NEW ORLEANS — Having visited the Crescent City less than a week after Hurricane Katrina hit, the devastation was mind-boggling.
Now that I’m back in the Big Easy more than three months later, the once vibrant city still remains a shell of what it once was.
The displaced were forced to watch the destruction and havoc hundreds of miles away through the eyes of news cameras.
The carnage has been well documented. People’s lives were lost; others continue to be in ruins.
Much of Orleans and St. Bernard parishes have been left uninhabitable. Streets in Jefferson Parish appear to be more like KOA campgrounds. Trailers are normally best used for tailgating. Now the FEMA-donated miniature shotgun homes have become necessity as homeowners attempt to rebuild.
Tailgating and sports, though, are as much of a symbol to most living here as crawfish and jazz.
And although sports were as far down the list as possible concerns, the effects of the storm caused massive disruption and confusion. The getaway from the everyday hustle and bustle was taken by the storm as well.
The New Orleans Saints basically played 16 road games this season. The New Orleans Hornets moved to Oklahoma City. Tulane has dropped numerous sports programs. Louisiana State University was forced to reschedule games multiple times because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. High school athletics in Orleans Parish currently are nonexistent.
“It was devastating,” said Devon Sonnier, a current student at Ball High who used to attend O. Perry Walker High School in Algiers, a community on New Orleans’ west bank.
“You just see people stranded and people looting. I never thought I would ever see my city go through that.”
Sonnier, a junior football player for the Tors, and Clear Creek basketball player Cierra Sims were two of the thousands forced from their childhood homes. Sims attended Higgins High School on the west bank of Jefferson Parish before her family moved to League City.
After losing everything except what they could fit in the back of their evacuation vehicles, Mother Nature attempted her wrath again — this time on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Rita appeared like it would make a straight line through Galveston and Houston. With the thousands of evacuees taking refuge in the Houston metro area, Sonnier’s reaction to Rita was the uniform echo.
“What? Are these things following us?” Sonnier asked.
The Sonniers didn’t sit around and wait for Rita to barrel down, either. They did the whole evacuation thing again. They were accustomed to the gridlock on the highways and the fear in the faces traveling with them on the Interstates.
Fortunately for Galveston County, the storm veered north.
Some high school games were postponed. Some were cancelled. But the disruption was nothing compared to the Port Arthur/Beaumont/Lake Charles area. And not even remotely close to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Galveston County was extremely lucky. Life got back to normal fairly quickly.
We breathed a sigh of relief. So did Sonnier and Sims.
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Larry Holder is a sports writer for The Daily News.
