I know this is slightly off topic, but has anyone been in contact with Guy
Guidry (Covington, LA.), Vaugh Banting, Alan Walker, or any of our other
bonsai friends and colleagues who are or were in the devastated New Orleans
area?

Roger Case

Roger: Yesterday I posted this on the IBC Gallery at:
http://internetbonsaiclub.org/compon...smf/Itemid,132
/topic,16578.0/topicseen/
It will probably be a quite a long, long time before we
hear from any of our bonsai friends from the New Orleans area on
this forum. Right now those who survived are evacuated and
frustrated in their inability to return or are trapped there
without electricity, working batteries, fuel, potable water,
internet or telephonic communication, functioning toilets, and
dwindling supplies of food and hope.

There is no way right now for us to find out who has
survived and who has not. I know that Donna Banting evacuated
with her daughter and grandchildren to Houston. Her home, next to
a canal and less than a mile from Lake Pontchartrain, is
undoubtedly under water. I spoke to Guy Guidry's wife, Cris, on
Sunday night and offered them a place to come for evacuation, but
Guy had already taken their children to a friend's home in
Florida. They are cut off from return by the fact that I-10 has
several bridges and portions of the roadway washed out. The good
news for him is that Covington, which is north of Lake
Pontchartrain seemed to sustain less damage, especially flood
damage than New Orleans.
The fates of the rest of my friends there is a mystery for now. I
lived in New Orleans from 1975-83 while my wife was in medical
school and residency at LSUMC, so I had and have many, many close
friends there. My heart grieves for them.
Virtually every home sustained major damage, if not
destruction. Those who still have a home will be in a long, long
line for insurance payments (if they have it), FEMA aid,
materials, and skilled labor to rebuild. Lives are forever
changed.
Like most of us, I have been desensitized to these sorts
of events by all the inevitable hyperbole we hear in news
accounts, etc. This disaster is just impossible to exaggerate. It
is only different from the devastation of the 26 December 2004
tsunami in that there was warning and time to evacuate from this
event. Katrina, the big bad wolf, blew lots of houses down and
killed a lot of people and left everyone shocked and amazed at
the power. I thought I was affected by Hurricane Andrew, which
after all had visited Louisiana after wreaking havoc on Homestead
and south Florida. But this is much more up close and personal.
I am grateful that my home and immediate community were spared
any direct effects from Katrina. I am heartbroken for my friends.
I hope that all of you will be generous in your support to the
Red Cross who always is there to lead the rescue and recovery
effort in all these disastrous events.
http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html
So, I'm OK. My home in Lake Charles is 200 miles to the
west of New Orleans and was not directly affected by the
hurricane. Looks like I'll be going to Norco, LA about 30 miles
north of New Orleans from Sunday through next Friday for critical
incident response work, so I'll probably be unavailable to the
internet for a while.
I do not know if Vaughn and Gayle Banting were able to
evacuate or where they are, but I am hopeful. Vaughn is blessed
with good common sense, and I'm quite certain that he made
arrangements to evacuate. There is just no way to communicate
with the 504 area code right now.
I did hear from Donna Banting today. She is safe in east
Texas with friends. She'll be allowed to return on Monday briefly
to check her property and gather essentials, then they have to
leave and not return for at least one month. The entire area is
under martial law to minimize looting, vandalism, etc. Of
course, there is some of that, but mostly people are just feeling
desperate. I remember how upsetting it was when our homes were
without power for five days after an ice storm in January 1997.
That was nothing at all compared to what our New Orleans and AL
and MS Gulf Coast friends are having to cope with.
Thanks for your interest, and we all appreciate any
support we can get these days. I hope that anyone who has word on
any of our bonsai friends will understand how important contact
and information is and will not feel bad about sharing any of
this with us on any part of the IBC. I consider this only
marginally off topic and fully acceptable.
Alan Walker
http://bonsai-bci.com http://LCBSBonsai.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Case
I know this is slightly off topic, but has anyone been in contact
with Guy
Guidry (Covington, LA.), Vaugh Banting, Alan Walker, or any of
our other bonsai friends and colleagues who are or were in the
devastated New Orleans area?
Roger Case

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