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avman experiences Katrina first hand


avman

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and I am O.K.

sorry for the L-O-N-G absence

anyone hear from Shelty Dave? if so, please have him contact me

I stayed at my house for Katrina, 1 1/2 miles on the DRY(er) side of

the 17th street canal levee breach that had a large part to play in

N.O. flooding. wow, what a ride-my wife was on hurricane duty at

University Hospital, and she was finally evacuated by boat from the

hospital the Friday after the storm. Before that, the last time I

talked w/her was 5:30 a.m. tuesday morning-then no contact until that

friday night when I found out she was o.k. During the storm, I stayed

put, as i always do, and took video and still pix before, during, and

after. the first week after the storm passed was surreal-kinda like one

of those sci-fi movies of some devastating event, but this was real. no

communications for the most part available-cell phones are useless for

an event like this, and most all land lines were down. Very few people

anywhere. part of my house flooded w/about 3-10" of water (the

theater room got water, but I had dragged the red-leather Natuzzi couch

out along w/the RSW-15 and rope lighting before the water got all the

way in, and my 'stage' where the electronics and KLF-30's are stayed

about 1/8th of an inch above the water,the movie theater-themed carpet

is history. the cabana in the back got 7-10" of water, and the garage

got about 7" of water. the pool looks like some creature is due to

emerge from it at any moment.the bedroom carpet got wet from seepage

thru the brick walls and is gone too, but the rest of the house is dry)

overall, not bad, especially considering so many others' losses. all of

my Klipsch speakers made it. in fact, I used my Heresys, a karaoke

machine, a stereo receiver, and 2 stands to hire myself out to the

clean-up operations for a P.A. address the other day for a nice price.

the devastation is impossible to fathom w/out being here and seeing it

first hand. areas that had 7-12 feet of water for DAYS are all

monochromatic brown. the water lines on many houses go up to the roof.

flooded vehicles and downed trees,etc. are everywhere. I did what I

could to help others the first several days after the storm,then

started cleaning up the house once I recovered my wife. I have been

getting some service calls for LiveWire-my A / V biz, and I am writing

tree removal and sheetrock/carpet removal estimates for a commission.

there are many jobs available in this recovery effort to do, and many

financial and personal opportunities to help others. Thanks to all of

my Klipsch family, especially mOOn who e-mailed me to see how I was

doing, and I pray that all of the bb'ers in the affected area are

O.K.-please check in w/us.

sincerely, avman

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Avman,

Glad that you and the wife are OK. I know the whole thing is just too much to handle and even believe. But of all you mentioned, it must have been a hard pill to swallow to not know about your wife for those first few days (and her not know about you).

I just don't even know what to say to people who went through that, especially with everything shown on TV. It's just unbelievable. At least you have a bit of a better story than some others.

I hope things come back together for you in some reasonable manner.

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thanks mark- that was really rough, especially w/reports of armed gangs

robbing hospitals at gunpoint for drugs. I knew my parents were o.k.,

but didn't know about hers-they were in New Orleans in a 2-story office

building they had evacuated to and had to be evacuated from there to

the convention center because the whole first floor flooded-people at

the convention center were literally dieing after a few days from lack

of food and water, and there was 'un-lawful' behavior by some of the

people who were there. I can tell you from my personal experience that

the VAST majority of the people I encountered were only interested in

coming together to help one another-not to see what they could 'get

away with'.

One of the stranger experiences was looking up at the night sky and

seeing stars and the milky way IN THE CITY just like I was in some

remote country location- without any power being on for lights, the

city was COMPLETELY dark at night.

here is a picture of boats launching from the main street going into New Orleans close to where I live.

post-6249-13819272106052_thumb.jpg

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