Did We Survive Hurricane Katrina or Not?

In spite of much speculation to the contrary - it is official: our oven did not flood.

The repairman explained this morning that if even the tiniest droplet of flood water had splashed up underneath the oven - that lovely bright white insulation in the back there would be sludge-colored by now. (He said he's seen plenty of 'em like that now...) So you see - it turns out that it was just sheer coincedence that our oven died when it did... (Although I'm still convinced that it had something to do with the arrival of the new dishwasher...)

I would have been perfectly content with simply having the oven repaired after just over a month without it... but there was so much more....

The area rug for the living room had been ready and waiting for us all week long - but with Dave working until well after the carpet store closed -- plus a lack of truck to haul it in... It wasn't doing us much good. So Dave took all the seats out of the mini-van and drove over to Gautier to pick it up. It started to rain just as he arrived at the house with six and a half feet of rolled up carpet hanging out of the back of the car. After fighting with the carpet that was too heavy for me to lift, but who cares? -- and moving the furniture that is also too heavy for me to lift, but who cares? -- we realized that they had sent us a bunch of uncut carpet pad for the price of measured and cut carpet pad. Pfffff.

I guess they knew we weren't going to complain after all the waiting and struggling and furniture-moving... So I got out the scissors and the duct tape. A couple hours later we had it all back in place and we're that much closer to having a complete living room again. Ta da!

Just then - we got an automated message from Sears letting us know that our washer and dryer were ready for pick-up a day early. With the seats already out of the mini-van - Dave took off for Gautier again.

So the carpet was too heavy for me to lift - and the furniture too... But I did it anyway, right? Well - the washer and dryer? They really were too heavy for me to lift - I mean, really. Though I tried the same mind tricks and told myself it didn't matter if they were too heavy -- the things didn't budge. Dave was left to get the things up the back steps and into the house all by himself... And he did it. I don't know how but he did. In a couple days when the strain of it all hits him -- he's going to be in traction... But at least I'll be able to wash his clothes.

And we'll get to do it all again when we have to move them out of the laundry room to put a floor down in there. Yay!

It comes in fits and starts -- the progress around here, I mean. We'll go weeks without accomplishing much of anything and then POOF! in just a couple of days we get something done.

And to top it all off -- FEMA answered our appeal today with a check for personal property. Just in time! The appeal for Dave's work truck is still pending and they've asked for more information (Well, okay - it's the same information we've already sent but they want it again because that's just how these things work...).

Everything helps... especially as we find that every day we lose something that we thought we had saved. Last week the bassinet went to the curb... and yesterday we realized that Yvonne's bed will be soon to follow. Any furniture we thought we had salvaged is starting to buckle or droop or some other unnatural thing. Today we took a deep breath and threw out the baseboards that we salvaged in the hopes of reusing them and accepted the fact that those remaining elsewhere in the house are going to have to go as well.


Earlier tonight I took a book from one of my high bookshelves and tried to turn to the first page. Mind you, this book was sitting a good six feet above the floodwater on August 29th - but still I found the pages crumpled and stuck together - the ink smeared - and mildew growing on the inside cover. Thinking about it now I realize that even the things that weren't floating around the house were still housed in conditions which were the equivalent of being left outside for several weeks.

It's so strange that this far out from Hurricane Katrina - we're still creating debris piles in the fronts of our houses... There's just so much that has been ruined. It's like the disaster that keeps on destroying.