Katrina - 5 Years Later

PAGE 2 | HURRICANE KATRINA 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY | FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010

Parish launches Katrina Web site

By Suzanne Le BretonSt. Tammany News

Parish President Kevin Davischoked back tears as SuzanneStymiest, spokesperson for theparish, read Lisa Pratt Maddox’sKatrina story at a press confer-ence last month.

Maddox is the director of theTammany Trace, and she likemost parish employees rode outHurricane Katrina at theEmergency Operations Center inCovington, fielding calls fromemergency personnel and thoseout in the storm seeking help.

“I remember clearly a call froma man caught in large building inSlidell off Old Spanish Trail. I amnot sure if I took the original callbut I did take one of his manycalls. The phone would discon-nect before he could finish hisspeaking and he was hard tounderstand. He stated the build-ing was shaking and felt like itwas going to collapse. He had noplace to go he was stuck. Pleasesend help… A call came throughthat someone in the Eden Islesarea was on their rooftop andneeded rescuing. Eden Isles?That is where my fiancé has ahouse. Luckily he was with me at

the EOC. He is usually really stub-born and won’t leave duringstorms but something told him totake this one seriously...”

Maddox’s memories is one ofthe many included on a new Website launched by parish govern-ment in honor of the fifthanniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The parish began working onthe Web site on Aug. 29, 2009, thefourth anniversary of HurricaneKatrina.

Davis said he felt the five-yearmark was an appropriate time torelease this tool to the public.

The Web site includes a time-line, which has a large percentageof events as recorded by EOC calltakers like Maddox during thestorm and its aftermath. Itincludes pictures submitted byfire stations, local media and busi-nesses.

It is the by far the most com-prehensive Katrina site in exis-tence and the only one to have alarge percentage of actualchronological events pertainingto St. Tammany. The site can befound at www.stpgov.org/katrinaor by clicking a link on the parishWeb site. It tells the stories ofthose who stayed and shouldn’thave, those who volunteered toanswer phones and ended up sav-ing lives, those that evacuated andreturned home to find everythinglost and the public servants whofaced the challenge and tri-umphed.

The site includes a section forthe public to both read other’s

stories and submit their own,whether it be from events of thestorm as a resident or as a volun-teer.

Davis said in addition to St.Tammany Parish residents, hewants those who came from otherstates to help to also contribute, asthey are as much a part of the St.Tammany Katrina story as thepeople who live here.

He said this site is a tool toshare the process of what wentdown during those days leadingup to, during and after the storm,as well as a healing tool.

In St. Tammany Parish alone,over 48,000 homes were dam-aged; almost 20,000 by floodwaters, the eye passed directlyover the eastern portion of St.Tammany Parish, and many stillfive years later do not know ofwhat happened during that timein other areas of the parish.

In the introduction to the Website, Stymiest wrote: “Residents ofSlidell often have no idea of thestorm’s damage in Folsom. Some

in Mandeville do not know thatthe eye covered the greater Slidellarea. The communities ofCovington, Sun, Abita Springs,Madisonville and Pearl River maynot know what happened to theirneighbors. Now is the time totell our story.”

The only thing that is removedfrom the accounts included onthe site is personal information.

“We corrected no typos, errorsof misstatements,” Davis said.

“The threads of this story havebeen woven together as they un-folded…Time may have provensome of the comments inaccurate,but they were believed to be trueat the time and are included herefor a richer telling of this story,”Stymiest said in the introduction.

Davis said many, especiallythose in parish government, havepushed back the emotions, havetried to put it all behind them,have not shed the tears.

He thinks this Web site, whileit may reopen old wounds, is anecessary part of the healing

process. “To move forward you have to

look back,” he said, adding that hethinks five years is a good time todo that. “I think this is a goodprocess for us to go through.”

“The healing process continuesto occur, and this is a way we canall contribute to the process. TheWeb site is a tribute to the tri-umph of our parish and the won-derful people who played a role inthat triumph.”

“No planning could fully pre-pare us for the devastationKatrina wrought. Nothing, how-ever, makes me prouder than theheroism displayed by first respon-ders and citizens alike,” Daviswrote in his statement on theWeb site. “We fought back andwe arose from the winds andflood waters stronger thanever…We were in the eye. We notonly survived, we triumphed.”

“Hopefully, this will be the lastHurricane Katrina Mission of St.Tammany,” Stymiest wrote in arelease announcing the Web site.

Residents asked to submit

their stories

HURRICANE KATRINA 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY | FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010 | PAGE 3

Schools used as shelters,classes began within weeks

By Debbie GloverSt. Tammany News

Superintendent of the St. TammanyParish School System Trey Folseremembers Hurricane Katrina well.Embedded at the Emergency Opera-tions Center, Folse said, “I consideredmyself lucky-I had a couch to sleep on.”

The EOC was a hotbed of activity aspublic officials, officials from emer-gency preparedness and others stayedat the facility during and after thestorm.

“Communication was hit and miss,so it was better that we all stayedtogether, including the sheriff andRed Cross officials,” Folse said. “Mostof the shelters were in the schools,spread out throughout the parish. Wehad about five or six schools openedbefore the storm, and after, we openedabout 20 more.”

Shelters included Covington HighSchool for those with special needs;Fontainebleau High School for firstresponders; Fontainebleau JuniorHigh School for displaced parishemployees; and Bonne Ecole for the U.S. Marine Corps.

For the general population, therewere Bayou Lacombe Elementary,Pitcher Junior High, Pine ViewMiddle School, Abita Springs MiddleSchool, Fifth Ward Junior High, SixthWard Elementary, Riverside Elemen-tary, Pearl River High School, BayouLacombe Middle School and North-shore High School.

