I previously mentioned that pre-Katrina time does not seem to exist down in the Gulf. Everyone gauges time after Katrina. It came up again with Buddy this week. (I've changed the names, but it is a true story.)
Last week I went over to Pearlington to go through a “check list” of incomplete items on Buddy’s mother’s house so we will pass the final inspection. Then his eighty-seven year old mother, Janie Lee, can move in to it.
I parked in front of Buddy’s house a hundred yards or so before Annie Lee’s house and made it past the “Beware of Dog” sign and befriended the slightly overweigh brown lab. Buddy had worked most of the night and was ready for bed. He fumbled around fruitlessly looking for his check list until he finally just gave up and we decided to just get in the cars and drive down to his mother's house.
Buddy stayed behind a while still looking for his list, so I asked Miss Janie if she minded riding down with me in my truck. She said no, and sure enough she looked for the handhold and just pulled up into the cab of my old Dodge truck.
As we entered the driveway before I really looked at the house very closely I heard her exclaim,
“Oh no. It looks like someone has broken into my house.”
I looked up at the front door. It was wide open.
“Miss Janie, why don’t you stay in the car while I go up and be sure no one is there.”
The house was clear and while Miss Janie was climbing the steps she had her cell phone in her hand, calling Buddy between sighs and “Oh, dear’s.” She remained remarkably calm as I walked around looking for signs of damage, but her eyes were tinged red as if the tears were welling, just beyond the surface.
Whoever did it just walked up and literally kicked the front door open, splintering the doorjamb. It lay on the living room floor.
When Buddy got to the house he told me he had already called the county police. They said they had a man in the vicinity but it took over forty-five minutes for him to get there. I imagine he drove over from Bay St. Louis, their headquarters. Nobody seems to really care about Pearlington.
Buddy was really mad, he was yelling at me.
“This is all because it has taken all these people so long to help us. They wouldn’t give us help to put on the roof and we’ve had to fight for every bit of help we’ve received.”
He was looking at me and it was almost as if he was chastising me for not helping. He caught himself in obvious embarrassment at breaking under all the stress. All I could think was how much mental trauma has been exacted on the people like Buddy and Miss Janie over the last three years. I actually thought Buddy was handling it fairly well.
Buddy broke into a smile and grasped my arm apologizing for the outburst. While we stood there and waited for the deputy I went ahead and asked the question.
“Buddy, did you wait out Katrina at your house?”
“Yes. I wanted to get out but we had my mother, my sister, a cousin and four of her kids. Early in the morning before Karina hit I got a phone call from an old fellow, name’s Howard, who lives a few blocks away. He is pretty much an invalid. He has to use a walker to move about.”
“Buddy, I’m really scared. The fire department was supposed to come by and evacuate me two hours ago and they haven’t come yet. I’m really scared I’m going to die.”
Buddy paused a few seconds and then continued the story.
“The first thing I did was telephone the fire department. I got someone who told me they had picked up everybody they were going to pick up and were evacuating themselves now.”
“So, Mr. Henry, I couldn’t leave then. I got over to Howard’s house and drove him back over to my house. A lot of trees were already down and it took me close to forty-five minutes to get over and back. We got in the house and just waited it out.”
"When Karina hit it was frightening. The wind was blowing so hard all you could hear was the roar and trees snapping and falling. The big pine in my back yard went over and would have split the house in half but for my old oak that caught it up in its limbs so it just glanced off the edge of the roof.”
“The eye came over us and the sun came out. We all went outside and all we could see was trees and limbs down everywhere. There was no way I could drive out. “
“I walked down the middle of the road towards the river.”
Buddy lives about a mile or less from the Pearl River. That is why the surge was so bad; Pearlington got the first surge from the Pearl River. First Katrina pushed the river up and way over its banks as the water from the gulf entered its mouth. Then the water from the Gulf came upon them.
“I was standing in the road and looked south, down towards the river. I saw this wall of water coming up the road. I turned around towards my house immediately and started running. I yelled at my cousin who was looking in the other direction at all the trees in the road. He didn’t hear me and when I got to him I just bowled him over yelling ‘get to the house!’ I got about fifty or seventy-five yards from the house and the water was up to my mid-calf. By the time I got to my porch the water was waist high. I was yelling to all my family.”
“Get in the boat! Get in the boat!”
"But my mother said no way she was getting in the boat and how could Howard get in? “
By this time the water was up over my head. I managed to get the boat over to the porch and we got all eight people in it, except me. Even though it was under water, I knew my truck was parked in the yard over by the oak so I jumped in and started swimming towards where it ought to be. My family was screaming because they thought I was caught in the current and washing away. I bumped my knee on the truck door that by now was about two feet under water. I managed to grab the doorframe and pull myself part way up onto the roof. I saw the aerial, grabbed it and pulled my body over to the other side. I took a deep breath and went under the water into the bed of my truck where I had a tool chest bolted on. I managed to get it open and fumbled around until I grasped my crow bar. I gave it a big tug and it pulled out of the box and I surfaced. Standing in the bed of the truck, I shoved the bar under my belt and pushed off against the truck rails swimming towards the boat and house.”
“When I got to the boat, we got it up against the house, the water was up over the top of the windows. I stood on the roof of my porch and forced open a dormer window with my crow bar. We all scrambled up on the roof and helped Howard, my mother and everybody else get into the attic about the time the wind started picking up again. We waited out the storm in the attic. It was the worst experience I’ve ever had listening to the wind and trees cracking and the water up so high. All sorts of things were floating and blowing by on the surface of thw water.
“After the wind died down, it took about five or six hours for the water to go back down.”
He took a breath and continued.
"We all got down out of the attic by the stairs and walked through the muddy sludge in the house out into the yard. The damage was just unbelievable. We had so many beautiful trees. Now everything was thrown about and scattered. You couldn’t even walk on the road for the debris.”
“Howard kept repeating, ‘what about my house? What about my house?’ until finally I said, OK, I’ll walk over and check it out.”
“I set out for his house more or less trying to stay on the road. I climbed up and under big fallen trees, cars, and furniture. It took me almost ninety minutes to cover the quarter mile to Howard’s house. Or, I should say to Howard’s lot. His house was off the foundation and all mangled.”
“Howard would have died if he’s stayed in it. That is when I knew why I stayed. That’s the answer to your question, Mr. Henry. Because I stayed, I saved Howard’s life.”
Through out his story I jut stood listening to Buddy and watching his face. Tears welled in the reddened edges of his eyes but didn’t flow out. He was at the same state of losing it as Miss Janie was when we got up to the house. He held on.
Buddy finished his story about Katrina.
“A few days later after we had started cleaning out all the filth, my neighbor, Joe, came over to talk. He came up in the house to compare mine with his, I guess.”
“The water went up six and one-half feet in the first floor. My house sits up on the foundation about four feet and my lot is on a little rise. They say we got about fifteen feet of water here, so that seems about right.”
“My neighbor was looking at my wall. I had a crucifix on the wall and the high waterline just crossed it at the arms of the cross. I thought that was something.”
“Buddy, are you going to put that crucifix back on the wall after you are done cleaning up?”
“Yep, I sure am.”
“Well, Buddy, how about putting it a little closer to the floor this time.”
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