Don't go in the water!

[Howieroch]

I was with a relief team in Louisiana between the hurricanes shooting pictures. On my last day there I was able to sneak away and shoot some pictures in the bayou. Incredible wildlife down there, but I wouldn't go in the water! I talked to one local who said his duck hunting club loses about a dog a year to the gators. This was a little guy - about 4 feet. The big gators spooked as soon as they saw us. The biggest one I saw, I almost stepped on because I was looking through the camera, and not where I was walking.

[pikerliker]

Hey Howieroch, how are things looking down there right now? Did you feel like you made a dent in helping out? How bad is it in person?

~piker

[Howieroch]

I was down there before Rita hit. I never made it into New Orleans - I worked in Lafayette dealing with people in the shelters. The people down there have incredible positive attitudes for all they have been through. I heard a lot of incredible stories, and met some incredible people. I think they are mostly doing the best they can under the circumstances. The media has really played up the negatives going on down there, but there are some unbelievable stories of generosity and caring as well.

It's very surreal down there because life if going on as normal in the towns not affected by the destruction. The only difference is that they have 500,000 extra people to deal with. Even in Baton Rouge we didn't find any closed businesses or shortages of anything. They didn't understand when I told them that much of Minnesota was flying their flags at half staff out of respect for the tragedy. Hurricanes are a fact of life, and life goes on.

The town of Lafayette was about 80,000 people before Katrina, and now after it is more like 125,000. For absorbing 45,000 people overnight they are doing very well. I asked people all over how they felt about inheriting New Orleans over night, and never once got a negative answer. The normal reply was "These are our people, what else are we supposed to do?"

The media has shown us the worst that people are capable of down there. Being there in person I saw some of the best that people are capable of. In a way it restores your faith in humanity to see the grace with which they are dealing with the situation. I'm not saying I didn't see negative stuff down there, it's just that the positive outwayed the negatives. The people I was with willingly gave up two weeks of their time to go down there, and most of us have volunteered for a second trip if it is needed.