Still Finding

  Hurricane Katrina hit the Coast over ten years ago but I am still finding stuff that washed in with the surge.  Our property (along with all other waterfront pieces) accumulated mountains of debris.  Everything from parts of houses to parts of semi trucks littered the place.  At some points in the yard, the debris was more than twelve feet deep.  Furniture, boats, shoes (lots and lots of shoes!) doors, refrigerators, curtains, knickknacks were all mixed in with boards, trees, marsh grass and dead critters.  There was no accounting for what you might find while out traipsing the mountain of debris.  Some was useful. some was disgusting, all was heart-wrenching.  With no available markets open for daily necessities, I would send Son out on a scavenging trip.  "I need detergent,  a bucket and perhaps something to make a clothesline."  or "Go out and find a couple of chairs and a table.  We have more folks coming down the lane hunting for a hot meal." (We fed dozens of hungry folks.  Thank goodness our grill was salvageable.  With no power, folks had no way of cooking for months.)  No matter what the request was, we usually could find needed items by scrounging about the place.  To sum it up, when one out-of-state cousin asked what it was like living after the storm, I had a ready reply.  "It is a lot like camping out....in the largest dump in the world."  It was.

  Still today, I find things that the storm surge deposited in the yard.  In the far back corner of the property...down behind the canebrake, I made yet another discovery.  The recent deluge of rain, uncovered glass.  Not just any glass but more shards of stained glass that I assume came from churches demolished by the hurricane. I have boxes of like shards in all colors of the rainbow.  Why did I keep them?  I guess because I needed that rainbow.  I needed something bright and pretty. I needed that "light at the end of the tunnel".  I needed that sign that things were going to be ok.  Now the box of glass has become just another bunch of art supplies. The blue one today will join the others and will become something of beauty...from destruction comes a thing of beauty....hmmm, interesting thought.

  This particular area of the yard also received about six feet of beach sand from miles away.  There is no telling what is still buried beneath all of that sand.  Some months after the storm, I found what I thought was a "pretty board".  Still in the salvaging mode, Mark helped me to dig (and dig and dig) until we uncovered a beautiful hall table.  It had been completely buried except for about four inches of one leg.  The table now sits upstairs along with a lovely rosewood bed and an oak table with two matching chairs....all finds from the debris piles.  Darling Daughter laid claim to an entire rosewood dining set that we found and refurbished.  But it was that shard of glass that brought this flood of memories.

  Now...we sit watching the weather forecast that claims another storm may come our way eventually.  Since this one is still far, far out in the Atlantic, I can only hope that it weakens and turns north.  Folks down here do not need a storm on the heels of the massive flooding that our neighbors in Louisiana just received.  They need time to dry out and regroup.  They need time to rebuild and reclaim their lives.  My heart goes out to them.  The good folks of Louisiana need our prayers and any help that can be offered.  

  As I clutched yet piece of Katrina debris eleven years after the fact and with a storm out on the far horizon, I ponder what is to come.  Funny how one little piece of blue glass can trigger thoughts.