re: Craziest/Shadiest/Scariest thing you saw in Katrina Aftermath

Road it out in Ponchatoula, watch tornadoes snap pine trees off about 8 feet up, oaks just fell over and ripped a hugh hole in the ground. Rolled out on Tuesday (day after) to Florida. Nobody on the road. Ice machine full of still frozen bags of ice on top of I-10 overpass on Kiln exit. Hugh powerlines on the road, rolled over them with a little dread. Loaded up with about 10 5 gallon cans in Niceville Florida and headed back on Friday. Snuck back in, lied my arse off to a state trooper at I-10 near Laplace to get past his roadblock. Metairie was like Apocalypse now with helicopters flying non stop. Walking around strapped every where I went. Blackhawks dropping one huge sandbag at a time in the 17th street canal breach. Chinooks doing 3 at a time....about 10 altogether in a constant orbit over the lake.... The hole just swallowed them up without a burp. C-130's flying rooftop level spraying for mosquitoes so fast you didn't hear them until they got over you, and I mean rooftop level. 120 mph constant on I-10 runs to Baton Rouge to load up on booze cause my buddy had a pass. Another buddy firing off rounds at a guy trying to break into a store, but not any looting to speak of in my area. Basically partied my arse of for 4 weeks paid with my buddies and ate barbecued meat every night that we scavenged out of all the neighbors freezers before it went bad.

I worked for a restaurant in Lafayette that catered food for police in New Orleans. We started delivering food 3 days after the levees broke. It looked like a war zone going in. A lot of cars abandoned along the highway. It was freaky.

A friggin Learjet twisted around a tree at Lakefront airport

I was sleeping on my couch by the lake and water started seeping into my mouth. That shite came out of nowhere and I woke up in a panic.

The turd my aunt couldn’t get to flush in my bathroom

I fed the National Guard guys. They discussed body count openly while eating. True story

Guy pulled on a gun on me at the Raceway on Bluebonnet across from Mall of LA because I wouldn’t let him cut in front of me in the line of cars waiting to get gas

When I finally got back and started cleaning up my house to rebuild in early October 05. Absolute dead quiet, no lights at night, crossing the 17th St. Canal from Metairie into N.O. was like going back in time, no power other than generator supplied, had to go uptown to find a place to get anything to eat or any supplies.

The smell of decay, the flats from all the building material scattered in the streets as people came back to demo.

Craziest.

Working at the Federal morgue thrown up in Carville after Katrina. Main building was essentially a giant blowup tent as big as a church and there was a huge secured fenced off area with a dozen or more refrigerated truck trailers containing corpses.

The trailers and the whole facility guarded by (I think) Blackwater. The craziness of it all exacerbated by repeated rumors that many of the refrigerated dead had been put down at night by Seal Teams, Marine Recon, Delta, (take your rumor pick) because they were members of mobs who had heavily armed themselves (stores, abandoned police stations, take your pick) and were responsible for early reports of rescue helicopters being fired on by these loosely organized mobs.

Supposedly, according to the rumors, military went in at night and did what was necessary within the first few days to eliminate the problem with well aimed headshots. Thus the security surrounding those refrigerated trailers and the morgue in general.

I don't think those rumors are true, but you're in crazy territory when things like that are being seriously discussed.

I definitely remember the reports of aircraft being fired upon. According to the rumors, those reports went away within a day or two of a Navy LPD, part of an East coast MEU, showing up in the river at New Orleans with a hospital ship. Never made any kind of connections of that sort until talking with some of the Vets working for Blackwater.

Who knows? Katrina. Crazy times.