Ghost of Katrina Still Haunts Louisiana

It has been almost three years since Katrina ravaged our lives, and memories still daily haunt us.

Sometimes it is the big things that trouble our thoughts like our broken homes and lost community. Friends and family who are no longer close enough to touch. At other times it is the more mundane, but nevertheless, troubling losses that dominate our minds.

On occasion, what becomes a matter for too much concern are the simple things that should be of no concern at all. But… they nevertheless impose themselves on our thoughts at the most inopportune time. Although of little consequence, they matter. Perhaps that is why they matter. Because so many of the little priceless components of our lives have been lost.

In my case it concerns the loss of a ship in a bottle. My entire family is a family of seamen. I am literally the “son of a son of a sailor’ being that my great grandfather, grandfather, and father went to sea.

My father was lost at sea on a schooner with his father, brother, mother, and a Filipino crew for nine months when he was only 3 ½ year old. They were caught in three typhoons and were given up for lost when discovered by an American freighter based out of New York that towed them to a Central American port.

How does this tie to Katrina? My grandfather had made a ship in a bottle. A model of the vessel that his family nearly lost their lives on. I treasured this simple possession because it has little intrinsic value…but meant so much to me because it encapsulated our family’s rich history.

I kept this personal treasure in my bedroom. When Katrina struck my home was totally secured with plywood over all windows and doors. However, the storm door by my kitchen sprung open and one of the eight glass windows was broken.

I took little notice of this until after carefully examining the entire house. The ship in the bottle was missing. The stand was in the kitchen so I can only assume that it floated out through that one broken glass.

With all that was lost, for some strange reason this simple item haunts me. I searched the neighborhood immediately after the storm to no avail. To this day I still have thoughts about this simple item and somehow feel incomplete without it.

Certainly I am not alone. We have all lost that certain little something that had meaning if not real value. That one thing that makes all of our losses touch closer to the heart. That is what those who have not experienced Katrina will never understand. That sense of personal violation that never disappears. It has nothing to do with insurance, Road Home, or bricks and mortar. It has to do with an intangible sense of loss.

by Ron Chapman who is a Bayoubuzz contributor and is an award winning columnist. He teaches at Nunez Community College and has been a businessman and activist.

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