| Show Where here Bayou towns stood only a Bayou now remains Manuel Roig-Franzia Roig The Washington Post Its It's gone Plain gone That's what they'll say when they finally get in when the people who love Louisiana's bayous and marshes get into the towns where hardly anyone can go now That's what they'll say when they get to Holly Beach where a forest of stilts is all that Hurricane Rita left of a resort town that had once stacked houses six-deep six up to the sand That's what they'll say in whole neighborhoods of Cameron and Grand Chenier and Oak OakGrove OakGrove OakGrove Grove and the other little towns where there was much more to life than the hunting and fishing that made these places diamonds to sportsmen there were also churches and schools and offices and homes At its worst Rita behaved like a viciously effective bulldozer bulldozer bull bull- bulldozer dozer scraping away everything everything every every- everything thing it met scraping away places such as Holly Beach The full scope of the storms storm's brutality can be comprehended only from the air and from the theair theair theair air the images are heartbreaking heartbreak heartbreak- ing miles of Louisiana coastal life broken apart or left to steep in hi the brownest dankest danke dank- dank pr r x arMa v aground est e w at i T i est s w water imaginable The destruction stretches from the the wobbly levees that flooded New Orleans for a second second second sec sec- ond time west to the shattered levee that has submerged more than homes near Houma westward along the coast where the lying lowest-lying parts of Louisiana were wrecked and inland to Lake Charles a major city so battered battered battered bat bat- that each highway exit is blocked to keep residents out Row after row of gray foun foun- laid out like tombstones tombstones tombstones tomb tomb- stones in a size monster-size grave grave- yard are the only clues dues that some coastal neighborhoods some towns once existed In other places subdivisions are ringed by moats and houses are transformed into islands Cows push against one another for comfort on tiny patches of dry land in deep country bayou-country pastures stranded three football football football foot foot- ball fields of water away from the high road Their determined determined determined deter deter- mined human keepers patrol by horseback hoping to save afew a afew afew few while elsewhere the most intrepid residents float flatboats flatboats flatboats flat- flat boats up to their roofs and hack through hoping to salvage something On the ground the scene is a still life Most of the bayou towns are empty even empty even repair crews cannot get in And in the places where people have managed managed man man- managed aged to cajole or sneak or power their way in the plastering plastering plastering plaster plaster- ing that Rita administered is so complete that there is seldom anything to do but stand in awe They would clean dean up if there were something there to clean dean up But there Its hard to believe what water can do Jerry Melancon said standing on the empty lo h ck used to be be in Pecan Island fI below the White of Lake Unbelievable Looking down from above its it's clear what functions in Louisiana and what The places where the marsh marsh- run through with brilliant patches of orange amid seas of browns and green was greene was allowed to thrive without development are vibrant The marsh wears a storm well wrapping water around it like a shawl guzzling the excess But the places where people pushed themselves into the where marsh houses and businesses businesses businesses busi busi- nesses sprouted in place of marsh grass and lilies lilies are are apocalyptic smashed and eerie zones where the few things left standing are in tatters The coastal carnage begins as far east as Houma in Terrebonne Parish a town devastated devastated devastated dev dev- by the loss on a single day earlier this year of six local National Guardsmen in Iraq Now the town must endure the fallibility of its outer levee where concrete flood walls that were once atop an earthen mound now lie in deep water tossed aside like dominoes by storm surge that burst through forcing the evacuation of a hospital To the west upriver in Vermilion Parish the little Cajun towns are underwater Erath and Delcambre where Delcambre where chubby boats haul in tubs of Gulf still sweet shrimp shrimp are are filled with the water that subsumed subsumed subsumed sub sub- half their houses In Erath a police utility sport-utility vehicle is tipped onto its side ina in ina a roadside ditch If the police couldn't navigate the streets who could At the sunken bottom of the parish boats gl glide ide into the town toWn or of of- of Island Do Down below on below on then the soggy soil Melancon and his friends watch crabs and shrimp flitting through the high water that covers what was open ground behind their houses That said Jackie Abshire first pointing pointing pointing point point- ing at the salty water behind his house then at the Gulf yards away used to be over there But no place is worse than Cameron a town of 1900 clinging to a narrow strip of land between Calcasieu Lake and the Gulf of Mexico Rita came ashore just west of Cameron exposing the little littletown littletown littletown town that once advertised its Cajun cabins to the most ferocious winds a hurricane carries the winds in its northeast northeast northeast north north- east quadrant From above the towns town's little amphitheater appears to have transformed into a convertible its roof stripped off exposing the red bright-red seats where people people people peo peo- once sat for school and community events Cameron had been poised to become abig a abig abig big thing a really big thing When Hurricane Katrina pounded the port in New Orleans the people in Cameron thought their own lit lit lit- tIe tle port would pick up a lot of the business which would have meant millions Now its it's all headed to Texas said Billy BiHy Gibson an electrical cooperative representative representative representative who was one of th the e few people on the ground there they e Tuesday Gibson let out a laugh a sa sad d kind of laugh when the conversation conversation conversation con con- snaked around to getting getting getting get get- ting Cameron lighted again Theres nothing salvageable e here he said Rita abused Camerons Cameron's dead r living Th The town w n cemetery is s Coffins Coffin float in fetid water mausoleums mausoleums mausoleums mau mau- are in shards an and d human bones lie blanching i ithe in inthe inthe n the sunlight next to disintegrating ing burial vestments Not far away a church sags sag s beneath a steeple that once one pointed to the skies It points point s west now almost to the place where Rita came cam e ashore |