Folse said the two buildings thatwere totally lost were Salmen HighSchool and Slidell Pathways in theBrooks Curriculum Center. In addi-tion, Brock Elementary School wasdestroyed, but the historic facade waskept while the inside was totally gutted.

All three buildings are now back inoperation with the Salmen HighSchool’s ribbon cutting having takenplace on Wednesday morning and therededication of the Robert C. BrooksJr. Educational Complex last week.

Folse said his first teaching job wasat Salmen High School, so it was veryemotional for him to walk through theschool after the storm.

“To remember it after the stormand now when it has been rebuilt – it’ssimply amazing, a beautiful facility,”said Folse.

The Sheriff ’s Department helpedFolse and others get around in theparish. Folse said he worked closelywith the American Red Cross to getshelters opened at the schools. “Ifthere is a silver lining, I now have life-long friends I made during the stormand aftermath, working in the trench-es to get things done,” he said.

“The parish made the school sys-tem the number one priority,” Folsesaid. “In the morning meetings, thefirst thing he asked was, ‘what doesthe School Board need?’ It was anunbelievably uplifting feeling everyday to know the first order of businesswas to help the school system.”

He said the school system had to be

careful after the storm and tried to getprincipals to return as soon as possi-ble to evaluate the damage to theirschools. “They know their schoolsbetter then anyone, so we wantedtheir feedback,” Folse added.

One thing the school system foundout was that the school system wasprepared before the storm withboarding up windows and such. It wasthe aftermath that hit them.

Folse said one of the lessons theylearned was to prepare for not havingcommunications available after a hur-ricane and prepare accordingly. Thereis now a plan based on jobs on wheneach employee should return. He saidemployees know to get their familiessituated and then return to work toget the schools open.

Lakeshore High School has beendesignated as the headquarters formaintenance to stay after a stormbecause the gym has generators.

In addition, since different cellcompanies were working afterKatrina and Gustav, there are differ-ent carriers for those who need cellphones. Walkie-talkies are also avail-able. “Now we have a whole checklistof things to do to prepare for the after-math of a storm,” Folse said. “We havecome a long way in preparedness infive years.”

“It was a very intense time, butrewarding to see progress beingmade,” he said. “I will always remem-ber and be proud of what we accom-plished.”

Shelter for pets

Noah’s Wish, a California-based organizationcame to Louisiana to help the four-legged victimsleft homeless after Hurricane Katrina. Theorganization sheltered more than 450 pets, pro-viding food and free veterinary care. “Our role isto board these animals while people returning toSlidell get their life back in order,” SheriThompson, Noah’s Wish training manager, hadsaid. (File Photo)


Gee family rides out hurricane in Abita SpringsAug. 29, 2005, changed all our

lives. The power and phones wentout about 9 a.m. that morningwhile the wind and rain of Katrinawas pelting our house. About 2p.m. sitting on the stairs and hold-ing on to the stair rails with eachgust of wind. The house wouldshake and the wind was howlingand whistling so loud that I couldnot hear the radio. At that point Idecided to go sit in the closet withBubba (my dog) for safety. Ithought the house was going toblow away.

As I walked in to the bedroom,out of the window I saw theswirling tornado with the yellowinsulation and a part of the roofpass in front of the window.

I said, “It’s a tornado!” And myhusband jumped into the bath-room and I jumped into the closet.It was very scary. I did a lot ofpraying. Those people who saythey do not believe in God. wouldhave been praying then.

Around 4 p.m. we went outsideto survey the damage. All the fruittrees and many others wereuprooted. And some big pineswere down; luckily we did nothave any close to the house. Ofcourse all the roads were coveredwith trees and power lines; wecould not get out, call out, or knowwhat was happening with our fam-ilies. The cell phones did not workeither. We have well water thatruns off an electric pump, so wehad no water, for drinking orflushing. We went thru the attic, tothe roof, which was gone, and triedto put up a tarp, to keep the rainfrom flooding the upstairs rooms.

The wind was so strong, it almosttook me up, with the tarp, like akite, Ellis had to cut the tarp looseso I would not fly off the roof. Therain came pouring in the upstairsbedroom, then down thru the atticto the downstairs rooms. Then therain stopped, and we prayed that itwould not start again before wecould get someone to help us get acover over the roof.

After two days trapped in ourneighborhood, some of the neigh-bors came with chain saws andlogging equipment and cleared ourroad, so we could get out to thehighway. But there was nowhereto go and no gasoline. By this timewe are starting to need water tobathe, we found a house that had aswimming pool, and the ownershad evacuated, so we went thereand took baths until the waterturned green. Then anotherneighbor came by, he had a genera-tor and hooked it up to his pumpand we went over to his house andgot water in buckets, for drinking,

baths, and washing clothes. Thetemperature was in the 90’s duringthe day and around 80 at night sowe slept outside on the screenedporch in plastic lounge chairs atnight. We had to bury all our foodin our refrigerators and freezers.We had boxes of Deer sausage, andmeat that had to be destroyed. Oh,how we began to appreciate thewonderful uses of electricity andphone services to communicatewith our families.

About six days after the storm,we could get out and get ice, water,and MRE’s (meals ready to eat)from FEMA and the NationalGuard. The Red Cross startedhanding out water and two meals aday at the local school.

When we could get to the high-way, I went to my office (I had juststarted working for a company inCovington), and by some miracle,they had power, So, by day 9, Iwent back to work, but we did nothave power at home yet, so I wasstill bathing out of buckets and

washing clothes out of buckets andhanging them on rope that myhusband strung under the house. Ifelt like a pioneer woman.

