Letter from Ground Zero

I have a friend that moved to the New Orleans area about 4 months ago. He just sent out an email that tells some of his hurricane experience and, believe it or not, actually has some funny news. I have posted it as it came to me so please excuse the typos and the formatting.

Howdy Y'all -

I'm alive & well in Lafourche Parish (& counting my blessings).... commuting between Thibodaux & Larose. Thibodaux is powered up & there is a little coffee shop across from the house I was shacked up in for the storm that has Internet access... that's where I am right now.I greatly appreciate the prayers & concern of y'all. It obviously worked as I was planning to ride out the storm with my buddy as he had a concrete 2nd story apartment up at the Lakefront. That of course would have been a disaster. When I called him to find out how to get to his house he was halfway to Texas. Thibodaux has probably faired better than anywhere I've seen so far. I've just seen an aerial photo of New Orleans & the house where I was staying is under water (with my passport, birth certificate & green card none of which are waterproof). Last Monday about noon I came out to see what the damage was. I drove down to my trailer in Larose (about 40 miles east of Thibodaux) and practically every tree, plant, gas station roof, electric pylon, telephone pole etc was leaning to the east. All the sugar cane fields (about 75% of the land around here) were flat to the east.... very surreal looking. I was absolutely shocked when I got to my trailer. It was in better shape than ever! All the garbage, bits of timber, old tables & chairs etc that were lying around in the yard were gone, the steps were almost gone, the dilapidated fence was gone & hardly any water anywhere. The bayou looked very tranquil. The last week has been kinda rough, as we didn't have any power. My roommate has lived in CA all his life so he's having a hard time with the heat & humidity. He's has been sleeping in his car every night with the AC running. I don't have that luxury as I only get 15 miles per gallon & gas is already very scarce & expensive. Sleeping in the same car is out of the question as his snoring is diabolical. It's also been quite difficult to get decent food to eat. I finally had a meal today that wasn't fried catfish. I've been working for the last 2 days. The company that I worked for has sustained minimal damage. Some of the sister yards on the Gulf Coast don't even exist anymore. So again I am very fortunate.

I have been able today to talk with some of my friends from NewOrleans.... all are out of town now & some don't have any plans to come back. I talked with a guy a few hours back who stayed in the French Quarter during the storm & he managed to evacuate when the water started rising. The account he gave me was absolutely outrageous & very depressing. I'll not go into it but if it's true then people will take a very long time to recover psychologically from this disaster. I'm planning to go back into the city in a few weeks.I know it's going to be a very weird experience. I guess I'll just wait & see what happens & who comes back & who doesn't.

Thanks for everything,

Peace.