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2005-11-30 - 3:17 p.m. The house that I lived in while I was in college has its street number spray-painted on it in huge letters across the entire facade. From that, I surmise that rescue personnel first found the bodies there while still searching for living people and that they had to mark the house so that they could find it again when it was time to collect the dead. There's a hole cut in the very top of the roof, not a very big hole. I have no idea if they tried to cut their way out and couldn't, or if the rescue team tried to cut their way in and then realized it was too late and stopped. I won't post a picture of the house online because even if there is only a tiny chance that a family member would stumble across it, I would hate for that to happen and cause even more pain. The thing was, someone came by to get them, but they just wouldn't go. You get to be 90, you figure you know something about the place you live. And the street is right by the floodwall, reinforced supposedly in the 1990s. And the house itself is actually raised quite high above street level. The small efficiency apartment was in the front, and the larger family apartment was in the back. Well, I had learned to drive in Metairie, which is perfectly flat. So when I had to drive up the very short but steep driveway, I always put too much pressure on the gas, causing the owner to express the fear that one day I'd hit the gas pipe leading into the house and blow up the whole place. So he stuck another metal sign-post type pipe at the head of the driveway, to stop me from coming too close to the house. It worked. The pipe was still there when we drove by on Saturday, and it just reminded me that the house was really quite high and shouldn't have flooded. It all seems so unfair.
� 2005 by Elaine Radfordclick on the picture to read my report of the re-opening of the new orleans audubon zoo
All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2002-2017 by Elaine Radford
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