Twenty-three days later we gotpower, but still no phone service.Then, three days after we got ourpower back on, Hurricane Ritacame through, and we lost powerfor a few hours.

Needless to say, this has beenthe worst experience of my life,and we were the lucky ones, whodid not get the floodwaters like mybrother Frank, who got 3 feet ofwater in his house and some roofdamage. My stepdaughter, Vickylost her home to 8 feet of water,when the levee broke in Lakeview.It destroyed her home completely,her husband was in the oysterbusiness in New Orleans, and thebusiness has been in his family for130 years. That business wasalmost destroyed.

Everyone is in a daze. I stood ina line at the Red Cross for threehours, to get assistance, and thenthe next day I stood in another linefor two hours to get food stamps.That is something I thought Iwould never find myself doing.Although there were not manyfood stores open and operating tobe able to buy food. When theyfinely started to open they wouldlet two or three people in at onetime, because there were no peo-ple to work in the stores, they hadall evacuated. And of course all thestores that could open were work-ing on generators, because we hadno power. We also had to sit inlines almost a mile long to getgasoline, and were limited to $50

per person, and at $3 a gallon thatwas not much.

It is now, many months sinceKatrina hit, but normal life has notreturned.

Every one is trying to get theirhomes repaired, not enough con-tractors, insurance adjustors, andmaterials. I think it may be manymonths before we can get our roofand property fixed. My brother,Frankie, has gutted his house andis waiting to see if he can get a SBAgovernment loan to repair hishouse, and on top of that, LSUMedical School (his employer) willnot be able to operate in NewOrleans until maybe next year. So,he may be with out a job. I am sothankful for my family, that gavemy brother a place to go to duringthe storm , than he went to Austinwith my aunt to stay with ourcousin, Until the officials said thatthey could return to Metairie, thenwhen he discovered his house hadwater in it, my other cousin tookhim to stay with her and her son,until he can get a place to live inagain.

But, we are thankful to be alive.We must have faith. Things willget better.

This is just a brief description,of my adventure. This does notcome close to the destruction andhorror of what happened to othersin New Orleans.

I am truly thankful for all theprayers, and offers of help from myfamily and friends.

Diane Gee rode out the storm inAbita Springs and has since movedto Folsom.

TELLING THE TALE

This photo taken by Diane Gee shows the ferocity of HurricaneKatrina at the height of the storm. At the time Diane was livingin Abita Springs.


Counting her blessingsBy Erik Sanzenbach

St. Tammany News

August 2005 seemed like agreat time to open a businessin Slidell for Louise Mace,owner of the Purple Armadillo.

“We had enough inventory,the economy was great, and wewere surpassing all our goals,”Mace remembered when sheand her partner opened up thehome décor store on ErlangerStreet in Olde Towne Slidell 20days before Hurricane Katrinahit Slidell.

But when the storm becamea real danger, Mace evacuatedSlidell, closing up her shop,thinking that she would beback in a couple of days.

She came back to total dev-astation.

“Three trees had crashedinto the store, and there hadbeen 7 feet of water inside. Itwas a total mess,” Mace said.

While waiting to clean upthe damage, Mace became aminor celebrity when shebecame one of the first peopleto be interviewed by CNN onnational television alongsideSlidell Mayor Ben Morris.

Though she was insured,Mace said there was somedoubt she could move backinto the store, because she hadto wait for the landlord toreturn to town.

“We didn’t know what the

landlord would do.Fortunately, he decided torebuild,” Mace recalled.

She said that she, her part-ner and family did a lot of thework themselves, and exactlysix months after Aug. 29, thePurple Armadillo opened itsdoors for business.

During that time, Mace sawthat despite the destructionand tragedy of the storm, therewas a silver lining for her busi-ness.

“After the storm, we wereone of the very few homedécor stores open in the area,and business was great,” Macesaid.

She stayed at the Erlanger

location until 2008, when shebought out her partner andmoved the Purple Armadillo toa mall on Tyler Street just offEast Gause Boulevard.

She admits that business hasbeen tough at first, but 2009turned out to be a good year.She was able to expand herstore from 900 square feet to1,400 square feet.

“I’m still here,” she saidproudly. “We were all blessed,and I am blessed to be here.”

She added that her newlocation has an extra buffer ofsecurity just in case anotherstorm hits Slidell.

“Now I’m high and dry,”Mace said.

This is what remained of the Purple Armadillo afterHurricane Katrina. At the time, the store was on ErlangerStreet in Olde Towne Slidell. (Photos by Louise Mace)

In the market

Although this Eden Isles homeowner’s residence was damaged, hissense of humor wasn’t. The garage door bears the spray-paintedmessage, “Dirt Cheap Fix’er Upper Water Front.” (File Photo)


Keeping the tires rolling after KatrinaBy Erik Sanzenbach

St. Tammany News

“I don’t want to do that again,”said Jeff Wood, general managerof Slidell’s Easy Pay Tires onPontchartrain Boulevard.

What he didn’t want to doagain was go through the chaos,destruction and cleanup afterHurricane Katrina.

The business has been in thesame location for 44 years, andowner Don Ladner and his staffwere not going to let a hurricaneclose it down.

Wood said they were the firstbusiness open after the stormpassed through. Though they gotto work right away repairing flattires on emergency and AmericanRed Cross vehicles, they still had along way to go to get the storeback into a presentable condition.

“It was a mess,” said Ladner,who hiked from Gause and FrontStreets to the store through knee-high water the day after the stormto find out out how the store hadfared. He said the only salvage-able thing from his office, thattook five feet of water, was a shot-gun mounted on a wall.”

