LaPlace, Louisiana residents undeterred by another deadly hurricane
Smith, 69, the beloved family matriarch affectionately known as “Mamaw,” died in the hours after the Category 4 hurricane slammed into the Gulf Coast on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, relatives said.
Smith, who suffered from diabetes and other health issues, used a rolling walker to get around. She became unresponsive and later stopped breathing after wading through waist-deep flood waters to the two-story home of her neighbor next door, according to family members.
“I’ll miss times with her and gathering here at this house,” said Smith’s eldest daughter, Cassie Falgoust, 51, choking back tears.
“But I have my daddy and my sister,” she added, placing her hand on Mamaw’s chair. “I have my brother, my nieces, my nephews, my great nieces, my kids, my grand babies, my husband, my in-laws.”
In the face of unimaginable pain and loss, Smith’s extended family, like so many other hurricane-hardened residents here, vow to stay in Louisiana. A sense of place coupled with the bonds of family, friendship and community, they said, are stronger than the killer storms that upend their lives.
“Every place has something,” Falgoust said. “You’re not going to be tragedy, disaster free. You’re going to have earthquakes and wildfires. And tornado season. It’s what it is. You just have to pick where you love, where you feel loved and where you feel like family. I’d rather be here and eat really, really good food and be a little chunky and cute than somewhere else.”
Michelle Smith, 48, looked at Falgoust, her sister, as they cleaned their parents’ home: “I won’t leave because she’s here.”
“And I won’t leave because all my kids are here,” said Falgoust, who has four grown children. “She’s here. It’s home. It always will be.”
‘This is the worst’
Ida touched down on August 29 as a Category 4 hurricane near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, south of New Orleans, with winds of 150 miles an hour.
In southeast Louisiana, the storm left hundreds of thousands of residents struggling in the unrelenting heat, without electrical power and, in some cases, water — and with limited phone service. Roads were impassable, roofs blown away. People wait for hours in lines outside gas stations and food and water distribution sites.
Mark Jacob, 52, waited on one such line on Airline Highway in LaPlace, where the volunteer Cajun Army distributed water and hot meals the other day at a parking lot under a torturous sun.
His home was heavily damaged, Jacob said, forcing him and his wife to sleep in their pickup, covered with a sheet to protect them against mosquitoes.
“I’ve been through quite a few storms but this is the worst,” he said. “I don’t know if my house is going to be habitable even because I still have a lot of water in my ceiling that may fall.”
By the time Jacob got near the front, the distribution of hot meals had been temporarily halted because the intense heat was unsafe for the volunteers.
“The worst thing right now is people trying to get gas,” said Jacob, adding that a neighbor who had a relative…
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