Wednesday August 31, 2005

I woke up this day to Sara calling me on the radio to let me know that she still couldn't get to the office. Water was higher than her car. She thought I might be able to get there in my Jeep. I went to work at the Baton Rouge office and fielded several calls from GE regarding the status of the office. They offered any assistance they could give us. We learned that Birdie was sending supplies again for some of the hospitals in New Orleans, and Chris and I decided we were going to take the delivery together to try to look at his house and the office. We were hearing reports on the radio that people were hijacking cars to get out of the city and that there was widespread looting and burning down property. The National Guard had only partially arrived and you basically were on your own there. I had heard the Governor say that the Arkansas National Guard was coming and that they had just returned from Iraq, and they would "shoot to kill." This was both unsettling and a relief. I called Lisa to let her know I was going to the city and she wasn't all that happy, but she knew it was my job. She told me that one of her friend's husbands was being called up and sent down here.

We loaded up the pallets we had for W Jeff Hospital in Marrero, Ochsner Hospital in Jefferson, and the 5 boxes we had for Charity and 2 boxes for Memorial Medical and got gas and drinks for the trip. We were in a 16ft boxtruck with no markings. I made Chris go by my car so we could get my gun to take with us. I had also managed to borrow a short barreled shotgun from one of the BTR drivers and a duffel bag of ammo. I had my pistol and some ammunition in a gym bag between the seats and I kept the shotgun in my lap. I told Chris we weren't going to get hijacked unless they killed me and I meant it. We had our FEMA letter and headed for the city. As we got closer and closer to New Orleans, you began to see the wind damage. Billboards blown over and trees bent sideways. It also began to smell like dead fish. You kept seeing signs that told you that you couldn't get to New Orleans. This particular sign was in Baton Rouge, where our journey began.

We got to Laplace, where a checkpoint had been set up to stop people from entering the area. We showed our letter and our manifests at the checkpoint and got waved through. We were told we would have to take I-310 to the West Bank and then cross the Huey P Long to get back to the Eastbank due to I-10 still being under water around Causeway. This photo is from the area where Jefferson Parish meets Orleans Parish from the air. I obviously did not take this photo. This is an AP photo from the Coast Guard.



AP PHOTO

We were also told it was unlikely we could get to Charity, but we wanted to get them their supplies as we had heard reports that the water was still high in that area and looting was out of control. I believed that one of my friends from college was a nurse at Charity and if we got near enough to go there, I wanted to make sure she was okay. Chris and I discussed possibly loading people in the back of the truck to get them out of the city, but we weren't sure how close we could get.

We went through the checkpoint and took I-310 over to the Westbank. Once we got over the bridge and onto Hwy 90, we hit a 2nd checkpoint. Apparently they were letting a few people into this Parish. We made it through that checkpoint with the same ease we did the first. This is where the Hurricane damage was more obvious. Buildings with serious roof damage, billboards completely gone, houses with trees on them. No flooding though on this side of the river. We travelled through streets with no power and weaved around downed power lines. We both decided that we didn't understand why people were not allowed to return to this part of Jefferson Parish.