Obviously, I haven't found the time - and my memory keeps getting away from me. I do want to get it all down, just don't know how coherent it will be when I finally do.
To prove that point, I'm going to post a recollection from the second trip down south that's been rattling around my head for the past few days.
Mom, Jen and I had driven from upstate New York down through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Tennessee (all of it gorgeous, by the way - Vermont was incredible, no wonder New Englanders are like that). For most of the trip, it had been like a vacation, snapping photos, admiring the scenery (Eastern Pennsylvania is freaking amazing). We were in Mom's new Lexus, which she'd bought with the money she got when the other vehicles were totaled), and a lot of the trip was spent checking out the new ride.
When we got to Alabama, the mood changed almost instantly. People will laugh, but I was really thinking of Heart of Darkness as we drove south. We all knew something awful awaited us at the end of this trip, and we all were looking around each corner expecting to see proof that we'd finally arrived in the disaster zone.
That downed tree... was it from the storm? or was it just a downed tree? That ruined building, did it collapse? or was it just abandoned?
About an hour of false alarms in an otherwise normal landscape lowered our guard. Stop gawking - it's been over a month and damage has been cleaned up- at least this far north.
Two hours from the coast, I realized that the sun was about to set, and we'd be in darkness before we crossed into Mississippi. Nothing to see here, folks.
disappointment turned into more practical concerns almost immediately. Gas had been scarce, we'd top off the tank before we left Alabama, Mom was getting her proof of residence together because we'd arrive after curfew. If we were stopped without it, we would not be allowed into her neighborhood.
We're in the middle of sorting this out, when out of the corner of my eye I see a billboard, gutted and wind-blown going by on our left.
Is that...?
And then another, and another.
We're easily 100 miles from the coast and virtually every billboard has been reduced to a skeleton and tattered scraps.
Fast food signs are bent like pretzels, gas station gantries slant at improbable angles, and then come the trees. Whole swaths of trees blown flat on both sides of the highway. Acre after acre of split timber, and this is over sixty miles from the coastline.
By the time we got to Mobile, any doubt that the damage wasn't anywhere near cleaned up was long gone. Highway signs were randomly destroyed or oddly unaffected - enough remained so navigating was not a problem. Night fell hard and it was difficult to determine if the darkness was normal, or amplified by power outages.
When we crossed into Mississippi, any curiosity was long gone, replaced by raw disbelief. My parent's neighborhood was a shambles, and the month since the storm had only intensified this fact - since the owners of flooded houses were tearing out ruined walls and possessions and flinging them to the curb.
On my parent's street, we drove slowly - flanked by six-foot piles of debris the entire length of the road.
And then we were home.
5 comments:
I have to say that when I moved Sandra back from her internship in D.C., we drove through Pennsylvania. It was one of the most scenic and gorgeous drives I've ever been on.
BTW, what did you think about the US World Cup team selections?
I'm glad they've finally committed to emerging talent. I really wonder about McBride, because I think he's past his sell-by date. Reyna's getting close, but O'Brien, Ching, Cherundulo - these are all smart.
Really, the squad looks pretty tight otherwise. Bruce has proven that he's got the chops to deliver, so the risk's he's taking (Ching) I'm willing to trust him on.
Albright wasn't a choice he made, and that worries me. Hejduk being out really hurts us - I think Albright is overhyped and just on an uptick. Frankie was just all out effort, all the time - a standout even in our dismal performace in France. Unfortunately, that looks to be how he got injured. Bad for Frankie, bad for us.
Mainly, though our group is murder. Ghana, who cares - but Czech Rep. and Italy? Jeezus - we'll be lucky to get out of those with points. We just have to hope the Italians pull a repeat of Korea: score one goal and stop playing.
Ick.
I remember what amazing scenes we saw on the television from the aftermath of Katrina, from the aftermath of the tsunami in East Asia - I can only relate on a smaller scale, remembering what was left after a tornado decided to visit my childhood home. It's a humbling experience, to see how insignificant our society is in the face of nature. We are so proud of all we have built up - as, I suppose, were the residents of Pompeii, or the early islanders on Santorini. In the end, our pride is no better justified than the dinosaur's pride in its rule over the world - all may be brushed aside when the world shrugs.
You know, I remember your Dad telling me that they had really low property taxes and that they didn't have city garbage service; you paid to have someone haul away your junk. I wonder if the aftermath of Katrina was just too much for people to pay their normal trash people for. So many people displaced...why pay the junk bill? If your home is in ruins, why continue to pay for it? I think that part of the reason for the lack of speed is probably lack of the infrastructure in the first place. Not that I'm giving a pass to FEMA for their horrible response.
I've only lived in two states where trash pickup wasn't a separate bill, and Mississippi isn't one of them. It was regular pickup, you just had a separate bill from BFI.
Trash pickup WAS hopelessly inadequate, however. While no system could cope with what was going on down there, there was a lot of frustration as the BFI truck would only take one garbage can per household, per week.
Most of the houses on mom's street had ripped out all their walls and thrown their ruined belongings on the curb, and it was still sitting there, weeks later. Add in the yard waste, and you had neighborhood streets resembling corridors of garbage.
The sheer volume of debris boggles the mind. When we were down there at Christmas, we drove west on Hwy 90 towards Long Beach and there was mile after mile of empty slabs. Entire households had been washed somewhere, and someone would have to haul their remains away.
That and the trees. Four months after the storm, the limbs of the trees along Hwy 90 were filled with hanging garbage - parts of houses and flotsam that got caught when the surge went back out.
I can completely understand that there are more important things to do than get the tattered laundry out of the trees, but it was pretty jarring to see.
That and the casino sitting in the middle of the highway, slot machines spilling out of its windows.
Post a Comment