Signs...of the Times
Kay King

Disaster may strike....but people WILL have their say.  A seldom mentioned fact of an area's recovery from a natural disaster is that there are signs everywhere!  Industrious construction workers from around the country flood into the area.  In just a few days....often before the disaster-relief people are even fully operational...there are signs on every street you can drive ....roofers, framers, tree-cutters, debris removal,
painters, mold removal.  These crews, operating with cell phones, are ready to work and want their share  of the reconstruction "pie".

To compete, local business print up and stake their own signs...with "local business" in big letters at the top.  It is not at all unusual on the Gulf Coast right now to turn into a subdivision and see 40-50 signs about 2 feet high staked within 100 feet.

Most of these contractors are legitimate work crews who know the work is here for as long as they can handle seven day weeks and 10 hour days.  In the mix, though, are always the con artists who will (and do) take the money and run without doing the work.

The best signs to be found in the disaster area are on boards propped in front of damaged homes or painted on what is left of a house.

The homes along the beach in my subdivision were totally blown away...all that's left is a slab or the stilts the home was perched on.  Prior to Katrina, homes on the second street from the beach had a view of the back of the homes on the street closest to the water.

After Katrina, one enterprising owner placed a sign in front of his ruined home...."part of home for sale, cheap, near the beach, lovely NEW view...."

Around the corner from my home is a house missing the roof and one wall....big sign spray-painted on a remaining wall is "....but what did I say???"

It's impossible to drive through any damaged area without seeing humor.  After all the talk for years about unsafe mobile homes...the newer mobile homes on the Coast actually fared quite well in Katrina.  Nailed to a tree outside one such home ...."Na, Na, Na-Na, Na" ...

It's amazing that people can laugh after such destruction....but perhaps that's all that is left for some.   Small comments carry a big message, such as....

"Been here, Done that, Gone"

"For Sale, HandymEn Special"

"For Sale....Buy a Piece of Paradise Cheap"

"Special - Storm Sale - won't last"

"Dear Katrina ---Was going to remodel anyway....so there!"

"Lots of excitement....no T-shirts"  (I'm still pondering that one!)

Two homeowners whose homes had been totally blown away had propped plywood against a tree.  The wood had a huge bulls-eye painted on it.

Then there are the comments aimed at the gender of Katrina:

"I told y'all not to piss her off"

and, my personal favorite....

"Ain't that just like a woman?"