I know there's sure to have been a bunch of Katrina threads while I was away, but I missed them, and don't have time to search. Suffice it say my Vette survived the great flood! For the vast majority of you who don't know me from Adam, I live in New Orleans and just got my new C5 last year.
Well here's my story, for anybody with insomnia!
The most important thing is that Daria and I are fine, and have jobs, even though hers is now in Baton Rouge and mine is now in northern Virginia, for the foreseeable future.
We decided to evacuate for Katrina on Sunday (day before storm), so Sunday morning I got Daria to follow me to the CBD and I parked the Vette on the 7th floor of a parking garage. I hoped for the best, but feared the worst, as we headed northeast to Tupelo, Mississippi.
To "celebrate" my first hurricane evaucation ever, we must've taken the scenic route, as it took us about 13 hours to drive the 400 or so miles!
Bottom line -- our Gentilly home took on about 2.5' of water in the main living level, and almost 6' in the garage, where my freshly painted '72 Buick GS 455 restoration lay, along with the freshly dynoed engine and other components. So my 9-year Buick restoration project (of a car I've owned for almost 27 years) was completely submerged, and won't recover, under my ownership. The water was a bit salty, and the metal it contacted practically rusted immediately. The body is OK, but will have to come back off the frame to be done to the level of detail I was working toward. The engin tranny and rear end were also totally submerged, and I still have'nt gotten the water out of them.
One of many things I have to be grateful for is that I hadn't put the interior in it yet, or finished the car; so I was able to just sop up the water out of the body with towels. The seats, unused carpet, and new door panels, however, were also submerged. I'm currently liquidating the whole project; for those with strong stomachs who want to take a look at the "after" pictures, here it is on eBay:
Flooded 72 GS455
The shop tools, additionaly, were a complete loss. I still haven't sorted through all this yet, due to the house requiring our immediate attention in the short hours we have in the city these days, with us both working out of town. But I have about 5 file cabinets with bagged and marked parts that were ready to be reinstalled. The plastic bags let water in, but not out! Ain't life a riot?
Also, my show-condition '82 Honda CBX with 16k miles was completely submerged. I sold that hulk on eBay last week.
Now for the good news: My Vette, with only about 1200 miles on the ticker, was untouched when I was finally able to get it 3 weeks ago! Quite a miracle, in my opinion, since most cars up to the 4th level were vandalized and ransacked. I now have it parked at my parents' garage in Metairie.
But how's this for adding insult to injury: the upper level of the house was completely spared by the flood, but was looted during the weekend before last, by low-lives probably in town just to make life more miserable for us poor, levee-less saps! They got all the electronics (home theatre + my COMPUTER and all peripherals). They gracefully kicked in two doors and made it off with what remained.
But I gotta be grateful, as we still have our lives, health, jobs, and each other, which are the most important things.
I could go on and on about the condition of my native town; but I can say with certainty that it will never be the same! It may come back, and may come back strong in 5-10 years. But it will definitely never be the same.
Driving through most of the neighborhoods is really sad; besides Downtown, the West Bank, and most areas in the Uptown area, it's virtually a dead zone. Way more areas are devastated than not; and this is, of course, the result of the levees that didn't hold. And that's about the hardest part to swallow: it seems so preventable! The powers that be really let us down by not maintaining the levees to their design specifications. This wasn't even a real category 3 when it hit the city.
But anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know we are OK, but that I won't be visiting the board as much for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, our jobs will be moving back to the city some time next year, and the city might be able to think about supporting its citizens again.
Anyway, thanks for reading this far.... we're down, but not out!
John

 

Glad to hear it,

Peace
Willfulone

 

Hang in there! It can only get better from here.

 

Glad to hear you made it thru. I know its an uphill climb but you'll get there. Best of luck to you and yours.

 

Good to hear you made it out and are getting things back in order. Sorry to hear about the 72 GS, it looked like it was going to be an awesome car. I am an old car fan myself, I still have my first car I bought when I was 16. 1970 Monte Carlo.

 

Thanks, guys. One thing that really intrudes on my consciousness these days is how much I/we take for granted in our day-to-day lives.
John

 

Sorry for your losses - but as you so wisely stated - you still have each other. Material things can be replaced. Best of luck to you on the recovery to "normalcy" - whatever that is!

 

Thanks for writing this story. I'm gald to hear that you and your wife. Hope things work out real soon. Take care and update soon.

 

Good to hear you and your family are OK. Best wishes to all.

 

man if everybody had your positive thinking things would get done alot faster .....my family came up parked in our front yard and all we got was wind and a little rain .sorry 2 hear about all your other loses but u {WILL) make it .good luck with the sell. heck somebody could fix the car ...

 

Sorry to hear about the trials you both have faced, but i do hope that the new direction things have taken lead you both someplace great.

 

life is so precious.........my prayers are with you and all who were affected

 

sorry to hear about your material belongings... atleast the most important things to you can't be taken by theives.

 

Glad to hear you and the mrs are O.K.John.Good luck on rebuilding the future.JER

 

Thanks again for all the well-wishes, guys and gals... thoughts & prayers really help!
We'll be fine. As I said, a lot of folks were way less fortunate.... every time I try to imagine myself on my roof for 2 days or stranded at the Superdome, I could do backward flips!
John