“Yeah, it looked like a bombhad gone off,” Wood said.

All the big plate glass windowswere gone. Tires and rims werestrewn all over the place, and thecars that had not been put up onlifts before the storm were ruinedby the flood.

There was still a lot of water inthe parking lot, and Ladner saidthere were fish flopping aroundand trying to swim. He found anelectric drill that had been storedin a paint can floating in thegarage.

“It still worked perfectly,”Ladner said.

Josh Wilson, service manager,said the store’s inventory hadeither been ruined or it floatedaway.

“We found our tires in ditchesabout three blocks away,” Wilsonsaid.

Ladner had evacuated with hisfamily to a hunting camp north ofBiloxi, Miss. When they heard thestorm was gone, he tried to getback to Slidell as fast as he could.However, fallen trees in the roadsand lack of gasoline slowed himdown. Still, he made it to town theevening after the storm. Hecouldn’t get to his house inWestchester, so he and his wifecamped out at the corner ofGause and Front streets.

Meanwhile, Wood and Wilson,who rode out the storm in townhad to find back ways to get to thestore, because of the high water,plus, the National Guard were notletting people go through certainparts of town. While cleaning upthe store, they were busy pullingnails and glass from people’s tiresand repairing flats, all for free.

“We serviced a lot of Red Crossvehicles, and state police cars,”

Wilson said. There was no food or water,

but they had electricity. The RedCross fed the workers. Thoughthankful for the food, Wood had acomplaint.

“They didn’t understand howto cook red beans and rice,” hesaid.

Ladner said the cleanup was areal chore. Not only did they haveto pick up broken glass, wood andruined inventory, but they had toclean up all the oil that had spilledin the garage.

They would start early in themorning, and stop at 2 p.m. so thatpeople would have enough timeto get home before dark. Wooddidn’t stop working when he gothome. At night he was repairingthe roof on his damaged home.

Five years later, Slidell’s EasyPay Tires is a bustling place with afull parking lot and mechanicsworking hard in the repair bays.

“We are in good shape,” Ladnersaid.

Wood agreed.“Business is better than before

the storm,” Wood said. “We lost alot of customers, but then wegained a lot because of theincrease in population.”

Ladner said since the storm,the value of the land has in-creased.

“Business has been better inthe past months. I really can’tcomplain about the storm,”Ladner said.

Above is what the front lobby of Slidell’s Easy Pay Tireslooked like after the floodwaters from Katrina receded. Belowis the lobby five years later.


Covington leader put to the test in aftermathBy Debbie Glover

St. Tammany News

Katrina meant manythings to many people. ForCovington’s Mayor CandaceWatkins, it was a time to useleadership skills.

“It was phenomenal, atime when people pulledtogether and worked hard,”she said. “Although no oneever wants it, or looks for-ward to it, it was the kind ofsituation a leader lives for—an opportunity to use leader-ship skills.”

Watkins, her husbandTrevor, and their 9-year-oldson Trevor Jr. were embed-ded in St. Paul’s School’s St.Benilde Hall, a steel-rein-forced building on the cam-

pus in Covington. “A groupof teachers were stayingthere,” said Watkins.

The evening after thestorm ran its course, Watkinswalked to the corner ofJefferson Avenue and 14thStreet. From there,Department of Public WorksDirector Tommy Mayronnedrove her to the EmergencyOperations Center in themiddle of downtownCovington.

She said she wanted to getas much of an assessment ofthe city as she could, but itgot dark. The next day, shewent back to the EOC andbegan the 72-hour push. Shesaid that most of the publicworks department was backat work in a few days.

Watkins sent her son toBaton Rouge to live with hissister for a while. Watkinssaid she discouraged peoplefrom coming back to the cityand in fact, many people intown were urged to leavebecause the water had notbeen tested and there was noelectricity.

Watkins said the chal-lenges the first few dayswere clearing the streets,uncovering and mitigatinghazards. She said there was abroken gas line on JahnckeAvenue and crews had to becareful with the chain sawand other equipment thatmight start a fire.

“People were not pre-pared for the day after withbasic daily needs,” she said.

“It was really dangerous insome cases. I remembertraveling to get ice and waterfor the public works work-ers.”

By Wednesday, Watkinshad not heard from her fam-ily in Baton Rouge yet. After48 hours of no contact, shesaw her daughter walkingdown the street toward her.She said she still had notseen her own house,although she had heardthere was damage. Her hus-band moved things fromtheir house to the dormitoryat St. Paul’s, where they livedfor 13 months.

She said all city employerswere working to clear roads,with firefighters helpingpublic works workers cut

trees and move them inorder to open a route to St.Tammany Hospital, whichwas critical.

She said she drove toHammond to get cash to payworkers because there wasno electricity and no onecould cash a check becausebanks were not open. Thedowntown area had electric-ity in about a week. The restof the city took longer, withmost of the city regainingelectricity in three weeks. St.Paul’s was able to open inthree weeks, Watkins said,while the public schoolsopened Oct. 3.

One constant challengewas pumping down the liftstations, which had to beaccomplished by hand.

Workers simply moved fromstation to station, using aportable generator to pumpdown the levels.

This was another reasonpeople were discouragedfrom returning too early –sewer overflow and lowwater pressure.

As time went on, Watkins’focus shifted from left sta-tions to issues like debris col-lection, small businessrecovery and the restorationof city finances.

At the time, Watkins saidin an interview, “I found,oddly enough, that I wasvery comfortable handlingthe event. Crisis manage-ment for some can be easierthan some of the day-to-dayoccurrences of the job.”

