First and foremost, I must say to everyone who has responded asking
what they can do for us: stay in touch, and remember us in your
prayers.  We are actually quite happy right now, and doing very well
as we start to resume our life. We truly appreciate all of the offers
we have received, and at times we may call upon our friends to help
us.  But right now, if you feel moved to try and help, please do so by
offering contributions to either the Red Cross at
http://www.redcross.org or to Catholic Charities, at
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.  Those organizations are ready to
use your gifts to help the most needy survivors of this storm.

Today (Thursday) was the beginning of some semblance of normalcy for
us.  The kids started school at St. Thomas More, a parish school here
in Baton Rouge.  We've heard many good things about this school, so we
are thrilled that they found room for our kids.  One of Noel's
classmates, Jennifer (Burke) Harris recently moved to Baton Rouge and
has children there; two couples we know from New Orleans has relocated
here and are sending their children there.  One of those couples has a
daughter in Carrie's class at Sacred Heart, so Carrie had one friend
already, which helped ease her transition.

This will be a change for the kids, and that's part of what we wanted
for them this semester.  We had the option of busing Carrie to another
Sacred Heart school (associated with her school in New Orleans) in
Lafayette (about an hour away) where she could go to an all girls
school with many of her friends (at last count, over 100 of the 800 or
so girls in her school were going there).  But we decided not to; I
felt pretty strongly that this semester, she and Robert should stay
together.  And that meant CO-ED SCHOOLS!

So Carrie came home today talking about her new friends she met,
including one boy named Landon.  Brand new experience for her, meeting
a boy at school.  And being the good Dad I am, I immediately teased
her about her first boyfriend.  She turned bright red and giggled.
Robert reported how he and his friends created a "boys club" -
something he wouldn't have thought of in a boys school.

Carrie seemed very happy with her first day, Robert a little less so.
But its great for all of us to begin something resembling a normal
schedule: wake up, eat breakfast (cereal out of glasses, since we
haven't gotten around to buying bowls yet - maybe tomorrow), and head
to school.

Of course, the day before (Wednesday) was the *really* interesting day....

My father, mother and brother-in-law and I left BR at 5:30 am to head
back to our houses in New Orleans and see what we could find and
salvage.

The drive was pretty uneventful, if a little nerve wracking as we got
closer and closer, and wondered just what the hell we would find.
Roads were packed with people doing the same as us, so the drive took
about twice as long as normal.  By around 8:00 or so, though, we had
maneuvered about as close to Noel's parents house as we could - about
2 1/2 blocks away. First thing I noticed was the hurricane damage:
lots of trees down, but very few houses actually hit by the trees.
And the trees that had remained standing had been largely stripped of
their greenery.  So, if you've visited New Orleans, you may recall the
tree lined streets with thick canopies offering lots of shade.  Not
anymore.  Now you see largely barren trees offering little protection
from the sun.  Just a strange sight.

But trees weren't what stopped our progress in the car.  The water
did.  So, we donned our wading boots (up to our hips, for those of you
like me who have no idea what a "wading boot" is), and started wading
in.  Water in the middle of the street was probably 4 feet deep, which
would be up over the boots.  And the water is some really really
really nasty stuff that you don't want to let touch your skin.  So we
walked up on yards, through the remains of flower beds and
landscaping, trying to stay in the 1-2 foot water.  Took about 10
minutes or so to walk those 2 1/2 blocks and we finally got to Noel's
parents house and found.....

Water.

Actually, they had just a teeny tiny bit of water left.  But the lines
on the walls indicated that they had about a foot or so at the highest
point.  (We were there on Wednesday, after the flood waters had begun
to subside).  So most of the downstairs rugs and furniture were
ruined.  But we began packing up stuff (clothes, photo albums, etc...)
and hauling it out.  Fortunately, we encountered a friend of the
Reymonds who had a canoe, which we used to move some of the salvaged
goods back to the cars.

Then Trey and I headed off to our houses.  First, we had to sweet talk
the National Guard who were blocking the bridge to cross over into New
Orleans.  It didn't take much talking, and that was reassuring - they
were really checking people, but being quite reasonable about the
whole situation.

First, we were faced with the problem of getting into our
neighborhood: the streets at the corners were flooded fairly deeply -
we could see dry ground maybe 50 feet away, but we first had to get
from here to there.  There on the street was an unattended canoe.  We
looked left and right, and then took it.  Crossed the first hurdle and
then started hoofing it.

Still in the wading boots, which I might add are quite heavy, hot and
uncomfortable.

After walking two blocks into the neighborhood, dodging trees, power
lines and phone lines, we encountered the next pool of water.  We had
just crossed the "Metairie Ridge" (the high point that never flooded)
and were on the downslope towards our houses and into this nasty, vile
water.

Some of our neighbors, who were long gone, had left their boats out to
help anyone who came by.  So we had a choice of another canoe, a
pirogue (something like a canoe but it looked pretty damn unstable,
and I was sure I'd flip it), and a sailboat.  None were good choices,
but we grabbed the sailboat.  I'm still not sure if that was a good
move or not.  We didn't have a paddle, but we had a long pole, so we
started pushing and pushing.  And it was damn hard work.  And it was
hot.  And the water got deeper and deeper.  First we stopped at Trey's
house, and found he had about the same as his parents: almost no water
left, but about a foot at the peak of the flood.  Then we moved on to
my house.

