saw older or disabled relatives and friends die from the stress and trauma.

Yesterday, I went down to street to get coffee and there was no charge. The coffee shop was giving people free coffee all day. People struggled to find a way to commemorate the horror of August 29. I have not seen Spike Lee's film. I was busy last week when it was shown in two parts, and last night, I figured I would miss it because of the U.S. Open. As it happened, the tournament was rained out, but I couldn't bring myself to watch the film. Having read the special sections of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, I had seen enough terrible images and descriptions for one day. Also, C-Span covered George W. Bush's visit to New Orleans, and that alone provided my ration of horrific images for a week.

After waiting a year, we had our new roof put on last week (which reminds me, I have a poem, "Things To Do While You Wait for the Roofer," in the upcoming anthology, Hurricane Blues: How Katrina and Rita Ravaged a Nation, to be published in September by Southeast Missouri University Press), and our broken brick wall was fixed. We still have more stumps to be ground, and a fence to be repaired.