By Debbie GloverSt. Tammany News

As a graduate student incommunication during Ka-trina, one of my duties was toadvise undergraduate stu-dents on which course workto take and help them plantheir schedules each semes-ter.

After evacuating to Mon-roe with my husband, moth-er, my three children andtwo dogs, two weeks later weon the road back to Coving-ton.

SLU was returning toclass, and with this was therealization that the universi-ty would be hosting gueststudents-students whocould not attend their uni-versity or college because ofthe storm’s affects in NewOrleans. Schools affectedincluded Loyola University,Dillard, UNO, Delgado andTulane.

Each department wasasked to select a person togreet the guest students thatwould be attending the uni-versity that semester. Noprerequisite coursework was

checked, no tuition collect-ed, simply an attempt to helpthese students snatch a bit oftheir college career, and nor-malcy, from the clutches ofthe storm’s aftermath.

A dormitory that had beenslated for renovation thatsemester was put on hold sostudents could live there.Many students had losteverything-their homes,their jobs, their schools andin some cases, family mem-bers were spread across sev-eral states. They were trulyalone.

Although we had few

communication majors, add-itional course sections wereadded throughout the cam-pus to accommodate thoseguests. In other cases, maxi-mum class sizes werestretched. Since many ofthem had already paid tui-tion to their regular facility,it was assumed the tuitionsituation as well as housingwould be sorted out later.

As the mother of two“Katrina freshmen,” I knowthe difficulty a lot of studentsfaced beginning their collegecareers away from homeonly to have the nation’s

worst natural disaster attheir door step. Many of thefreshmen suffered from aloss of security, a sense ofnowhere to go. Imaginebeing “out of the nest” foronly two weeks and thenhaving no nest to return to –it must have been devastat-ing.

Fortunately, my familyonly lost trees, and damageto my house was relativelyminimal compared to most. Isaw first hand and heard sev-eral heartbreaking stories ofother families who losteverything except what they

left with – some even familymembers who would notevacuate or were elderly andailing.

The experience made thearea stronger and hasbrought us together as a cul-ture, wiping away some ofthe barriers that existedbefore. From the depths ofdespair, Katrina changed ourculture forever with a newappreciation of what it beingfrom south Louisiana trulymeans—resilience, caringand a love of our families andour culture.

Thank you, Katrina.

Southeastern Louisiana University’s response to Katrina – guest students



Fallen trees, damaged and flooded homescouldn’t stop Cleco employees from helpingcustomers and restoring power after Hur-ricane Katrina.

The Category 3 storm made landfall Aug.29, 2005, leaving 86,403 Cleco customers insouth and southeast Louisiana withoutpower, resulting in a 29 day restoration effort– the longest in Cleco’s 75-year history.

“Katrina was the longest and most costlyrestoration effort the company has ever had,”said James Lass, Cleco’s storm boss. “The pro-cedures we had in place served customerswell and helped streamline restoration. Wecontinually review these storm procedures tohelp improve the process.”

Before repairing the electric system, manyemployees had to make it through the stormand find their way out of their homes andthrough the rubble.

Lodie Javery, from Cleco’s Slidell CustomerService Office, remembers riding out 12 terri-fying hours of Katrina in her home. “Theyasked everyone to evacuate, but I work forCleco and my husband works for Atmos,”Javery said. “We didn’t want to fight the traf-fic to leave, just to come back and work.”

Falling trees made things scary enough, butwhen the water in the toilet started gurgling,Javery began to panic. Within five minutes,the water rose inside her home to approxi-mately five feet. Though the couple didn’thave to climb into the attic, they wadedthrough water for hours.

After the weather calmed down, the coupleclimbed into a pirogue to check on their par-ents, who had taken refuge in the attic.Everyone was OK, but it was a close call.

“Once we were able to get out of the neigh-borhood, we went to check in with work,”

Javery said. “The service center was up andrunning. The other employees were excited tosee I was OK and let me know that my familyhad been calling.

“Cleco really stepped up to the plate,”Javery said. “We basically had nothing. Thecompany provided us with clothes and a placeto stay while working to restore power.” Ittook years for the Javery family to recoverafter losing almost everything in the storm.

“Our employees excel in tough situations,”said Michael Madison, Cleco Corp. presidentand CEO. “Even though some employeeswere going through very difficult times, theywere willing and ready to help restore powerand answer customer questions. I am proudto be part of this great group of employees.”

St. Tammany Parish officials recognized

Cleco’s storm restoration efforts in November2005 with House Resolution No. 3, commend-ing Cleco and its subcontractors for their out-standing work in St. Tammany Parish follow-ing Katrina.

The resolution also commended ClecoCorp. for establishing the Cleco EmPowersFund and its initial contribution of $300,000.The St. Tammany Parish Government alsopresented a certificate of recognition to Clecofor its Katrina recovery efforts.

On a national level, Cleco received theEdison Electric Institute EmergencyResponse Award for its outstanding emer-gency storm response. EEI is the associationof U.S. shareholder-owned electric compa-nies, international affiliates and industryassociates worldwide.

