Christien Louviere

Sep 17th
The house looked as when we left it two weeks prior.  Time has flown by with the days clumped together as one.  Each day the same…what do I have to do today to protect and help my family survive.  Today, was the same.  I had my game face on and staring at the shingles scattered randomly on our driveway.  The cul-de-sac  at the end of our street had been cleared much more than when I first saw the devastation hovering over the pavement.  My mom slowly surveyed the damage around the neighborhood.  I forgot that she had yet to see her house.  It had been nearly 4 weeks for her.  I headed to the backyard to see if anything had changed.  Our whole yard was made up of horizontal trees.  The center piece of which was 70 feet and missed hitting our house by about 6 inches.

I walked back in the front to see what my parents were doing.  I was ready to move.  As my dad headed up the carport, he noticed that the light above our side door was on.  "Look…electricity!" he said.  It’s amazing how every little thing at this point is a little more light at the end of the tunnel.  I entered the door and quickly remembered the horrible smell mixed in with the humid lack of A/C that punched me in the face the first time I had been home.  To my second surprise, the cool breeze that I always remembered caressed my wet face.  The smell was there however faint.  I figured I was pushing it, but I turned on the TV…cable.  I felt like I just signed onto one of those "too good to be true" deals.  I figured there would be a  catch soon. 

My mom went to work on much of the inside of the house and the cabana, which still had an unemptied refrigerator.  My dad, Caitlyn and I went to work on the outside of the house.  Caitlyn and I began by grabbing whatever tree remains we could and starting a pile on the curb.  My dad grabbed a chainsaw that would prove insufficient for the job because it would overheat every five minutes.  He kept cutting and we kept moving, but the yard never seemed to get better.  I was pleasantly surprised how strong Caitlyn is.  She picked up some rather long limbs in pairs probably weighing about 40 pounds each with no problem.  I would grab the heaviest of the bunches.  I could see the frustration in my dad’s eyes.  He couldn’t lift what he could only two years prior.  I said nothing and just grabbed them from him each time.  He has and always do everything within his power to get a job done right.

It was about 930am and the heat was already becoming unbearable.  My sunscreen was bleeding into my eyes and I was drinking bottles of Dasani faster than they probably bottled them.  The only thing that was working for my was my silver Underarmour shirt.  It was doing a good job of keeping me somewhat cool, but I was pushing it to the max too.  I treated this day like I did any athletic event I ever participated in.  No matter how tough something became or how bad I wanted to stop, I always kept going because in my head I was never maxed out.  When I think my physical is gone, my mental is always key to survival.  Under the same conditions, I’d convince myself to go on for 15 more minutes in a soccer game.  Today, I would put two huge limbs on my shoulders and pull them out from the main part of the tree like a workhorse.  As I would walk to the pile, the leaves and outstretched branches would get caught on random things.  Each time, I put my head down and jerked harder.  I stayed motivated by reminding myself of how much I did have.  I kept thinking how much I wish I could be using this energy to help others.  With my head down, I could see how the material from my shirt had pulls from the branches.  I picked my head up and pulled harder as I felt the branches grate my shoulders.  The weight would disappear with life when I would military press the limbs from my shoulders to the top of the heap.

Over the course of 6 hours, we cut and moved everything from crape myrtles (which are deceivingly heavy) to Japanese plum trees.  120 feet of tree was on the curb and we still had not cut the trunk of the 70 foot monster (my dad later hired someone to do that).  The pile was probably a good 20 yards long and about 6 feet high.

My mom had been in the cabana most of the time cleaning out a refrigerator with many stale meats in it.  I think she probably had the hardest job just because the stench is near unbearable. 

I was really proud of the four of us.  We got a great deal accomplished.  It was good to see the teamwork that my parents instilled in us come out as one.

Night…

I know my sister and bro-in-law cooked steaks for us.  Those were greatly appreciated.  We left at 8 because of the curfew put in place.  Other than that, I don’t remember much about that night.  I slept in my bed for the first time in four weeks and thought it was heaven.

The next day…
My mom and dad headed to his office to do that business.  She had to do another refrigerator.

Caitlyn and I raked and bagged leaves for over 6 hours.  I carried two bags at a time to the opposite curb from the trees.  The leaves mixed in with water made each around 40 pounds.  Caitlyn impressed me yet again on this day…

We had stopped to eat lunch.  I was watching a football game.  As I finished, I received a phone call.  It took about 10 minutes and when I was done I looked around to find Caitlyn.  I looked outside the back window and saw her raking leaves herself on the basketball court.

We had nothing but pure teamwork.  After all was said and done, we had about 30 bags of leaves and debris.  The yard looked as if we had done absolutely nothing. 

We headed back to Baton Rouge around 8pm.

I will have a few pictures up soon.