geoffrey gauchet

A Travel Back Home

As per Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's promise, my mom, my dad, my sister, and I went back into Metairie to take a look at our homes and see what damage was done.

We first went to my parents' house in the Elmwood Park subdivision in Metairie, just outside Kenner. The first thing we saw was a huge uprooted tree across from my parents' house.
Tree 1
Tree 2

The fence in their backyard was damaged.
Fence

My mom's car got about 3 inches of water in it. Thankfully, it runs fine.
Camry

The tree in their yard started to uproot as we could tell by the sidewalk buckling and holes appearing in the lawn.
Sidewalk

Some water came in from the back door and from the chimney. As a result, we had mold all over the floors. They'll need to be replaced.
Mold

After we did some cleaning of the refridgerators (which was disgusting. I almost threw up a few times) We went down W. Esplanade to go to my house in Old Metairie. Here's a couple of shots of the buildings on the way.
Damage 1
Damage 2

Bonnable was dry as could be, including St. Catherine. Here's a tree that fell right at the entrance to Glenwood.
Glenwood & Metairie Rd. 1
Glenwood & Metairie Rd. 2

I donned my waders and started my trek down to the house. I got about as far as the Glenwood Dam seen below and then stopped.
Glenwood Dam

I miraculously ran into my mom's cousin Timmy and he happened to have 2 pirogues and a kayak. He let me use the kayak to paddle down Glenwood to check on the house. This is how the house looks.
The Cabin
Alex's Truck
Kurt's Car
Kurt's Car with Gate on It
Our New Backyard Pool
Angel's Waterfront Property
Damaged Shed door
Side yard. Lights still hanging!

Here's a shot from the porch looking up Glenwood toward Metairie Road.
Bayou Glenwood 1

A shot from the porch looking at the 1.4 million dollar house that now has 1.4 feet of water in it.
If only water was currency…

This is on my way back to the car. Glenwood looks like a bayou.
Bayou Glenwood 2

This is the vacant lot down the street from us.
Vacant lot with a boat

The water was black. It doesn't look it in this shot, but you can see how opaque the water is. You can even see the shimmer from all the oil in the water.
Opaque Water

This is a tree that fell and missed two houses on the corner of Crestmont and Glenwood.
Fallen trees on the best street ever

Here's another angle of the Glenwood Dam. You can see how it really does act as a dam and keeps the water on the southside.
Glenwood Dam 2

This is between Crestmont and Metairie Road. The water is noticeably shallower.
Glenwood Wading Pool

After we left the house (which was in great shape. No water has gotten into the house and no windows were broken. The ACs are gone. Washers and driers are gone. But other than that, we're OK), we headed down Airline Dr. Here you can see some MPs directing traffic.
MP's

Here's a billboard on Airline that got bent in half. We saw a bunch of these around town. The steel girders were bent like someone bent a spoon.
Bent billboard

Enterprise Rent-a-Car on Airline.
Enterprise

Here are some military guys on the I-310. We saw these guys everywhere. Even driving down my parents neighborhood, which was creepy.
Military on 310

So, all in all, nothing horrible. Alex's truck has water up to the seat cushions. The gates have fallen on Kurt's and Alex's cars. The water is quite low near Crestmont. I was pushing my kayak by pushing the oar against the pavement around Crestmont, but as I got closer to the house, I had to actually start rowing in the street. I wish I had had a bigger vessel as I wanted to snag some more clothes, but, that water was disgusting. My parents' house actually had electricity and the water was trickling when we got there, but was flowing by the time we left. I have to say, that aside from the many disgusting, putrid scents I smelled today, we fared quite well. But the wind damage throughout Metairie and Kenner was amazing. The sad part is, that's the best part of the metro area in terms of damage.


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May 4, 2010
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