Katrina made the unthinkable reality 13 years ago

On August 29, 2005, Hurrican Katrina made landfall just east of New Orleans. The following is a column from The Welsh Citizen, written  by me on a Tuesday afternoon 13 years ago:

 What many feared finally happened. Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst hurricanes ever

recorded in this country, made landfall early Monday morning, August 29.

Katrina didn’t seem too scary at first. She made landfall in southern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, went out in the Gulf and rapidly built up power. The fearful weather front aimed at the Louisiana coast. Was New Orleans going to get a direct hit? What would happen? Would she take a more western path? What would then happen with us?

The killer hurricane hit the coast south of New Orleans but made a last minute turn towards the east. The eye just missed the city, but was devastating for The Big Easy’s neighbors in Mississippi and Alabama.

On Monday I was going to Crowley to prepare the newspaper for the press. I went straight to Crowley fairly early in the morning because I had no idea that to expect on I-10.

It was weird traveling eastward that morning. Hardly no traffic at all. I wasn’t passed by one single vehicle during the half an hour it took me to drive over to Crowley, and I did not pass anyone up either. I am not sure if I even saw 10-15 cars driving east or west that morning. It was right around 7:30 a.m. and the highway is usually busy at that time.

I went back to Welsh but took a break at the rest area just east of Jennings. It was crowded.

Everyone I talked to was from New Orleans. Most of the travelers had spent the night at the rest area. Some even put up tents. People were sleeping on the ground; others were sitting in their cars trying to get relatives over the cell phone.

One doesn’t see taxi cabs from New Orleans too often in this neck of the wood. Shah Malik was sitting in his cab

waiting, not for passengers, but for a word from home in New Orleans.

A school bus driver, Linda McCall from the New Orleans West Bank, had loaded up her family in the bus to seek shelter away from the storm.

Another family had loaded up two cars with 15 cats, eight dogs, three ferrets, three parrots, a guinea pig, plus Smiley the Frog. They were also from the Westbank and had not even considered getting a hotel room. All animals were doing well and the five people seemed to do well,

too. A family from Slidell had loaded up the trailer with their three dogs. They ended up near Jennings because earlier rest areas were even busier. They also knew that they were safe from the storm.

Every one of these individuals from all walks of life had something in common that morning. “I want to get back as

soon as possible to see what I have left.” They all made that comment even if it was worded differently.

The storm passed and New Orleans seemed to have fared as well as could be expected. I was not the only one that took a deep breath of relief Monday evening. On Tuesday morning news

reported that a levee broke and water was now coming into the central parts of New Orleans. There had been reports on Tuesday on flooded areas near Lake Pontchartrain. I just got back from the TV set at home. I had to drag myself away from the CNN broadcast. The coast guard was working hard rescuing people from their flooded homes. Only the roofs were sticking up from the water. Some structures were on fire. Looting on Canal Street was reported. The scenes on the TV screen are almost impossible to describe.

What was happening to this beautiful city? I had loose plans on Monday evening to try to take off from work get over to New Orleans. A guy from Malmö, Sweden was stranded in a hotel and I was asked by a Swedish newspaper if it was possible for me to get in touch with him and other Swedish tourists for a report. That proved to be impossible.

The question is now – what will New Orleans be like after this? How much demolition is there? What about the damage from the flooding?

I hope that New Orleans can be brought back to its former beauty. I am optimistic it is possible.

And let’s not forget the human sacrifices. Many lives were lost. We don’t know how

many yet. At least not on this Tuesday afternoon.

Editor’s note: The column

was written on Tuesday,

September 30 and published in The Welsh Citizen on September, 6, 2005.

Being around the dial has it's perks - A tribute to my favorite band, The Kinks

Radios of the world are tuning in tonight,
Are you on the dial, are you tuned in right?
One of our D.J.'s is missing.
Are you listening?
Are you listening to me?
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me clearly?
Around the dial.