Despite personal loss, Cleco employees triumphin restoring power after Hurricane Katrina

By the numbers

Number of customers wholost power – 86,403

Estimated hours spent byCleco employees, contrac-tors and mutual assistanceworkers -1,059,855

Approximate number ofelectrical contract and mutu-al assistance workers – 1,247

Approximate number oftree/vegetation contractworkers – 1,031

Approximate number ofCleco employees involved inthe restoration effort - 600

Miles of distribution line de-energized by the storm:2,060

Miles of distribution linereplaced/rebuilt – 412

Miles of distribution linerepaired – 618

Number of poles replaced –5,005

Number of transformersreplaced or repaired – 2,503

Miles of transmission linereplaced or rebuilt – 55

Distribution substations thatlost power – 37

Transmission substationsthat lost power – 6


It’s rather ironic that the tradi-tional gift for fifth anniversaries issomething made of wood. It seemsfitting, though. Images of scatteredstuds, cabinets and two by fourswere so common in St. Tammanyfive years ago.

Just as they were a symbol ofdestruction then, today those samewooden materials are a symbol ofour recovery. Our reconstructedroofs and walls are a symbol of ourdetermination that this is our homeand we will rebuild it regardless ofwhat nature sends our way.

As I write this, the week of spe-cial programming and media articlesis starting regarding the fifthanniversary of Katrina.

There are many good and inform-ative programs that will help uslearn more about what happened inour region.

Most of the programming, how-ever, won’t give you many of thedetails regarding St. TammanyParish. For that reason, amongmany others, we have begun a per-manent record of the story of St.Tammany Parish during Katrina. It

is housed atwww.stpgov.org/Katrina. On thosepages, we are making available someof the raw data from that period inthe timeline from the EmergencyOperations Center. The story sec-tion allows residents and those whoaided St. Tammany in the aftermathof the storm a chance to tell theiraccounts in their own words. Italso allows the rest of us who livedthrough this event the opportunityto read those stories. A photo sec-tion displays pictures from St.Tammany Parish, official media

sources, and St. Tammany Parish cit-izens. I invite you to read the time-line and submit your photos and sto-ries.

Together we can build a perma-nent, researchable archive of whathappened in our community. It is adatabase that can be used byresearchers and students alike.

Most importantly, it is a place forus to share our common experi-ences.

– Kevin DavisSt. Tammany Parish President

A MESSAGE FROM THE PARISH PRESIDENT

TUESDAY, Aug. 23 5 p.m Tropical Depression 12 formed in the

Atlantic. By 8 p.m. it was moving towardthe Bahamas.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 242 a.m., it was over the central Bahamas. At

5 a.m. it was near Tropical Stormstrength and continued moving erratical-ly through the islands. At 11 a.m., TD 12officially became known as TropicalStorm Katrina. Katrina continued to getbetter organized over the centralBahamas and by 11 p.m. had begun toturn westward toward south Florida.

THURSDAY, Aug. 25 Katrina was getting better organized as it

moved toward Florida. By 5 p.m., it wasalmost a hurricane, bearing down on thesoutheast coast of Florida, with the eyemaking landfall at 7 p.m. and slowlycrossing the peninsula, moving south-westward across Miami-Dade County.

FRIDAY, Aug. 26 Although she weakened slightly across the

mainland, at 3 a.m. Katrina once againentered open waters this time in the Gulfof Mexico.

5 a.m., she had regained hurricanestrength and by 7 a.m. was moving west-ward over the Gulf.

8 a.m., St. Tammany Parish began callingpersonnel home, even though Katrinawas still in the eastern Gulf.

11:30 a.m., Katrina was rapidly strengthen-ing and continued to do so.

2:17 p.m., St. Tammany Parish PresidentKevin Davis announces “that while thepath of Hurricane Katrina is unclear, theparish is making preventive prepara-tions.”

5 p.m. Katrina continues to move awayfrom Florida toward the west-southwest.

11 p.m., she is expected to become an“intense hurricane” in the central Gulf ofMexico.

SATURDAY, Aug. 27 2 a.m. Katrina continues to strengthen,

moving toward the southwest.

5 a.m. Katrina named a major hurricanewith winds at 115 mph.

8 a.m. The strengthen Katrina is movingwestward through the southeastern Gulfwith 115 mph, a category 3 storm.

9:30 a.m. Davis issues an executive orderdeclaring a parish wide state of emer-gency.

9:30 a.m. the Emergency OperationsCenter is activated.

10 a.m. Category 3 Katrina is still movingwestward in the southeastern Gulf and isexpected to turn west-northwestwardand strengthen. Winds are at 115 mph,pressure is at 940 mb, and the eye islocated at 24.5 north and 85.0 west.

12:30 p.m. The probability of a strike isincreasing and shelter preparations beginas shelters in Creekside Junior High andPitcher Junior High. Sandbag stationsare opened in Covington, Lacombe,Mandeville, Slidell and Pearl River.

1 p.m. evacuation announced by Davis. “I

am asking residents of low-lying areas ofSt. Tammany Parish to begin prepara-tions for a voluntary evacuation,” saidDavis. Low-lying areas included south-eastern St. Tammany Parish, TreasureIsle, Rigolets, Palm Lake, NorthshoreBeach, Coin du Lestin and southLacombe.

4 p.m. Katrina reorganizing over thesoutheastern Gulf. Contraflow began.

5 p.m. Curfew imposed.

5:30 p.m. Evacuation order “All personsbelow the Interstate 12 boundary bynoon Sunday and all low-lying areasincluding Old Landing, Three Rivers andTchefuncte River.

5:52 p.m. official briefing. Expected windssustained in excess of 40 mph beginningbetween 3-4 a.m. Monday morning; 60mph about 9 a.m. Monday; 75 mph 1 p.m.Monday. Winds may exceed 130 mph for6-7 hours with a storm surge of 14-18feet in Lake Pontchartrain. Waves in theLake may reach seven feet above thestorm surge.

10 p.m. Katrina threatens the north centralGulf Coast.

