League Staffer Returns Home To Find HomeMostly Intact

BATON ROUGE, La. - (09/08/05) While the city of New Orleans is stillbeing evacuated, a number of surrounding parishes have allowedresidents in to assess the damage to their homes and collect someof their belongings, according to Louisiana CU League's AliciaBlanda, who was happy to report that her own home in JeffersonParish had suffered only minor damage. “We were incrediblylucky,” she told The Credit Union Journal. “We havesome water damage from a window that blew out, but we had no floodwaters in the house because we're located on the west bank of the[Mississippi] river.” Blanda said she was thrilled to be ableto check out her house but was unable to assess the damage in anyof the neighboring parishes. “The National Guard has the arealocked down neighborhood by neighborhood, so all you can do is getin to your own home and get right back out,” she related.“I'm so glad the National Guard is here. You're able to getin to your house until 6 p.m., and then you have to get out.Technically, you could choose to stay, but if you do, you're toldyou are on your own, no 911 service, nothing.”