Term for the Day: "Slabbed"
When I was first able to hear radio news reports from the Mississippi Coast, I heard statements such as "Long Beach is gone." My husband Steve and I had evacuated to Mobile from Waveland packed for a three-day trip. Much of Mobile lost power, so we listened intently to a battery-operated radio for any news of Mississippi. We blinked vaguely at each other, not understanding this word "gone." "What does that mean?" I asked no one in particular. I looked around at my husband, his family, the neighbors who'd evacuated with us; we were all flummoxed.
I saw a picture of Rickey's, a restaurant right behind our house, on a five-inch black-and-white snowy TV screen the day after the storm. The meaning of "gone" hit me right in the stomach. The view of the restaurant's slab and the empty space behind it, where my house should be, took my breath away and brought me to the floor. Gone.
I couldn't comprehend it; not really. Seeing it in person later that week was completely different from seeing it on that little TV. Where was our house? We were faced with a strange lot on a strange street in a strange community, all familiar landmarks gone. There were some broken things where our house had been, a few of which were actually ours. Many of our clothes and linens were twisted in the few remaining trees. Small things -- dishes, ruined pictures, silverware, records, candlesticks, and our books, which we discovered had become papier mache -- littered the yard or were buried in the mud. There was no furniture or large bookcases or any remnant of the house. Only small things. This puzzled me. "Where is it?" I thought. Gone. Later I would hear one of my sisters, who'd also lost a house, say, "The house is gone. We don't know where it went."
I heard "gone" a lot over the next several weeks, and I never knew what was meant by that until I saw with my own eyes. It meant a home washed across the street or collapsed or in some precarious state of collapse. It also meant a building ruined by 10-20 foot floodwaters, but still standing. And it referred to our slab, which I barely recognized without its walls and roof and which looked smaller than I remembered.
Saying "gone" didn't quite get my point across whenever anyone asked how our house had fared. People couldn't understand a house just being completely gone. They needed more of a description, which was painful and wearisome for me to supply.
Then one day I finally heard the right description: "slabbed." I've used it since then, when asked about our house. "It was slabbed," I say, and that seems to convey the right idea.
Farewell to the freebies
EMAIL THIS
TRACKBACKS
Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do no appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b0aa69e200d8346b44b853ef
advertisement
I was in Bogalusa, LA to work on a chain saw clean up crew for a week in September; the devastation there was incredible. One afternoon 4 of my co-workers finished our "project" that day a little early and wanted to see the Coast area. We drove into Waveland and turned right at the red light at a sign that read "Waveland Beach". As we drove down Waveland Avenue the 3-4 blocks to the beach, my eyes saw the progression of the destruction, but my heart could not comprehend it was possible. I have no friend or family in that area, but my heart broke at the sight of "gone" and the families' loss, children's toys never to be found, the utter nothingness! I wept on the beach. My prayers have been and still are lifted for that community and others like it in that region. Thank you for telling the story, because nothing I had seen or heard in the media prepared me for the emptiness of Waveland. May God bless the people of the Gulf Coast.
Carole Raley Franklin, Tennessee (Sent Nov 30, 2005 9:54:21 AM)
I understand completely, I lost my home in hurricane charlie in Florida and now my aunt lost her home and her husband of 55 years in Louisiana, all she wishes for this holiday season is just a picture of him. I am one of the missionaries who helps with the clean up after hurricane katrina in Louisiana and even though I can't do much for my family homes it helps to do for others who are suffing just as equally as I am. I am thankful to God that I have my health, and my Spirit is still strong in essence of the goodwill of man.
Peace out...
Isabel Coles (Sent Nov 30, 2005 1:46:24 PM)
I too have struggled to describe it to people. i came back to the Pass to help look for the pieces of a house that my father, brother and I had built. Standing in what was once the bedroom I took a panoramic spin on what now seemed to be a very small boat in a half mile sea of "slabs". Yes, "slabbed" does seem to fit that particular emotion.
Another emotion dificult to describe is the joy and heartbreak of trying to follow your "house's debris trail". It's like a very, very twisted treasure hunt. You are find yourself jubilant at finding a small knickknack while simutaneously being awed by the calamity of it all. If you come up with a catchy phrase for that you will have condensed a lot of sadness into something you can laugh about - and your article did make me laugh and smile. Thank you.
rw, iraq (Sent Nov 30, 2005 2:56:25 PM)
I am now blessed to living in AZ. with my sister and her family. I love it here but do miss my roots in the South and ,of course, friends and family. I loved the Gulf coast area and had friends there. It's so sad all that was lost, it was a beautiful place and I pray it will be again. I have a daughter still in Pensacola and pray hard everytime one comes her way, and she's had to leave a couple of times in the last year. My heart and prays go out to the people who stayed and had to leave. God Bless you all.
Jeanie W. Pate (Sent Dec 2, 2005 11:49:28 AM)
SEND A COMMENT
PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.