I read a book about a year ago on the Lewis and Clark expedition, and
for a brief bit, I could imagine what that was like.  Trey and I poled
through the street.  Water everywhere.  But most impressively was the
utter and complete silence.  Next time you're outside, stop and
listen.  Noise - cars, air conditioners, whatever.  Even if its not
loud, its the background noise of society.  As we poled, there was
*nothing*.  It was just silence, except for the noise we made.

And also except for the helicopters that periodically buzzed by, and
once started hovering over us making me fear that they were going to
try and save us.  That's the last thing I needed - show up on the
evening being saved from my house...

But, we finally (remember, I said the poling was difficult, and I'm
not kidding - took us probably 15 minutes of hard work to maneuver
this sailboat the 1 1/2 blocks from Trey's house to mine) rounded the
last corner and saw my house.

Remember how in an earlier email, I hopefully reported that we might
not have much water because I could see my car in a satellite image?
Boy, was I wrong.

We still had 2 feet of water in the house, and the high water mark was
probably at least 3 feet.  Everything downstairs is undoubtebly shot,
but the upstairs was in *great* shape.  The hurricane did almost no
damage to the house - one tree branch fell and took out the railings
of the porch outside, but no problems inside.  Except for 3 feet of
putrid stinky filthy water, that is... :)

But we were able to retrieve a couple of suitcases of clothes, and
some toys for the kids.  Each kid gave me a list of some things they
wanted.  Carrie picked some dolls and doll clothes and books.  Robert
picked one of his favorite toys and (my personal favorite): his
collection of 15 king cake babies that he's accumulated over the
years.  He's definitely a Mardi Gras lover!  So I got those things.
Then we started taking artwork off the walls.  We took as many
paintings and prints as we could, to try to save them from mold
damage.

Those of you who know Noel won't be surprised to know that she had
given me a fairly specific list of goods to get from her closet - not
just "shoes" but "the black shoes with the green straps"; not just
"black dress" but "black cocktail dress with the square patterns".
And I really tried to find what she wanted.  But - in a dark closet
with no lights except one flickering flashlight, and sweat dripping
down my face (did I mention yet that it was damn hot and we had
forgotten our bottles of water back in the car?), black looked just
like black looked just like brown.  So I just started grabbing enough
stuff to fill a suitcase.  I think I got a couple of pairs of pants
that she wanted, and one pair of shoes.  Not too good with the tops,
though, I was later told.

So, we balance all of this precariously on the sailboat, which is now
taking on water through the hole in the bottom where the centerboard
would be if we were really sailing.  And we started to leave.  I tried
to close the door to the house behind me, but couldn't - the wood was
so swollen that it wouldn't even come close to closing.  When I opened
it, I had to bang with my shoulder several times to move it, so I
wasn't exactly surprised.

(When I got home and told Noel that I didn't close or lock the door,
she asked whether I turned on the alarm.  I stared at her for a
minute, before politely reminding her that we hadn't had power for 10
days, and likely wouldn't for another month, so I didn't think the
alarm would work anymore.)

With an awkwardly overloaded sailboat more and more rapidly taking on
water, we started to head back to dry ground to unload the goods.
Thank god we then encountered my father-in-law who had found a real
flatboat and had rowed out to meet us.  So we transfered the suitcases
to the more stable boat, as I watched and feared that we'd drop what I
so carefully salvaged.  But all was transfered without problem, and we
rowed/poled back towards Trey's house.  And I might add for those of
you who may face a similar situation: rowing a flatboat is one hell of
a lot easier than poling a sailboat.

So the basic story repeats again, as we salvaged stuff from another
house and rowed back to dry land.  Thank goodness, my father-in-law
sweet talked the National Guard some more, and was able to maneuver
his SUV through some shallower water to get into the neighborhood, and
met us.  Otherwise, we'd have had to haul a dozen heavy suitcases
about a half mile, including possibly another rowboat stint with them.
 And have I mentioned that it was hot as Hades?

But anyway, despite what I saw in our house, I'm happy.  We found some
of the toys that the kids really wanted, and they were thrilled.  Noel
and I retrieved some clothes, which removes one extra chore for the
immediate future.  We (hopefully) have saved some of the artwork which
we probably couldn't have afforded to replace immediately.  And we at
least get the satisfaction of knowing what we face.  And what we face
is not insurmountable.  I truly think that our house will be
salvageable.  I don't think it will be easy, but folks we've talked to
say its certainly possible - remove all of the walls and insulation,
let the studs dry, treat them, and then rebuild.

Or, we tear the whole thing down and build from the ground up.

Who knows?  Certainly not I.  Not yet.

But, today we're pretty damn sure that we are going to go back to New
Orleans.  The kids schools (in New Orleans) are talking about opening
in January; we think we may rent Noel's sister's one bedroom apartment
starting in January, while we start remodeling or rebuilding.  Yes, a
1 bedroom would be cramped, but I think housing is going to be scarce
- even more scarce than it is in Baton Rouge right now.  Plus, it just
happens to be along the main Mardi Gras parade route.  And YES, I
think all of us are expecting there to be a Mardi Gras this year.
Perhaps not like the ones in years past, but definitely *something*.

We'd love to have guests next Mardi Gras.  If you're willing to
squeeze into a 1 bedroom apartment with our family, we'd love to have
you!

I feel that tomorrow is really the first normal day of the rest of our
lives.  Wake up, get the kids to school, and sit down and work.  Seems
like a damn long time since I've done that...

Take care everyone, and stay in touch!