This was a lovely, well thought out and well written post, Bateaux, and I'm sure we all appreciated it. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. Your (and others') efforts to make things better are more than commendable, and give us all hope.
I have to admit, while we're being open here (and forgive me, as I may've said as much on more than one prior occasion), a thought that popped into my mind reading this was that, for some of us who suffered hard and long due to one or more of the other horrific storms of 2004-05 (or any year, really), there almost seems to be a bit of a "Katrina Snobbery Club " -- if you know what I mean, and no offense, please, as I'm not referring to you personally. It just seems sometimes that what we in other areas went through has been virtually overshadowed by that one event with its huge amount of long-lived media attention. We sometimes feel pretty much forgotten, and yet we, too, have some very sad stories to tell of travail, hardship and loss.
Just as a for instance, I can completely relate to what you say about how the elderly were deeply affected -- but I'm speaking of Ivan, not Katrina. At the time, I was a volunteer at an assisted living facility, and saw how disoriented many of the residents became following the hurricane and its terrible aftermath. One particularly wonderful old woman I'd become especially close with over the previous couple of years -- I considered her a special friend -- was never the same following her return to the home from evacuation. In just that short span of time she'd forgotten who I was (this from a woman who was pretty darned sharp beforehand), and within two months of Ivan she was dead. |