I've been around the dial so many times,
But you're not there.
Somebody tells me that you've been taken off the air.
Well, you were my favorite D.J.,
Since I can't remember when.
You always played the best records,
You never followed any trend.
F.M., A.M. where are you?
You gotta be out there somewhere on the dial.
On the dial. (From Around the Dial by Ray Davies)

I was ten years old. My family was living on the west coast of Sweden, some 20 miles north of Gothenburg. I had slowly become aware of the emerging pop scene in Sweden and abroad. My four year older sister was a Beatles fan and had a few Beatles 45's. She had also been nice enough to take me to the movie theater where we had watched The Beatles first movie, A Hard Day's Night. My sister Aino usually brought home a Swedish pop music magazine, Bildjournalen, which I read from cover to cover as soon as she was finished with it.
The Swedish public radio didn't have much pop music on it was usually a few hours per week. Saturdays the radio broadcast a  traveling hit list show, where the audience could vote on the Top 10, plus five challengers. Tio I Topp, as it was called even came to the community, Stenungsund, where we were living at the time.
Anyway, from the music magazine I had learned about a radio station, Radio Luxemburg, which was broadcasting pop music 24/7.
However, it was distributed on middle wave, which only came in at night, if it came in at all.

We had a yellow transistor radio and this radio became my window out to the pop world a couple of hours every night.
I used to "sneak out" to the kitchen, grab the radio and bring it to my room while my parents and my sister were watching TV.
I soon learned to find Radio Luxembourg and enjoyed listening to the latest pop sounds, as much as the transmission quality allowed.
One night, I heard something I had never heard before on Swedish radio. The song started  with a bang. A guitar blasted out, 'bam baba bam bam! I had no clue what they were singing about. I was in fourth grade and had just starting to learn English a month, or so earlier.
The DJ came on and announced t bla-bla-The Kinks -bla-bla-bla etc. I didn't understand much, but remembered the name of the band, The Kinks. I
 heard that song several times until the my sister's music magazine  mentioned a new band, The Kinks and their hit record, You Really Got Me.
I was just take by the sound of the song. Finally I had something on my own to admire. I didn't just have to rely on my sister's Beatles 45's anymore.
Later that autumn,  it could have been around Christmas Time, 1964. our family was traveling to Gothenburg for some shopping. I had saved some of my weekly allowance for this occasion, because I wanted that record so much. At the record store the store clerk, an elderly gentleman, probably in his early 40's, asked me if i wanted to listen to the record before I bought it and of course, I thought he never would ask. It was just magic to listen to it like that.

I was a happy camper when we returned. I didn't have a record player yet, so my sister was graceful enough to let me play it on her record player, you know one of those  players where the speaker was in the lid, which you removed so one could get access to the turntable.
I was in heaven.

The Kinks continued to release hits, in fact they released a string of hits during the next few years. All Day And All Of The  Night, Tired of Waiting, See My Friends ( which perhaps was the first hit song with Eastern drone tones), A Well Respected Man, Dedicated follower of Fashion, and many more. The last one was a hit in Swedish as well, covered by Boris & The Beatmakers. I remember my dad really liked that song because of the catchy melody and the witty lyrics. By the way, the Swedish translation was fairly true to Ray Davies' English lyrics.
I continued to follow the Kinks over the years. However it wasn't until much later I realized how groundbreaking they were.  It seemed like they were working in the shadow of the big men, The Beatles, The Rollings Stones, The  Who, and maybe some other bands. I mentioned the Eastern sounding See My Friends above. Also they were the first rock band to release an album with a theme, Village Green Preservation Society. The follow up, Arthur (And The Decline Of The British Empire was also thematic. Eventually they sang about transgenders like Lola, or did they. We might never know. In the 1970's Ray Davies decided to release operatic albums like another two Village Green albums, plus Ducks on the Wall and Schoolboy In Disgrace.
I saw The Kinks perform once, in my then hometown of Lund, Sweden. It was during the Schoolboy In Disgrace tour.

However many years later, perhaps 25 years ago, I went to London. I had won a pop/rock trivia competition and the main prize was a flight to London. It just so happened that Ray Davies was performing his first Story Teller show. The show was based on his "unauthorized" biography, X-Ray. Roy read excerpts from his book accompanied by Kinks songs. As you can imagine it was a moving night to remember for this guy who, some 41 years earlier had listened to You Really Got Me on my family's transistor radio.
Many years after I moved here I was moved, again. I was watching the Olympic Game closing ceremony of 2012. All of a sudden, Ray Davies emerged singing , my perhaps favorite pop song ever, Waterloo Sunset. It was like all pieces came together.

All the above came to mind when I was playing one of The Kinks' 80's-albums Give The People What They Want. I used to be one of those kids who were searching around the dial for those pop songs. If I hadn't stumbled over The Kinks that one time, my list of favorite bands  might have looked different.
However the great The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other bands are, The Kinks will always have a special place in my heart, no matter what.