Pulling Together To Rebuild

Aid from across the country has started coming in to hard-hit St. Tammany Parish, but Tracy Smith

In a parish near New Orleans that still bears the marks of the killer hurricane, Smith found signs of hope, such as two men playing golf, and simple acts of defiance as chaos gives way to normal life.

Asked by Smith if St. Tammany will ever be the same, parish President Kevin Davis said, "I think we'll always have these vivid memories of what we saw, but yeah. I wish I could show you the spirit of our people, and how they're all working together. I mean, I just know it."

People such as Dr. Rachael Murphy who, Smith says, chain-sawed her way out of her tree-strewn neighborhood so she could volunteer.

"I was able to get out … and start working," Murphy says. "And, so, I truly feel it was my mission to make sure St. Tammany got the medical help they needed."

She set up six M*A*S*H units around the parish, where treatment is free. She also begged and borrowed enough medicine to literally fill a vault.

"It's about $100,000 worth of medication (in the vault), easily," she says.

But, she adds, it's worth more than money, "It's worth life."

Davis directs relief efforts from a command center he started planning long before Katrina.

"In Louisiana, we're accustomed to hurricanes, (though) not of this devastation," he says, "and we go through this process two or three times a year."

But no matter how self-sufficient they were, Davis needed an assurance that outside help would come — and he got it in writing from President Bush.

In a hand-written, signed note, Mr. Bush wrote, "To the people of St. Tammany, my prayers and thoughts are with you. And we are going to help you."

Davis says the notes meant "quite a bit" to him.

And the progress St. Tammany has made is "astounding," Smith says.

"In a couple of weeks, we're gonna be about 90 percent there," Davis says. "Our general economy is coming up, so things are really starting to look good."

There are still large parts of St. Tammany that are a long way from recovery. But, despite the devastation, every parish road has been cleared, 1,411 miles in all.

Schools are expected to reopen Oct. 3. Until then, kids are part of the cleanup effort.

"You're gonna find so many heroes helping each other," Davis says. "I hope, one day, I'll be able to thank them all."