http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA091105.1A.katrina_plaquemines.38aef1f.html
Flooded cars, boat wrecks mark the town of Plaquemines after Katrina
Web Posted: 09/11/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Sheila Hotchkin
Express-News Staff Writer
EMPIRE, La. — Just days before Plaquemines Parish officially reopened, three cousins slipped in to see what Hurricane Katrina had left them.
(Photos by Jerry Lara/Express-News)
A wrecked Saint Ann Catholic Church in Empire, La., lies a few feet from its foundation in Plaquemines Parish, next to the church cemetery.
Jodi Guilbeau surveys his gas station in Port Sulphur, La., that was severely damaged when Hurricane Katrina made landfall nearby.
A casket lies on Highway 23 near Port Sulphur, La., unearthed by floodwaters. The town is 16 miles from where Katrina came ashore.
Displaying the owner's sense of humor, a sold sign is placed on a boat amid the destruction in Port Sulphur, La. In a bizarre twist, cars were underwater and boats were on dry land.
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They made it as far south as Port Sulphur before water swallowed what was left of State Highway 23. Then they rode on top of a levee, with the Mississippi River on one side and the carcasses of homes on the other, until they found a dry highway again.
The cousins parked their truck at Empire, where the storm had deposited a massive barge across the road. From there, they hiked 3 miles to their homes and businesses.
After they returned to their truck, Jimmy McGuire used a two-way radio to tell his wife where he was.
"You going down farther?" she asked.
He broke the news: "Done been down there, baby. Ain't nothing left."
She paused before speaking again: "That about says it all."
***
Plaquemines Parish, a finger of river delta and swampland that stretches southeast of New Orleans into the Gulf of Mexico, was ground zero for the hurricane. Katrina made landfall Aug. 29 near Buras, toward the bottom of the peninsula.
When the parish's 26,000 residents are allowed to return this morning to the northern sections of the region, they'll find their homes relatively intact.
Some who live farther south, where flooding remains, will not find their homes at all.
The only highway in and out of the parish goes underwater beside milepost 27 in Port Sulphur. Bobbing in foul-smelling water are oranges stripped from the citrus trees that feed one of the parish's primary trades, which also include oil refining and sulfur production.
Houses, too, are underwater in that area. Virtually all of the homes left on dry land have caved in on themselves.
Brightly colored streamers of clothes and trash hang in the trees, looking oddly festive. Roads are lined with appliances that floated out of people's homes — and an occasional casket that escaped from a cemetery.
Showing a grim sense of humor, Katrina left cars underwater and lifted boats onto dry land.
The owner of one of those shattered boats responded with some grim humor of his own. After the hurricane, he posted a sign on the Miss Kelly Ann.
"Sold," it said.
***
"What a revolting development, huh?" said Jody Guilbeau, tossing aside a 2-by-4 with his gloved hand.
He and his son Jeremy worked to clear the ruins of their business, a gas station and convenience store in Empire started by Guilbeau's father in 1947.
All that remained of the building was a wooden skeleton, filled with rubble.
The destruction wrought by Katrina would appear bad to anyone. But it looks worse to a lifelong resident like Guilbeau, who not only sees the wrecked buildings still standing but knows where there should be a building — and isn't.
There used to be two houses, a mechanic's shop and a dry cleaner's establishment across the street from his gas station. There's no trace of them now.
As Guilbeau worked outside his own business, another early arrival — a local plumber — drove past.
"Hey there, Mr. Jody," the man called out the truck window.
Guilbeau returned the greeting: "Where y'at there, Eddy?"
Guilbeau's son gestured to the fallen building behind him.
"I need a plumber!" he shouted.
***
Along with people's homes and livelihoods, Katrina stole memories.
A Buras Middle School yearbook, more than a decade old, lay open on the ground outside St. Ann Catholic Church, pages stiffened from having been drenched with floodwater and then dried in the sun.
On the inside cover, autographs made out to "Robert" remained legible.
"Dan. Best friends for ever," said one.
Gravestones in the little cemetery outside the church were toppled.
The church itself had been lifted from its foundation and dropped several yards away. A tree broke through the floor and stretched out the front door.
Statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus lay on their sides on the floor.
People saved whatever mementoes they could. A Plaquemines Parish paramedic rescued his wedding album from his home in a neighboring parish.
He lost some of the photos, but saved at least a few.
"You get a whole different perspective on life," said James Wigstrom, who was born in Plaquemines Parish. "Everything now to me is so insignificant.
"It don't matter."
***
Three cousins leaned against their truck, considering their next move.
"What am I going to do?" Jimmy McGuire wondered aloud. "Come back here and build my house back and build my business back and live until the next one."
Of the three, he was the only one who planned to stay.
Keith Delahoussaye and Kevin Armstrong said they will move at least as far north as Belle Chasse, just outside New Orleans, if not out of the parish altogether.
Said Armstrong: "You can salvage some memories and pack up and leave.
"I can't bring my family back to this."