Resilience

This past week has been one of the worst times in southern Louisiana’s history. Comparison’s with the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina have been made, but these comparisons should not take away from the cataclysmic destruction of either event. However, the Baton Rouge area has never directly experienced the magnitude of destruction which it did this past week. It is estimated that 30% of the homes in East Baton Rouge Parish neighboring parishes have been damaged. A number on the order of 100,000 people affected directly has been put out there. Bebe and I were fortunate in that the new house we are in saw no flood waters nor flooding streets in the neighborhood. One day, I was flooded in by the streets surrounding the neighborhood. We were an island amid the chaos.

The people of Louisiana have again shown their resilience, their compassion toward others hurting, and their willingness to wholeheartedly volunteer to help those in need. The stories are rampant such as the about the man who rescued a woman stuck in her flooding car, of the “Cajun Navy”, those volunteers with personal fishing boats who went out to rescue those trapped. The lessons learned from the foibles following Hurricane Katrina have been put in place, including the rescuing of pets, which was mostly disallowed during Katrina. It took that major disaster for people to realize that a pet owner is often willing to sacrifice his own safety for that of his pets.

Another important factor in the resilience of people is to have friends or relatives who are willing to give them a temporary shelter from the storm, a place to stay, when they are playing it safe from possible floodwaters, or for total shelter when there is no other place. We had some houseguests in this regard.

This photo is of my wife Bebe, Elizabeth, the daughter of her cousin, my daughter Beth, and Sylvia, a friend. Beth and Sylvia stayed a night or few during the time of crisis. Here they are passing the time away coloring pages from an adult coloring book with the headlines from the paper clearly in view.

Resilience of people in Louisiana is shown by their willingness to help others, to engage in games or fun, and to lose themselves in sports. The passion of the people from Louisiana is shown in everything they do, from volunteering, giving a little acute aid, giving some money or food or supplies, or just plain being there.
 

The flood

© 2016 rt tulley

there was a flood

recently in my state

it washed away something

what some perceived as hate

and left in its wake

wonderment and joy

replaced this with

not something temporary

but something the water

failed to destroy

It brought out the best

the best side of a people

a side that had lain dormant

even under the spire of a steeple

although it took nothing less

nothing less than a tragedy

for us to step up to the plate

to show us what man can be.

Aug 21, 2016