Monticello Live

Some of you may be familiar with the “Shrimp Guy” that sells fresh gulf shrimp from time to time on the parking lot of ReMax. That guy is Todd Tassin and I am proud to say that he is my brother-in-law. He and his family live in Slidell, La just outside of New Orleans. He sustained knee deep water in his house from Issac. They are having to get rid of everything that was touched by the water as God only knows what the water brings in and he has three small girls.

This is the pile of stuff in front of his house after three days of gutting the house and ripping out sheetrock. Almost every house in his neighborhood looks like this. Police have to guard the entrance to his neighborhood to make sure people can’t just come take items from their piles as the insurance adjusters have to come inspect them before anything can be disposed of in any way.

The purpose of the article is not to ask for your sympathy for him. Like most people, every time a hurricane nears the New Orleans area I shake my head and ask “Why?” Why don’t they move to a safer location? Why would they stay and continue to rebuild every time Mother Nature comes along and destroys everything in her path? I think about all the money our government has shelled out over the years to the New Orleans area and think about what I could do with all that money. I think about all the money, time and effort our community of Monticello put forth during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and continue to ask “Why?” I just can’t imagine having to go through this. I can’t imagine not having a place to go home to every night or my kids not having a home even just for a few weeks or months.

My husband left Friday to go help his brother and his family get started on cleaning up. I have had a daily report on how things are in the area and let’s just say that it could have been a lot worse. The Salvation Army provided lunch for them on Saturday and most in his area now have power. After all this, I finally get it. I finally understand that the reason they don’t go anywhere else is because this is their home. This is what they work so hard to have just like the rest of us. It’s what they know. It’s where they grew up and it’s where they were born. It’s really no different than if a tornado blew through Monticello and tore it apart. We would rebuild because it is our home. We would rebuild because nothing would keep us down. We would be thankful for what we did have and begin working on the things that we did not have.

Looking at everything he and his family are having to go through sure makes me appreciate what I have. It makes me appreciate everyone that ever extends a hand to help when something like this happens. When I see articles on how organizations and churches in our community gather together and form a plan to help those in need or seeking refuge till the hurricane is over, it makes me so proud. Proud that there are people that still care. Proud that we have a community that puts people first. Proud to call Monticello home!

Continue to pray for those working to rebuild their lives after Isaac and those still struggling from their loss after Katrina. It’s the least we could do.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.