SUNDAY, Aug. 281 a.m. Katrina a category 4 with 145 mph.

4 a.m. continues path west-northwestwardbut expected to turn northward.

6 a.m. LSU predicts a storm surge from 10-11 feet in St. Tammany Parish.

6:39 a.m. Treasure Island by Salt Bayoureportedly under water.

7 a.m. Katrina a potentially catastrophicCategory 5 hurricane headed for thenorthern Gulf Coast.

10 a.m. Even stronger Katrina headed fornorthern Gulf Coast.

11 a.m. Evacuate now- Hurricane Katrinahas winds in excess of 175 mph. The eyeis expected to pass over St. TammanyParish. Sandbag stations closing at noon.Curfew effective 8 p.m. “Tropical forcewinds growing to hurricane force windswill begin tonight. Hurricane force windswill reach us early tomorrow morning,possible exceeding 130 mph and stay

with us for six or more hours. It is time toleave. If you stay, we may not be able toreach you with emergency assistanceduring the storm.”

1:30 p.m. additional shelter opened atAbita Springs Middle School. Pitcher isnow full.

2:30 p.m. Shelters open at RiversideElementary and Pine View MiddleSchool. Creekside Elementary shelter isfull.

3:30 p.m. More shelters open at FifthWard Junior High and Sixth WardElementary School.

5:30 p.m. Davis broadcast on Channel 10from EOC.

MONDAY, Aug. 29 Midnight, Category 5 Hurricane Katrina

continues to approach the northern GulfCoast-sustained hurricane force windsnearing the southeastern Louisianacoast.

1:30 a.m. Causeway closed in both direc-tions.

2 a.m. Katrina turns northward.

4 a.m. Katrina down to Category 4-tropi-cal force winds from southeasternLouisiana to Alabama-Florida border.

6 a.m. Category 4 Katrina moving onshorenear southern Plaquemines Parish.

6:49 a.m. several shelters without powerand generators.

8 a.m. Large and extremely dangerousCategory 4 Hurricane Katrina poundingsoutheastern Louisiana and southernMississippi.

8:12 a.m. No more emergency calls untilstorm is over.

9:21 a.m. part of roof of Covington Highoff, shelter is okay.

9:45 a.m. Final landfall at the mouth of thePearl River.

11:49 a.m. tornado reported in Bush.

Noon Katrina gradually weakening as itmoves farther inland.

1:10 p.m. Lake rising at toll plaza.

2 p.m. Maximum winds of Katrina down to95 mph near Hattiesburg, Miss.

» time line hurricane katrina COMPILED BY DEBBIE GLOVER

KEVIN DAVIS


Mandeville using Katrina to prepare for futureBy Suzanne Le Breton

St. Tammany News

Capt. Ron Ruple saidMandeville Police thoughtthey were ready for a storm– that was until HurricaneKatrina came.

However, he said theemployees adjusted andused what they learn tomake sure they are betterprepared for future storms.

He said the storm surgefrom the lake pushed waterall the way to MonroeStreet, but that wasn’t thebiggest problem. Katrina’swinds also knocked downthousands of trees, block-ing every road in the city.

City employees spent thefirst two days after thestorm cutting their waythrough the city, openingroadways so that emer-gency vehicles could getthrough.

Luckily, he said, 95 per-cent of the residents heed-ed the evacuation call.However, Mandeville faredbetter in the storm thanmany other areas, andtherefore, people beganreturning home muchsooner than officials were

ready for them to do so.He said the city experi-

enced numerous naturalgas leaks, and many resi-dents were trying to returnhome before the city wasproperly secure and beforeelectricity was turned backon.

“There was no gas, nofood, no electricity,” Ruplesaid. A curfew was put inplace requiring everyone beinside after dark, and policewere charged with enforc-ing that for safety.

Ruple said there weresome instances of looting in

Mandeville, but well-mean-ing residents out at nightmade it hard to monitorthat.

“It was hard trying toweed through the peoplethat live here from thosethat were here to do some-thing illegal,” he said.

“When you saw headlightson the road you had toassume they were up to nogood.”

He said his departmentwas helped greatly by boththe National Guard and bymembers of an agency outof Indiana, who came tohelp.

He said this allowed forsome of his men to sleep orgo home and check on theirfamilies.

He said many of the cityemployees went the first 72hours after the storm with-out any sleep, and theadministration learned that“you have to give peoplesome time to rest.”

The police department,which was the only citybuilding equipped with agenerator at the time ofHurricane Katrina, becamehome to many city employ-ees and their families.However, there was reallyno place for them to sleepand only one shower.

“We were the only show-er in town,” Ruple said.

People living at thepolice department wassomething for which thecity had not planned. All

city buildings now havegenerators, and the city isbuilding an addition to thepolice department to addmore showers.

The city was also notequipped to feed all of thepeople staying at the policedepartment, so administra-tors were thankful thatlocal restaurants providedsome of their perishablefoods.

The police departmenthad difficulty reachingsome of the hardest hitareas, and has since pur-chased boats and a largemilitary vehicle with a liftto rescue people.

During HurricaneKatrina people who werestuck in flooded homesoften had to wade throughneck deep water or higherto get to the vehicles beingused to rescue them.

Ruple said HurricaneKatrina helped Mandevillesee that it needed a betterplan for when a disasterstrikes, and the city hasdeveloped such a plan.

He said now, five yearslater, Mandeville is betterprepared to react followinga storm.

