Losing Everything

Pilings of what used to be homes and camps in Slidell, Louisiana

This photo is a shot across the pilings on the eastern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, known as the Northshore, where there used to be homes and fish camps, and probably illustrates total loss better than any other I took. The whole of this side of the lake looks like this. There is quite literally nothing left here except the pilings, and the odd remnant of a home, apparently left in place by fate just to mark the previous life of all of this wood.

There is a phrase running around the country, uttered by New Orleanians these days... "I lost everything." I'm not really sure that folks in other areas of the country fully appreciate the seriousness when someone says this. (Of course, this is not strictly true... there are residents of other areas affected by natural disasters that necessarily do understand, and many that even are the victims of hurricanes, themselves. But, for most of the country, there is simply no understanding. )

So, as I was coming back into New Orleans last week from Slidell, I spent a couple of hours taking photographs of the "lost everything" that the people in Slidell know. It is staggering, to be sure. But, there are trailers popping up here and there, and this is a sign that people are here, and refuse to let this area go. It's nothing short of inspiring to see a family come home to this kind of nothing and make a go of it.

More later... I promise.