It has been SIXTEEN months since I sat in my hall with my family while 50+ huge trees fell down in my yard and on my house. SIXTEEN months since the greatest civil engineering disaster in the USA. SIXTEEN months since my inlaws and three sets of great uncle/aunts in law lost everything they ever owned, my town was 80% flooded by storm surge, I sent my kids to Texas to stay with relatives of my neighbor for an unknown amount of time, my practice was closed for two weeks, I lost 15 pounds in 10 days while I worried/sweated/cut trees/ helped neighbors cut trees/cried and SIXTEEN months since my sister went 4 days without knowing if our family was dead or alive.

Have I been traumatized? You bet your sweet ass I have.
The smell of cut pine makes me nauseous, the noise of a generator makes my head pound and my heart race.

But it is getting better. I got back those 15 pounds (dammit), there is better living through chemistry (thank you Pfizer), my roof is intact, my kids are doing well and praise the Lord the office is busy.

BUT, and you just won't believe this: Yesterday I was working in the yard (cleaning up hurricane tree debris so that we can finally fix our fence) and I heard voices in the backyard of the house behind us. The residents of the house behind us have not returned since the storm. Their house is still boarded up, their yard is sporadically mown, and they are clearly Not. Living. There.

So, I tromped through the hedge and called out in a loud and semi-threatening voice "Who's out there?!" It turns out it was the owner of the home..........getting.................. his...........FEMA TRAILER DELIVERED!!!!!

SIXTEEN f*&^ing months after the storm and they have FINALLY gotten their trailer.

SIXTEEN months these people have waited for a white camper with one window so that they can fix their house. And, the only way they finally got their trailer was to ask Bobby Jindal to personally intervene. (That would be one of our Federal Respresentatives.)

These people flooded with a foot of water in their house. That doesn't sound like much when you've seen pictures of houses floated off their foundations and homes with water to the roof. But one foot of water means gutting four feet of sheetrock, tearing out all flooring, everything on the floor is ruined, electrical systems have gotten wet etc etc etc. Unfortunately this house has flooded before so they are having their house raised four feet. And no, FEMA is not helping mitigate that cost.

SIXTEEN months and NOW they can get started.

Don't get me started about how the levee repairs are going, how much money has been wasted on redundant debris removal, how the waterways are still blocked with downed trees, how the first responders still don't have any satellite phones, how many suicides the coroner does autopsies on each week, how there are about 10 psychiatrists in the whole metropolitan area, and how little money has been dispersed through the Louisiana Road Home program.

SIXTEEN months. Ridiculous.