[StBernard] Katrina Fatigue and Rita Amnesia

[Westley Annis]

> Thanks for the reminder...sometimes we get so caught up in our own

loss...we forget others..we are from St. Bernard...and still not back!
CHingle



> -----------------------------------------------------

> Fram KATC - Lafayette

> <"http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=4365626">

> 

> Two storms, two ailments: 'Katrina fatigue' and 'Rita amnesia'

> 

> CAMERON, La. -- Now that people are suffering from "Katrina fatigue,"

> there's another ailment going around: "Rita amnesia."

> 

> 

> An otherwise well informed friend in another state was stunned the other

day

> when reminded that Louisiana was hit by a second hurricane a month after

the

> chaos of Katrina. He did remember that Category 3 Rita caused a big

traffic

> jam in Texas, when all of Houston tried to escape at once.

> 

> He had forgotten one detail: Rita whacked Louisiana instead.

> 

> A quick recap, then: Rita treated Cameron and other towns the same way

> Katrina treated New Orleans and Chalmette. Rita's aftermath has been

largely

> forgotten because the destruction happened in little-known southwest

> Louisiana, not tourist magnet New Orleans. Plus, Lake Charles' streets

> weren't littered with corpses. Looters didn't help themselves to shotguns

> and TVs from Wal-Mart.

> 

> But the seat of Cameron Parish was flattened. Same thing in Holly Beach, a

> tiny town that used to be full of weekend getaway homes. Delcambre was

> inundated, along with other towns all along the coast.

> 

> Lake Charles, with 72,000 people, never used to have much in common with

New

> Orleans, the big city at the other end of the state. Now they share a

> landscape of blue tarped roofs and ruined refrigerators.

> 

> Cameron was a small town before Rita. Now it's hard to find anyone at all.

> Never mind getting lunch or a cold drink, a box of nails or a hammer, a

tank

> of gas. No restaurant, no hardware store, no gas station.

> 

> The narrow road into town is still there, but it's getting narrower. As

> utility trucks and dump trucks rumble along, the pavement's edges are

> crumbling into the drainage ditches, which Rita littered with ruined cars

> and mobile homes. The scene isn't too different from post-Katrina St.

> Bernard Parish.

> 

> It's true, Rita didn't kill anyone in Louisiana. Katrina killed more than

> 1,100.

> 

> But for the moment, nearly four months after the storm, there's little

life

> in the town of Cameron, where 2,000 people used to live. A bleak drive

> around town is brightened only by the sight of the occasional house that

> more or less survived _ ruined by floodwaters, but not a mass of shattered

> boards and twisted pilings.

> 

> The police jury recently allowed people to move back to town, giving them

a

> rare chance to celebrate.

> 

> The celebration was brief. The town's sewage system still hasn't been

> repaired, and FEMA won't deliver mobile homes until that happens. Since

> nearly everyone lost their homes, that means few can actually move back.

> 

> As in Katrina country, one hears a lot of complaints about such FEMA

> policies, plus gripes about rude FEMA operators and phone calls to FEMA

that

> were never returned.

> 

> Others say they're sick and tired of hearing people complain about FEMA.

> 

> Some Katrina refugees, we've all heard, are determined to rebuild ruined

> homes. Some aren't sure and others have decided against it.

> 

> Same thing's true in Ritaland, the southwest Louisiana parishes that face

> the same problems as New Orleans, just on a much smaller scale: How to get

> rid of the debris, how to bring people back home, how to stop the false

> rumors flying around that the government is forcing them to sell their

land

> and move north.

> 

> According to another myth, houses are being razed indiscriminately. Signs

> have popped up in a few yards pleading: "Please Do Not Bulldoze."

> 

> Some in Cameron have moved away; others insist they'll rebuild.

> 

> Richard Mason might have come up with a compromise. Mason's two-story

house

> on Iris Street remains littered with mud, marsh grass and other storm

> debris, including someone else's couch, other people's framed photos, plus

a

> real doozy: the carcass of a cow. It's been rotting on the living room

floor

> since September.

> 

> Mason's pretty sure rebuilding will be too expensive. He settled his wife

> and kids 60 miles north in Moss Bluff.

> 

> But he has hit upon a way to keep one foot on the coast, where his family

> has lived for generations. He plans to keep his property in Cameron and

> replace the house with a hunting and fishing camp.

> 

> He says it's the only option that makes sense: "This is a good

recreational

> area. It'd be a waste to just throw it away, try to sell it now, because

> nobody's going to give you anything for a house in Cameron."

> 

> The evacuation of Cameron was so successful _ the reason no one was killed

_

> partly because so many here still remember that Hurricane Audrey killed

> hundreds in 1957.

> 

> Memories of Rita will remain strong, too. No chance of amnesia in these

> parts.

> 

> ___

> 

> EDITOR'S NOTE: Doug Simpson is an Associated Press reporter based in Baton

> Rouge.

>