From Michael Varisco:
Thanks my brother. We are OK. My wife & the three kids went to Austin with her sister. I rode it out in NO with two friends. I made it. My house is 99.99% ok. No water in the street or house. No trees hit my house. I prepared by having over 120 gallons of water, 150 gallons of gas, 2 generators, three trucks, & a fridge, pantry & freezer full of food. We knew that if it hit us, we would have an unlimited supply of food from our families' houses that they would have not have had time to unload before they evacuated.
I drove a boat with my friend, Guy Clesi, through New Orleans proper trying to rescue people in their attics. We launched on the Old Hammond Hwy at the 17th street canal bridge. We were asked to not bring out the dead, only the living. We found one dead man on the corner of Jewel & Sardonyx & could only tied a rope around his ankle and to his porch so that he would not float away. I prayed for his soul as I left him there. I've never seen a dead person that was not in a funeral home until then.
We found Maurice Fitzgerald (of Fitzgerald's Restaurant) who is currently teaching at Delgado. He is 80 years old, & graduated from Jesuit in 1943. He had a broken hip & stiff leg. He was exhausted & delirious. He was on the 3rd floor of his apartment building behind China Rose & the old R.E. Lee Theater sitting on his balcony with the water right below him. We climbed into his apartment, packed his bag with clothes & medicine & took him over the balcony into the boat. We rode five miles in the boat 10 feet above Pontchartrain Blvd & brought him to be processed by FEMA at the 610/I-10 split, to be heli-vacked to Baton Rouge.
My brothers, Mt. Carmel Academy had water 2' below the 3rd floor. The houses that were only 1 story in Lakeview barely had their roofs sticking out of the water. St. Dominic's statue's head was under water on Harrison. I've never experienced wind like that before. I have no idea how fast it was, but the rain was like getting a tattoo all over your body. When a leaf hit you, it left a bruise. The trees either snapped or doubled over and bounced back.
Each day we did something different. The first night (Monday), we walked from house to house tying people's front doors closed that had blown open. We did not even know who they were. I used over 700 feet of rope simply tying doors & windows shut. The second day, Tuesday, we went to check on people who we knew were still there. We offered to take whoever wanted to leave out. No one wanted to leave. We simply did not know the extent of damage to the infrastructure.
Nextel was basically the only cellular phone system that worked. A buddy of mine was on an assignment in Israel & called me on a satellite phone & asked me to check on his 80 year old mother-in-law & father-in-law, who no one knew if they were dead or alive. The old man, Mr. McAlick, it turned out, had a broken hand. He begged us to take his wife because she was, he said, driving him out of his mind. The alarm in their house was blowing for 30 minutes at a time every 10 minutes. We disconnected the horns to the alarm, called his daughter & son-in-law, Peter Zuppardo, on my cell phone, everyone cried when they found out they were ok, then they asked for us to check on them in a couple of days. They didn't want to leave. They ended up leaving on Wednesday. This basic same thing happened at least 15 times that day. Mr. Hillary Turlich, Bozo's (Chris Vodanovich) brother-in-law was stranded in Metairie on N. Labarre. His wife, Mrs. Veazy, cried when she heard his voice for the first time.
On Wednesday, we did the boat in Lakeview; which I will never forget until my dying day, and then on Thursday, my father-in-law and brother-in-law got into town & helped me move all of the possessions that I could fit into three vehicles & left for Austin. I have a lot of decisions to make with my wife. Once we get settled, I'll let yall know what is going on.
Seeing the national news for the first time has been very upsetting to me.
I can assure you all that for every 1 thug, there is 2,000 people busting their asses trying to help each other. I came across at least 1000 strangers through my 4 day excursion. Every single one asked the exact same question: "do you have enough food & water? If you don't, I can give you some." I did not do anything that any one of you would not have done.
When I went out in the boat, we were one of about 300 other civilians in boats beating on roofs with paddles trying to find people trapped in their attics.
The sensational and insatiable thirst of the press to focus and dwell on the worst of the human element is sickening. I watched with my own eyes the most heroic people I have ever met in my life that had no personal ties to my city work to exhaustion every day before I got there to try to help, and I know that they are still there working to exhaustion.
Currently, I am in temporary exile; however, it will not take me as long as it took Napoleon to return to my. I can be contacted through my cell: xxx-xxx-xxxx.
We will overcome this adversity to rebuild or lives and our city. I am emboldened by all of the good that I saw while I was in country. I cannot tell you how many times I cried to myself out of despair. I can tell you; however, that I cried twice as many times out of thankfulness to God Almighty for not making that storm hit 20 miles to the west. I cannot tell you how thankful I was to have my rosary in my pocket so that I could pray.
I lived a life in 4 days. I cried with despair, I cried with thankfulness, I cried over the dead, I cried with the living, and I cried because I had to leave the city to take care of my family and my business. I am crying as I write to you. I'll never be the same. It will be a while before we are back to where we were on this past Sunday, I only pray that we will be better men because of it.
If I can tell about any of you what neighborhoods I was in, let me know.
Old Metairie (17th St. Canal to Causeway Met. Rd to Veterans): no water
Old Metairie: Met Rd to Airline: water came into many houses, maybe 30%.
It seemed that the water was coming from Airline through Pontiff Playground & Metairie Country Club.
Metairie between Bonnabel & Causeway: I estimate 5% of the houses got water in them - no more than 1-2"
Metairie between Causeway, Clearview, W. Esplanade & the lake: I estimate 90% of the houses got 6" or less of water in them (the closer you got to the levee, the less water).
Lakeview from 17th St. Canal to Orleans Ave, R.E. Lee to 610: 10' of water in every house
R.E. Lee to the levee: the closer you got to the levee, less water.
Usually the last 2 or 3 streets before the levee did not have water in the houses
Lake Vista: we could not lift the boat over the bridge. The houses closest to R.E. Lee had 10' of water. It seemed that the water was less deep the closer you got toward the levee.
Bucktown: 30% of the houses got water in them. By the time I got there, they had pumped the water out. I can only estimate from the water lines.
If I can give you any more information, please let me know.
Michael Varisco
