A Rant about rememberance

[Justin OOC]

Everyone was so worked up about "Remembering Katrina." All day coverage of New Orleans and how bad it still is, of their suffering and all.

It made me sick.

To Hell with Katrina and New Orleans. You want to talk about Katrina, think about Biloxi, Gulf Shores, and Inland Mississippi and Alabama. They're where the storm went ashore, where the most damage was done by the storm.

What really bothers me is that today, there's no "Remembering Rita" coverage. Hurricane Rita wiped four cities from the map and managed to cause widespread damage to Houston and Beaumont Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana, my hometown.

Cameron Parish was completely innundated with water, and both Cameron, Louisiana and Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana were destroyed. Yet now two years later, those towns are back and thriving. There's been no big government payout, alot of it is just Cajuns being to set in our ways, too attached to our homes to leave, so we rebuilt.

It was Two WEEKS before residents of Southwest Louisiana were allowed back to our homes. We didn't have the levee system that New Orleans did, and many lost their homes and property. Yet you hear nothing about it.

Perhaps it's because we rebuilt so quickly. Perhaps it's because Southwest Louisiana doesn't register as a major area. With one of the last remaining PPG plants, A major Conoco plant, Two Citco processing plants, and A major port along the Intercoastal waterway, One would think that when those facilities are rendered inoperable, that eyes would focus on them. This wasn't the case though. We brought everything back up, rebuilt with assistance from FEMA.

Perhaps it is due to the low death toll. There were almost no Deaths involved with Hurricane Rita. When the storm looked like it would turn, ALL of Cameron Parish voluntarily evacuated. Two days before landfall, Calcasieu parish issued a mandatory evacuation order.Only a handful of Marshals and law enforcement officers remained behind. All of them rode out the storm safely.

While the residents of the area waited, the storm battered our homes. We were practically glued to the television, waiting to catch a glimpse of our homes, whether they were there or not. But the coverage was about Galveston, Texas, miles away from where the eye hit. Or it was about New Orleans, having to deal with the storm surge.

There were no reporters in Southwest Louisiana, where the real story was. We were forgotten.

Today, on the anniverssary of Hurricane Rita, Those residents of Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas have again been forgotten.

There is nothing a displaced Rita survior hates more than when someone asks "So were you displaced by Hurricane Katrina?"

Rita was forgotten by everyone that didn't suffer her, but those of us who were lucky enough to have to blue-roof our homes, and those of friends and families, We remember. We give thants that we chad that much and offer what solace we can to those who lost everything.

Everyone else might forget, but we Cajuns never will.