TUCSON DAILY STAR IN LOUISIANA

Tucsonans treat ills in La. town that has nearly nothing left
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Published: 09.11.2005
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/katrina/92789

CHALMETTE, La. - They spent four days isolated from the outside world, their remote community reduced to piles of rubble, decay and broken hearts.
Now agencies from around the country, including a medical team of 30 Arizonans, are living side-by-side with residents of St. Bernard Parish, which was so devastated by Hurricane Katrina that 95 percent of the parish will be condemned, the sheriff estimated Saturday.

"There will be nothing to save in most of these houses. We're very worried about the psychological effects," said Alan Abadie, special assistant to both the St. Bernard Parish president and sheriff. "It's obliteration. One hundred percent of the homes were flooded." And like many others he is angry at the Federal Emergency Management Agency for taking at least four days - some say five - to get to the community and now for not getting housing assistance to evacuees quickly enough.

The death toll in St. Bernard, a "big small town" of about 75,000 southeast of New Orleans, is at 100 and climbing.

"I saw on television what everyone else has seen, but I was not prepared," he said. "To see mile after mile after mile of houses underwater, total destruction, trees blown over - I was not prepared. As I've talked to people in Tucson, I've said think of Tucson from Valencia to Cortaro and between Mission to Craycroft under water, and that's just the parish I'm in right now."