"Everything is gone. School is gone. Home is gone. Church is gone,"...- Louisiana floods
https://www.auntydebbysblog.com/2016/08/everything-is-gone-school-is-gone-home.html
Michelle Parrott's children hear thunder when there
is no storm. When rain does fall, they ask their mother if the
floodwaters are rising again.
In
flood-ravaged pockets of south Louisiana, mental scars are already
showing on the youngest victims of a disaster that prompted more than
30,000 rescues and left an estimated 40,000 homes damaged.
Children
who endured harrowing rescues are returning home to a jarring landscape
that even their parents can scarcely grasp: Homes filled with ruined
possessions need to be quickly gutted. Damaged schools and daycare
centers are closed indefinitely. Parents juggling jobs and cleanup work
must also line up caretakers for their kids.
Parrott,
her husband and her six children, ages 6 to 17, have slept in cars, a
shelter and a hotel room in the week since they had to be rescued by
boat. The flooding wrecked their home in Livingston Parish, where one
official has estimated that three-quarters of the residences are a total
loss after more than 2 feet of rain fell in three days.
"The
emotional toll on the kids has been heavy. They're all in a bit of
shock and stress and having meltdowns and tantrums," Parrot said.
"Trying to get back into their routine is going to be difficult when we
don't know what the future holds for us."
Routines
are particularly important for her 17-year-old son, Blake, who is
autistic and attends special needs classes at one of the many Denham
Springs schools damaged in the floods.
"He
feels unsafe constantly. He's had a lot of breakdowns," she said.
"We've had trouble getting his medications in. The therapist flooded, so
he's lacking the emotional support he needs from professionals."
Parrott homeschools her other five children, but she watched more than $10,000 in school materials float away.
"I have to start over," she said.
Thirteen deaths have been attributed to the storm and its flooding, and nearly 4,000 people remain in shelters.
But signs of recovery emerged Friday.
Gov.
John Bel Edwards announced that FEMA will start paying for hotel rooms
for storm victims staying in cars, hotels, shelters or their workplaces.
A disaster food stamp program will begin Monday. And the state intends
to start consolidating shelters this weekend as more of the displaced
return home or find other places to stay.
The
floods hit just as the school year was starting in many districts,
reminiscent of how Hurricane Katrina abruptly ended a New Orleans school
year that had barely begun in 2005. With the city under water for weeks
and much of its population scattered for months or even years, the
first public school didn't open in New Orleans until three months after
the storm as officials tried to revamp a system that was widely
considered to be failing long before Katrina.
For
most parents in the flood zone this week, patience is their only
option. Some school districts, including in East Baton Rouge Parish, are
making plans to reopen their doors next week.
But in Livingston Parish, it could take several weeks for some schools to open up.
All
told, Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White says 22 of the
state's public schools were so heavily damaged by flooding that they
can't be opened by next week.
Denham
Springs High School was in session for six days before the flooding.
Andrew Hunter, the school's band director, said he and his students
won't wait for the school to reopen to resume practicing. Hunter said
they plan to meet Thursday in a field next to the school for their first
rehearsal since the storms.
"I have seen a lot of firm jaws, ready to get back to work," Hunter said. "We control how we respond to adversity."
Amanda
Burge, 35, said one of her friends from Denham Springs plans to
temporarily enroll her daughter at a school in Covington while they stay
there with a relative. Burge said she can't move her three sons to
another district because her husband's job is rooted here, but they
haven't had time to weigh their options. On Thursday, the couple was
racing to clean out their flooded home before mold sets in.
"Everything
is gone. School is gone. Home is gone. Church is gone," said Burge,
president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Denham Springs
Elementary School.
Her 11-year-old son, Logan, smiled at the prospect of a "second summer."
"At the same time, I'm starting to miss my teachers and my friends," he said. "I'm wondering if they're all OK from the storm."
Even
in crisis mode, Burge made sure Logan didn't miss his rehearsal for a
play at a drama program for kids on Louisiana State University's campus.
"This is the only normal thing that he gets to do," she said.
Bonnie
Nastasi, a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans specializing
in school psychology, said addressing the disruption of children's lives
is as important as helping them with the initial trauma they
experienced during the flooding. Many had to be rescued in the darkness
of night, plucked from their homes and packed together in crowded
shelters.
"Re-establishing
the routine of school is going to be important for children. If they
can resume normal routines, that helps them to feel more safe and more
secure," Nastasi said.
Source;Associated Press
What a memory down the lane. So many till now have not recovered from this tragic loss. Now there's is the loss due to COVID-19 generally in the US. The world is just full of pains.
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