As greygirlbeast often writes, I'm not awake yet. This is the latest I've managed to sleep in two weeks, so I'm not all that upset about it. Of course, I did lie awake for a while sometime before dawn, then got up and took two Excedrin PMs. I had been dreaming of driving through Shell Beach, a tiny fishing/shrimping community on Bayou la Loutre, about 45 miles east of New Orleans, where parts of Soul Kitchen take place and much of Dead Shrimp Blues was to be set, which basically doesn't exist anymore. There was a string of little places, not even really big enough to be called towns: Shell Beach, Yscloskey, Hopedale, Delacroix. Between the four of them, I hear, there are about 16 buildings left standing, none inhabitable.

Here's a question from Alicia:

I know this seems like such an incredibly trivial thing, but in your LJ you keep referring to having 18 cats with you, who were all picked up at Lamar-Dixon. But I thought you had taken your eldest with you. Did something happen to him, or are you just functioning in this-many-have-been-rescued mode (God knows I would be at that point)? I was just curious.

Colm is still with us, I'm very happy to say. I guess I just sort of forgot how to count for a few days.

Alicia goes on to comment:

I also figured, since I'm writing anyway, that I'd tell you what my personal response to this whole disaster has been (I live in Iowa, and don't know anyone personally who was affected). Everyone deals with major events like this differently, obviously, but having been a regular reader of your blog already, reading about your experiences made me realize that I was utterly unprepared to provide for my kitties in the event of a disaster. The prospect of being separated from my 2 babies (I'm 21, and we adopted them as kittens when I was 6 and 7, respectively) at a time like that, or not knowing what happened to them, has been made all the more real by you sharing your experiences in the past couple weeks, and it has convinced me to get off my lazy butt, do some research, and get prepared so that if something ever did happen, I could leave in a hurry and take them with me. I know that probably isn't anything you're interested in hearing about this soon, and I don't blame you at all if you're not, but I just thought I would share with you the fact that your blogging about all of this has changed at least one person, and who knows? It might save the lives of two elderly (but still surprisingly mobile and energetic) kitties some day. Thank you, although saying that seems TERRIBLY inappropriate, because your experiences have spurred me into action, and I am extremely grateful that you shared them with us.

I am truly heartened by this. The media has been harping on a pair of nursing-home owners in Violet who ignored evacuation orders and left 35 elderly charges behind. They all died. This is a horrible story, but honestly, I don't feel that what Chris and I did was much better. Even if all 26 of our cats survive, the fact that we abandoned them to the storm will be on my conscience for the rest of my life. I realize we didn't have a great deal of choice: we couldn't have helped them by staying and maybe dying, and it turned out that my mother badly needed us here. Still: we allowed ourselves to accumulate far more animals than we could realistically evacuate, because, like most New Orleanians, we didn't believe in our hearts that The Big One would ever dare to hit our beloved city. When push came to shove, we cut and ran. I don't know yet what I am going to do to ensure that this never happens again, but once we are able to return to New Orleans, I will do something: buy a trailer, buy extra carriers, get a bigger car. Something to make sure that we never again have to leave anybody behind. If you have multiple animals and live in a disaster-prone area, you should too. It can happen to you, and if it does, you will go through hell; worse, you will condemn them to hell through no fault of theirs.

In better news, we're now hearing that New Orleans residents may be allowed back in by zip code next week. I don't expect our house to be inhabitable at present, but I won't feel I have done all I can until I've been there and looked for thr remaining cats myself. Maybe there will be happy surprises: some power is already back on in Uptown, and there have been rumors of drinkable water in the foreseeable future. After initial reports that we might not be allowed in for months, this is cause for celebration, though it also gives me nightmares about what we will see.