LaPlace, La. - The memories came rushing back.
"It's Katrina," says State Senator J.P. Morrell. "It's Katrina all over again. You see the refrigerators taped up, you see the drywall. The most heartbreaking thing you see, you see the pictures."
Morrell joined other state legislators Monday on a tour of areas ravaged by Hurricane Isaac. They began in St. John Parish, where streets are lined with mountains of flooded debris.
FEMA assessors are still counting up the damage but as of Friday, more than 10,000 people in the parish had applied for assistance.
Crews in giant trucks slowly scooped up the mess Monday but there is so much work left to do here.
"We're going to need your help," St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom told the delegation. "We're going to need your help in making sure the resources we need are in our parish. We're not a large parish. We're not used to having to deal with this every hurricane. We don't get water in our homes."
Sheriff Mike Tregre also spoke to the group. "My officers jumped out of their cars and boats to rescue people," says Tregre. "We lost a number of bulletproof vests. Shoes, my officers lost a number of shoes. I purchased as many shoes as I could with the limited financing I have."
There is a bigger need here, says Robottom. It's a need that will take the support of state and federal lawmakers to become a reality -- a levee system to protect St. John Parish.
"Many of the representatives here have areas that are protected by levees," says Robottom. "Understanding how significant that was in getting it and getting it expedited so we're hoping that their experience in pushing that through will be helpful in supporting our request in making sure that it gets done in the near future and not after additional studies or feasibility efforts."
As the tour moved on to the next hard-hit area, Senator Morrell said he wouldn't forget what he saw here.
"When you smell that and you see that, you touch that and you see the residents lonely, gutting their own homes, hoping for help, it brings a whole different level to what you're dealing with and how you can help and how you can advocate for them," he says.
After the flood in St. John Parish