Some brick pillars and piles of rubble are all that was left after HurricaneKatrina’s storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain pushed a Lakeshore Drive homeback into the bayou behind where it once stood. (File Photo)


By Suzanne Le BretonSt. Tammany News

Carmelo Chirico said fol-lowing Hurricane Katrina hewas overwhelmed not onlyby the devastation but by thekindness of strangers. Like alot of people he waited untilthe last minute to leavebefore Hurricane Katrina.

Chirico said he did notwant to leave behind hishome and business.

However, when he wokeup on Aug. 29, 2009, andheard the predictions ofwhat was coming, he madethe decision to pack up andleave. He, his wife and twodaughters left their home offMilitary Road in Slidell andheaded north. It took themseveral hours to reachHattiesburg, Miss. Unable togo any further, the familystopped at a Comfort Inn,hoping to find a shelter fromthe storm.

There were no openrooms at the hotel, but theChirico family was told theycould stay in the lobby,where they could let theirdaughters sleep and wait fora room to come open. Theywere even given some food,as they had no way to cookthe food that they hadbrought with them.

“There were nice peoplethere,” Chirico said.

He said while the girlsslept, he and his wife stayedawake and listened as thestorm blew over theHattiesburg area, tearing

away roofs. When they real-ized the next morning thatthere was no access to food,no electricity and no water,Chirico said, they wereforced once again to regroupand come up with a plan.

He made contact with afriend living in Lafayette,who told him he could stayat his vacation home inOrange Beach.

There they used fuel fromthe friend’s wave runners tofill their vehicle. Theystayed in Orange Beach forwhat Chirico said seemedlike a week to 10 days (hesaid time was a blur at thistime so he is not sure exactlyhow long it was), before hedecided to head back toSlidell to assess the situation.

It was not a joyous home-coming.

“I knew something badhappened to the house

because I couldn’t get to it,”he said.

When he finally reachedthe home, the water line was3-5 feet up the wall, the fire-place was gone, the glassdoors and the skylights hadbeen blown out, their furni-ture was upside-down and apart of the roof was gone.

One of his daughters, whohad made the trip back homewith him, was in tears. Hesaid it was a depressingsight. They saw bodies float-ing by a cemetery and every-thing was covered with mudand water.

He said he knew then itwas going to be a long, toughroad.

At that time, law enforce-ment was still requiring peo-ple to be in before dark, sothey were forced to leavetheir home again and, with alimited amount of available

money and no place else togo, they headed back toOrange Beach.

Two weeks later, Chiricoreturned again. This time hebrought with him his cousin,hoping to save some of histreasured wine collectionand assess the situation con-cerning their home somemore. He secured his winesin a storage area here butwas once again forced toreturn to Orange Beach, stillunsure of what to do abouthis home.

His business, Carmelo’sRistorante in the FrenchQuarter, which he hadowned since 1989, was alsoon hold. The hood systemhad been blown out and theback roof was damaged. Thelobsters in the tank and thecheese collection he hadwere putting off quite a smelland his employees had allbeen displaced.

“I knew I was not goingback in business any timesoon, and I knew I wouldhave to fight (with the insur-ance company) for thehouse,” he said.

Amidst all of this destruc-tion and uncertainty, Chiricoreceived one ray of hopewhen he got a phone callfrom his sister-in-law inNorth Carolina. Her bosshad a house there ready forthe Chirico family to movein.

Feeling they had no otherchoice then to rely on thekindness of this stranger,they began the two-day

drive. When they arrived atthe home, they were over-whelmed by finding a refrig-erator full of food and $3,000cash lying on the table.

They were told they couldstay as long as they wanted.

They contacted two oftheir daughters, who werestaying in Baton Rouge andfound the final daughterstaying with friends in Flor-ida after not knowing whereshe was for almost a week.

He said he flew all of thegirls up to stay with the fam-ily in North Carolina.

“It was nice, but it wasstrange,” he said. “Theyhelped us out tremendously.”

The homeowners, Elaineand Leonard Salibi, helpedone of their three olderdaughters, who had enrolledat UNO days before thestorm, start college at NorthCarolina State. They paid toenroll their younger daugh-ters in private school andprovided the Chirico’s withtransportation.

The family stayed thereuntil August 2006, whenthey returned to Slidell, butthey were still unable tomove into their home.

Chirico said he workedwith his cousin to fix up fourrooms in the house but wasunable to get anyone to helpfinish the job.

“I just couldn’t get itgoing,” he said. “I just could-n’t get anyone to come to fin-ish my house so my kidscould come back and finishschool.”

They ended up selling thehome half-finished and buy-ing another house in OakHarbor.

He said he was pleasedthat despite moving out ofthe district, the school sys-tem allowed one of hisdaughters to finish outschool at Northshore HighSchool with her friends.

While four of his fivedaughters returned toLouisiana with him, one ofhis daughters stayed behindto finish her schooling atNorth Carolina State. Shehas since graduated and gota job there.

Chirico said he reopenedthe business in September2006, but he said he found itvery hard to find all newemployees.

He said it just wasn’t thesame, and he sold the restau-rant in September 2009.They opened their new res-taurant Carmelo Ristoranteand Pizzeria, in Mandeville’sChenier Place in December2009.

With everything the fami-ly with through after thestorm, Chirico said the hard-est thing for him to handlewas when the family headedback home and the onedaughter stayed behind inNorth Carolina.

“I tried to get them alltogether and then she was allalone again,” he said. “Idon’t know why that both-ered me so much. I guessbecause we were leaving herbehind.”

Restaurant owner overwhelmed by kindness of strangers

Carmelo Chirico stands in the dining area of his newrestaurant, Carmelo Ristorante and Pizzeria, inMandeville. (Staff Photo by Suzanne Le Breton)

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Katrina - 5 Years Later