back from St Tammany....

[AznTraitor]

**edit** lots of pics and more description throughout post, last update is on second page **


whew...what a exhausting weekend.

it's hot, it smells really really bad....boats are EVERYWHERE! in the marshes, on the streets, ontop of houses, you name it, there's a boat there.


as for houses, some places are really really bad, some places are not too bad.

right now, things needed still is drinking water, GAS! people will steal your gas during the night....we had to stay up in watches to protect all the gas I brought....

you also have a handful of people running around, and calling themselves FEMA and stealing boats and trailers and basically anything that is really valuable that they can use for "aid"....

but besides that, I have a few pictures of my family's homes....

the first one is Tony's...he had about 4.5ft of water, you can tell by the water mark on the garage door, and the Cherokee....all his trees have fallen down, one is resting on his beloved J-10, and another put about a 10ft tear into the top of his roof....his house smells like something died in there and then something went in there and tried to eat it and died too...

[5thgcelica]

wow...thats...wow.

[The Ren]

Wow.. im sorry was anything salvageable?

[AznTraitor]

okay, next up is the roads.....roads are blocked by trees, powerlines, and sometimes houses....lots of roads have been covered with this black mud, that smells like shit and is so thick that it sucks you in....takes forever to dry...

[Leisa]

damn... thats all I can say :(

[civicchic2000]

That is messed up. I am glad my mom had our trees cut down around the house just in case of some natural disaster that would cause a none natural death

[Brett]

Damn man. Im glad you made it back okay

[AznTraitor]

okay, this is my aunt and uncle's house...

we had a hard time getting in and out of this place....the whole house is in about 6inches of that black mud all around the house....the tires would get bunched up with mud and we would slide all over the place...basically the whole first floor is destroyed and basically no one has stairs to ANY homes, they all blew away....windows were blown out, roofs were torn off, and vehicles were basically like toys, just blown everywhere....my uncle's truck is upside down in the slip, his toyota tercel is yet to be found...both cars were in the garage btw...

[AznTraitor]

more of the house

[AznTraitor]

these are pictures of what use to be a beautiful dock....also missing are his two boats....we thought we saw it back at another house, but it wasnt

[AznTraitor]

okay, here is the first floor....what was down here was a 12 person jacuzzi....a bar, pool table, weight room, a closet that was completely full of fishing gear an scuba gear....and of course the garage with the two cars

[AznTraitor]

okay, this is my cousins house in the same neighborhood as my uncles, this is a 750k home...that is less than a year old...I've never seen it till now...and the interior even after the storm was still nice...again, the whole first floor is completely wiped off the map

the jeep was in the garage, and was blown under the back stairs...

the weight room is gone, he also has a HUGE tool supply, as he does carpentary in his off time...

sorry, I didnt get many pics, I had to conserve at this point

[AznTraitor]

here are just misc ones that I grabbed...

CARS are EVERYWHERE! upside down..sunk down about a foot, on their sides, crumpled like toys.....I wish I got pictures of the dealerships, they did not fair out well at all....cars were slammed into each other, cars were ontop of each other, and at the toyota lot, cars were blown about 20-40 yds from the dealership, so if many of them arent ruined from the flood damage, I suspect a HUGE scratch and dent sale....when I go back I plan on keeping my eye open for some good deals...maybe a new car? lol

one pic shows Wild Life Fish and Game....they are really the only authority out in Slidell/St Tammany....I only saw maybe 2 cops and mabye 3-4 national guardsmen....there was a curfew at 8pm....and they had signs up that said "LOOTERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT, NO QUESTIONS ASKED"

[Darling Nikki]

Awww I feel horrible and wish there was something I could do. Thank God you made it back safe and sound. I don't think people realize how lucky we are here to be alive and have our houses and such in the states that were not harmed.

[AznTraitor]

lots of roads were washed out like this one, and we had to backtrack and find alternate roads...if they werent washed out, then they had been blocked by trees, cars washed up, boats, or houses....I think we went thru 20+ gallons just trying to manuever around......we even had a dukes of hazzard moment...we were crusing along at 50mph and all of a sudde, we saw this HUGE sink hole, and it was too late....we hit it and launched in the air......I thought we were dead....we landed really hard on the right and lost control and spun out in the grass, but luckily we didnt slide into the canal and drown.

[D16Civic]

dang, thats some crazy shots man
damn sink holes, im glad you got back alright

[AznTraitor]

anyways, shit is crazy there.....there is like maybe 2 gas stations that are running, but lines were almost 5 miles long and they ran out well before noon, and barely anyone got any gas...we heard lots of stories of people being robbed of gas, looters going from house to house searching for gas cans, and stealing gas out of boats. FEMA has not reached this area...nor has Red Cross...we see the Blackhawks fly over all the time, but no relief has been to the area...and if it had, it was to a VERY limited location that no one knew about. I talked to a bunch of people, and it breaks your heart on hearing how they lost everything and they dont know what to do....they have little water, little food, and not much gas....I mean..you want to give them a little something, but if you give one person some gas, a whole shit storm would be all over you and you'd probably be have a mass mob on you taking all your gas, so we had to cover all the gas we had with a blanket....I did hand out some MRE's, but I had to make sure I had enough for my family....

anyways, we dropped off two generators...I felt really bad because two were at one house, and another was all by himself about 10miles away with no vehicle, and no way to communicate with him....we saw him yesterday, and dropped of a generator, flashlights, a box of MRE's, and two cases of water, and about 10gallons of gas.

