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This is an excerpt of an article that appeared in the LSU AgCenter’s After the Storm publication originally printed in 2007.
Rusty Gaude’s father died August 28, 2005, the day before Hurricane Katrina struck. The next day Gaude, an LSU AgCenter fisheries agent and resident of New Orleans, had to leave his father’s remains at a funeral home in Folsom and evacuate, not knowing what was going to happen.
Gaude was back in Louisiana three days later, and he and his brothers buried their father with a plan to hold a proper funeral whenever possible. (It was – six weeks later.)
But despite all of this going on in his personal life, Gaude was back at work the day after he buried his father, helping his fellow workers and clientele in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, two of the hardest hit by Katrina.
Gaude is just one example of the dedication and self-sacrifice exhibited by AgCenter employees in the aftermath of the worst hurricane disaster to hit the United States – Katrina and Rita only three weeks apart.
An immediate challenge for Gaude was getting a marine lift to the fishers in the two parishes so they could get their stranded boats off land and back into the water to recover their business. That was accomplished successfully several months later when a boat lift arrived from Alaska. It was donated by the town of Valdez, Alaska, through an effort coordinated by Louisiana, Alaska and Washington’s Sea Grant programs.
And that is just one example of vital help provided by AgCenter people in the recovery effort.
“They said they wanted to get back to work,” said LSU AgCenter Chancellor Bill Richardson, speaking of the overwhelming response from employees displaced by the hurricanes.
In the immediate aftermath, his primary concern was finding all of them.
“It took nearly 10 days (after Katrina), but we accounted for everyone,” he said. The AgCenter has about 1,500 employees around the state including nearly 160 in the Katrina-affected area.
None had been injured, but several had lost homes and everything they owned.
“I don’t have a house. I’m thankful I have a job,” said Carol Jacobsen, holding back tears, as she addressed a group of 40 displaced employees who met with AgCenter administrators on September 16, 2005. She is the secretary in the St. Bernard extension office.
Gentry’s home in Port Sulphur was washed off its foundation. A Plaquemines Parish extension agent, she moved into a FEMA trailer next to the extension office, her days and nights filled with helping the citizens in her parish in the recovery effort.
“We have our administrators to thank for getting those trailers so fast,” said Mark Schexnayder, a fisheries agent in Jefferson and Orleans parishes.
Schexnayder, whose home in Metairie miraculously suffered only wind damage and no flood damage, praises the response of AgCenter administrators to the crisis.
“They were there for us. It made all the difference in the world,” he said. The LSU AgCenter’s Katrina response was fast and thorough. Employee safety was top priority.
Chancellor Richardson was back at work early on Tuesday, Aug. 30, and had called in the two vice chancellors, David Boethel and Paul Coreil, and several of his staff. He kept his office open to answer calls throughout that next weekend, which included the Labor Day holiday. Communication was a problem those first few weeks with both phone and cell phone service knocked out in certain areas.
As vice chancellor for research and director of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Boethel was especially worried about the people, animals, buildings and projects at the research stations.
The Citrus Research Station, now renamed the Coastal Area Research Station, which sits near the levee north of Port Sulphur, is the closest to the Gulf of Mexico. And it got a lot closer as the ocean surge reached just south of Port Sulphur.
One of the research assistants at the station, Joe Alexis Jr., nearly lost his life trying to check on the station the day after Katrina hit. As he neared the levee in his pickup truck, the water started coming over.
“It looked like Niagara Falls,” he said. It came so fast his truck was swept up by the current. He managed to climb out and grab hold of a tree, where he clung for about an hour along with some desperate snakes. He then swam to safety at his parents’ house not too far away.
The station suffered major damage – more than $2 million including destruction of citrus, Formosan subterranean termite and vegetable production research projects.
“We had also planted black mangroves to address coastal erosion and restoration,” Boethel said.
All over the state, LSU AgCenter people stepped up to serve as demand dictated. For example, Jane Jones, the director of the Grant Walker 4-H Educational Center near Pollock, ran a Red Cross shelter there for evacuees, primarily from St. Bernard Parish. She heroically rallied volunteer support from the local community. At its peak, she saw to the care of nearly 600 people.
“The Red Cross told us this was one of the best-run shelters in the state,” said Coreil, who serves as vice chancellor for extension and director of the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service.
Linda Hooper-Bui took time from her fire ant research to organize the first set of volunteers for the rapidly put-together pet shelter at Parker Coliseum. Shannon Bere, who then coordinated the AgCenter’s livestock shows, and her crew worked day and night to transform the coliseum from a large-animal facility to one that could handle dogs and cats.
“And some pet ferrets, birds and a few pet snakes,” said Bere.
Then, the unthinkable happened. Another fierce hurricane, Rita, came along on Sept. 26 and flattened and flooded the other half of South Louisiana.
And again the AgCenter response was swift and selfless. For example, Andrew Granger, Vermilion Parish agent, pitched in to save cows and distribute donated feed to cattle producers in his area. By night, he had to deal with his own flooded home and his own cattle, also stranded by the storm surge that engulfed pastures.
Right after Rita, just as they did after Katrina, LSU AgCenter people provided aid to victims, met with local governmental bodies and networked with colleagues all over the country to bring much needed relief to Louisiana.
If there is anything good that can come from this tragedy, it is that the LSU AgCenter is getting more recognition from the media, including the national media, as a valuable source of practical, research-based information. LSU AgCenter faculty members continue to appear regularly in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, for example. Housing specialist Claudette Reichel has been quoted frequently on how to clean mold. Economist Kurt Guidry is recognized as the authority on dollar losses to agriculture. County agent Howard Cormier told the world in an interview on MSNBC about the devastation Rita did to rice farmers.
Every LSU AgCenter employee pitched in, even if spared the storms’ direct wrath. They developed educational materials to distribute to evacuees. They assisted at shelters. And they grieved, whether they want to admit it or not, for a New Orleans, a Louisiana, an LSU AgCenter that will never be the same again.
