We all have different ways of remembering when things happened by putting the event in time perspective. For some it might have been before divorce or after divorce, before the children were all gone or after the children were gone, before the bypass surgery or after.
Here in South Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, there has been a new time frame that has become a rather standard point of reference. It is BK and AK – and for those who were not impacted by Katrina, that means before Katrina or after Katrina. It is rather common when discussing some recent event for a person to invoke the question, “Was that before Katrina or after?”
It is simply not possible to understand how many lives were changed overnight and how many lives are still being impacted from the aftermath.
Our lives are still very much affected by Katrina. Katrina will be a milestone in the history of this area and the reference to BK and AK will become even more prominent as time goes on.
My family and I stayed last week in a rented bayou house in Bay St. Louis. The house had been completely redone, as Katrina had swept through with water up to the roof, and the owner's husband was killed. It is still hard for me to fathom the immensity and strength of that storm.
ReplyDeleteGrandchildren swam in the bayou 'til a 'gator was spotted!