at the "main" house or where we stayed...we got the generator going and started putting up plywood to plug up all the holes, but after one of the neighbors ran into some gas thieves, we stayed up in shifts watching that fuel with our weapons locked and loaded....and it's really creepy, because it was pitch black....you couldnt see shit anywhere, every now and then you'd see someone drive by with a spotlight and they were basically looking to see if anyone was there to see if it was safe too loot, but we had a good theft detourant for that, whoever was on watch and someone drove by, you'd hold my uncle's AR-15 with tac-scope and laser sight and wave with the other hand...they'd pass by real quick....I got to do it twice :D

anyways, I'm tired, and smell real bad.....I'm pretty damn hungry too...I didnt want to eat because I wanted to conserve as much food for my cousins as possible.

[Buford®]

Wow. Peter. I'm very sorry to hear about the travisty that has been bestowed upon your family. I hope that everything will go better for them. Glad you got back safely.

[YokotaS13]

that is teh shitty stuff right there, but you faired alot better than some people, 20k or so and those houses should be almost perfect again right?>

Anyways, i hope everything works out for the best, your in my wishes

[HiPSI]

aww man... that black marsh mud is the nastiest shit ever. luckily, the houses look like structurally they are still ok. but at this point they might as well level them and move :(.

was that your uncle in the one picture peter? are you telling me there are round eyes in your family? :D

[boosted1jz]

wow man :( im sorry to see that...... i hope everything fairs out ok for them!!!!


chris

[AznTraitor]

aww man... that black marsh mud is the nastiest shit ever. luckily, the houses look like structurally they are still ok. but at this point they might as well level them and move :(.

was that your uncle in the one picture peter? are you telling me there are round eyes in your family? :D


my aunt married Uncle Charile (white dude in pic) he was a sailor in Vietnam and they fell in love and he brought her to america and had 5 kids!

they all turned out white! none of them look asian at all....so when I visit and they say I'm there cousin, people just give us a weird look....

anyways, these are the redneck/cajun cousins that taught me how to fish, crab trap, get girls to show you more than boobies at mardi gras, fish, shoot stuff in the water....and you know, all that normal fun stuff.


anyways, from what we can tell, there is structural damage...they have a engineer that is gonna come and see if it's salvagable or not.....and it's more than 20k worth of damage...all the walls have to be replaced, everyone has roof damage....all floors have to be torn up and replaced, all the stairways will have to be replaced....there's alot of shit that just gets factored into things....

to be honest, my uncle just wants to bulldoze his house down and just start over.

[The Yousef]

dude...you are a good man....that takes some very large cojones to do what you just did.... :goodjob:

yousef

[AznTraitor]

thanks everyone...

I definately have alot of stories, but there are so many, so I guess they'll just be more things I experinced in life.....

definately there are things that will haunt me, but I think for the most part I'll be okay....it's just so god damn depressing and you just get caught up in it.

[TranceDJ06]

Damn..Those pictures just leave me speechless and your pics Say 1,000 words, just by itself 1+ good job man- for helping out down there and everything

[Casey]

Peter how hard was it getting into the affected areas? One of my offroad clubs has some members that have been affected and we are trying to get supplies into them and it is looking like we are going to have to drive them in.

[Leisa]

yeah kudos to you Peter...you are a good guy going and helping your family like that... :goodjob:

[collins]

wow. all i can say is that i feel a bit blessed after seeing all that!

[AznTraitor]

Peter how hard was it getting into the affected areas? One of my offroad clubs has some members that have been affected and we are trying to get supplies into them and it is looking like we are going to have to drive them in.


we got diverted off I-10 to 90, and passed thru Pascagoula, it's about another 45mins to 1 hour depending on how much traffic, when we were heading out, we saw a bunch of Aslpundi tree cutting trucks heading in, about 50+ or so....

it depends on where you want to go in Louisiana though, you can still get thru to N.O if you want, you cant take the I-10, but the old 5mile bridge that runs parallel with the causeway is still up....but I know they are limiting who can go into the city...

there are alot of downed power lines, power poles, boats and washed up cars in the road ways, so you just have to drive around them...if you start heading into the country side, it gets worse....especially by the ponds and canal areas, because about 3-5ft of that black mud covers the street, and not only does it smell like hell, but it packs into the tires like no other...I saw 3 F250's that were lifted with swampers attempt a few roads but gave up after a few feet...it's too much work, and gas is too precious to waste trying to get thru, you're gonna have to do alot of back tracking in some areas.

my main advice to you is, GAS, if you think you have enough for your friends and enough for yourself, you dont. You need as much as you can possibly carry. I am looking into getting a drum and a hand pump for the next time I go, also...if you take jerry cans or gas cans, make sure they are hidden or covered up at least....there are alot of lawless people who will rob you blind of it.....

anyone who says they are FEMA, Police, Wildlife Services, always ask for ID, and if they ask for GAS, they are not ANY of the above!

anyways, I am suppose to head back this weekend, let me know if you are going and we can caravan together.

if you are bringing food, I recommend, chef boyar dee's....most of their cans have a pull tab kind of opener, so you dont need a can opener, MRE's if you can get them, and CLIFF bars, or other kinds of protein bars....they are small and very filling and you can get a box of 12 for about 7-8bucks...but they are worth it, space savers and quite filling.