It won’t take witches or goblins to scare us this month.

Tuning in the weather forecast on TV or the Internet may work just fine for that.

Watching back to back monster hurricanes Katrina and Rita bearing down on the gulf shores of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and the Carolinas Eastern Seaboard the last two moths has been pretty scary.

And Hurricane Season doesn’t end until the end of November? As my grandmother used to say, “Lord have Mercy.” Please.

Just when Katrina victims – human, animal, municipal and commercial – were beginning to regroup just a little, up roared Rita.

The day before we went to press with this issue of the magazine, Rita was drawing a big, wide landfall target between the west coast of Louisiana and east coast of Texas. Our first-born son and grandson live only about an hour from the Gulf. Taking a lesson from those who thought they could sit tight in New Orleans until Katrina passed, Schenk and Nils heeding the warnings to evacuate their DeRidder, Louisiana home two days before Rita was to arrive.

When the Army base that employs you sends all of its civilian workers home in the middle of the afternoon and your neighborhood Wal-Mart Super Center shuts down, it’s time to head farther north, Schenk figured. Fortunately he was able to avoid traffic gridlock and closed gas stations. The heavy traffic had dispersed by the time they reached Texarkana and we were relieved when they arrived at our house about four hours later.

Now, if we could only account for a dear Crescent City friend, Kathy Re.

The Sunday afternoon before Katrina was set to slam New Orleans, Kathy called to let us know she had decided not to evacuate from her Jefferson City apartment. My daughter Laurie and I were frightened for her safety and invited us to come stay with us until the storm had passed. Around midnight she called back, admitting she was frightened but it was too late then to get out of the city. So she had gone to her best friend Trina’s house to the hopefully ride out the storm.

The next morning, about two hours after Katrina’s winds had subsided and before news of the levee breaches, Kathy miraculous got a call through to us on her cell phone. She had survived the storm so far, but was just beginning to realize that things were going to get worse there. She had no electricity, gas or water, and no hope of getting them anytime soon. With uncharacteristic tears in her voice, she asked if her invitation to visit us was still open. We said yes, of course and she planned to get on the road in “a couple of hours.”

That was around 9 a.m. Monday, August 29. We didn’t hear from her again for four days and our anxieties rose with every new report of the tragic and worsening plight of the residents still not evacuated from New Orleans. Three days later Kathy finally phoned from Jackson, Mississippi, enroute to Wisconsin, where hurricanes aren’t normally known to go.

Then we heard nothing for days, until residents began to be allowed back into New Orleans and Kathy called to say she had been faxed a pass for entering the city. She was going to check on her apartment and try to help the Dillard’s she had worked for remove the store’s inventory. But there’s been no word of her since and we continue to pray she is safe, wherever she is.

The annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is what first lured me to the city. The festival is world famous for its wide variety of wonderful food and music. With 10 stages scattered around the oval Metaire Race you can enjoy listening to everything from jazz to zydeco to gospel, rock’n’roll and soul. Your taste buds can savor special Jazzfest treats like crawfish bread, fresh oysters on the half shell, etouffee, boudin and soft shell crab po'boys. The interesting places to dine and sight see throughout the rest of New Orleans are endless.

My mom and dad, both my brothers, my daughters Laurie and Lanci, and some of have all enjoyed seeing New Orleans and Jazzfest together in the past.

When just Laurie and I would go, Kathy would invite us to stay with her. Talk about a great hostess! Not only did she put us up and help entertain us, she and her friend Trina shared with us one of the rarest and most coveted commodities in New Orleans – a reserved parking place directly across the street from the main entrance gate of the Metairie Race Track fairgrounds where Jazzfest is held. Unless you’ve been to Jazzfest you can’t imagine what a priceless perk that is.

The photographs and memories I have from my past trips to Jazzfest now make me wonder what’s to become of the New Orleans formerly known as “the city that care forgot.” The city has tremendous new cares and problems now, resulting from Katrina. I wonder about has happened to Kathy and all the city’s other displaced residents – many of whom have recently passed through this area. What about all the musicians who earned their livings playing there Will they ever get to return to New Orleans? Will some former residents prefer not to return?

For those who decide to stay here, I pray they can begin a happy new life in their adopted home towns.

 

 

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

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