30 breaches occurred in the levees on Monday, August 29, 2005. By dawn the west side of the MR-GO levee in St.
Bernard Parish began to crumble. When a surge of water reached the Industrial Canal at 6:50 A.M. it broke up and spilled over the levees and floodwalls on both sides, flooding into the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish. In less than an hour, the I-wall and levee on the east side of the southern end of the Industrial Canal breached, sending a catastrophic wave of water into the Lower 9th Ward; flattening houses, tossing cars and killing people as it swept into neighborhoods in Arabi and the rest of St. Bernard Parish.
“Katrina was so bad the government wouldn’t let us
back in. It was like a Tird World country. Tere was no electricity. You couldn’t even hear birds chirping,” explains Guy through a sadness that is still palpable in her voice six years after the storm. “Personally, myself, I couldn’t believe it. When you saw it on TV you didn’t know how bad it was.” Donnelly, her family and her aunt were staying with
relatives in Baton Rouge when they saw the first images of the devastation on television. “Everybody was worried about the little things they’d lost. At the last minute
“It was like there had been a whirlpool in our house,”
remembers Guy about seeing their home for the first time after the storm. A harrowing measure of what the house had gone through came with the discovery that the fall from a piano (the part that covers the keys) in their first floor living room had come to rest on the second floor at the opposite end of the house. In addition to the water wreckage, the flood water itself was filled with other hazards. “It was a lot of water and a lot of chemicals too,” explains Guy. “Everybody’s gasoline spilled out of their garage; everybody’s cleaning chemicals from beneath their sink was added to the mix.” Donnelly’s home - near a refinery - had also been hit by more than just a wave of water. “Down by me is where the oil came in…. Te oil went all over our area.” When Donnelly first inspected her home she was
shocked. “When we went into the house there was a foot of mud and water in the whole house – like paving cement before it gets hard,” she remembers. Coming back to such devastation was an overwhelming prospect for all of New Orleans’ flood victims, but Guy and Donnelly both found strength in caring for those closest to them. “You start at the front door and you scoop and you wheelbarrow and you work it out,” explains Donnelly. “Tankfully, I still had my family with me. We had to deal with it.” Louis and his family went from a 5000 plus square ft home to a 1900 square ft home. His children were almost 7, 5 & 3 years old. Louis states, “Getting the kids back in school was a top priority. Children have even a harder time understanding what is happening.” Along with trying to clean and renovate their homes,
Louis III with his wife, Trudy, and children: Louis IV (oldest), Madeline (oldest daughter) and Margo.
before we left, my daughter had picked up a box of pictures off the wall.” While the family’s homes and the business remained
under water, they were all forced to keep their lives going as best they could. Guy’s husband worked for an oil company that kept their people working and provided transportation and assistance to their employees after the flood. Donnelly’s husband worked for a phone company. “My husband was going back and forth from Baton rouge,” she explains, “but you still couldn’t go through the neighborhoods. You couldn’t just go in and out.” Nancy Guy’s family eventually settled into a trailer on a
friend’s property as they began the clean-up process on their home and business. Holly and her family and aunt moved from Baton Rouge to a friend’s house for one month before buying a new place to call home while they began to sift through what Katrina had left behind.
there was still a lot of work to be done to get Arabi Sling & Rigging back on its feet. All of their employees were scattered in different parts of the country and they had also lost their homes. Most employees were from St. Bernard Parish. Only some of the employees were able to make it back to work at Arabi Sling and they are still with them today. “We are grateful for them,” Donnelly said. A shortage in manpower was not the only hurdle in getting the business up and running again, “Anything you needed was not easy to come by because everyone was in the same situation.” Donnelly notes, “Even big chain stores like Wal-Mart had limited opening hours because of limited staff as well as limited items on the shelf. Most of the time, to get something you needed, you had to wait in a long line - in the heat. If you had a list of five things to do in a day, you might get two or three partially done.” In this environment of need vs. shortage, Arabi Sling and Rigging realized they needed to keep their customers supplied. Although it was very hard with only a handful of employees, the few they had were dedicated and worked extremely long hours to support their customers and bring the business back. While the Flores extended family began the clean-up
process, they weren’t left to fend for themselves. Offers from long-time clients and friends in the business found the
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE MAY-JUNE 2011 17
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