Baja St. Martin

Food for Seniors this Thursday; Recreation Board meeting that same night. I’m so sorry I missed the last board meeting, but various people were nice enough to share some of the agenda with me. Lucien Cutrera gave a printout of projects for the two recreation sites if a bond issue was floated: finishing the Belle River walking trail; extending the parking lot to the building so seniors don’t have to walk so far; adding dirt to low places so a playground area could be built; playground equipment and figure out how to deal with the terrible acoustics inside the building.
Filling the pond was on the wish list, but I personally kind of like having it the way it is. Maybe cleaner. Get rid of the weeds so you could at least see the water! There are alligators in the summer in the pond but I’ve never found them to be a problem. Alligators aren’t going to chase you or even be aggressive, assuming you don’t attack them. And the walking trail is in a swamp area so it’s not impossible to find a snake on the trail.
I’m picking up this narrative after the tornadoes struck Assumption Parish and other places. Just want you to know that Belle River is fine. We got almost five inches of rain on Tuesday, Feb. 23. It pounded down most of the day until maybe 4 p.m. or thereabouts when the wind started blowing and that kept up until about 6 p.m. or so when the electricity and cable went out. First the water company called to say we should start boiling our water because they had lost a water tower but at that time I didn’t really know what had happened. Then Entergy said the power would be back on by 5:30 p.m., but called back to say it would be 9 p.m.
Then friends with camps nearby started calling to make sure we were okay as well as their camps. That’s when I began to learn just how bad things were. With internet back in action I was able to see the damage in Paincourtville where the water tower was destroyed and a bunch of houses destroyed, a hardware store pretty messed up. A friend said she and seven or eight employees plus two customers were trapped inside the hardware store (Sagona’s) in Paincourtville when the tornado struck the building, pretty much destroying the entire place. Another friend had the top floor of his two story home removed. And pictures of that RV park in Convent. Wow! What a mess!
As this day progresses, I’m finding that a small A-frame home just across the river was blown/knocked off its foundation. Two other Belle River people called to say their sheds had been rolled over and/or smashed.
From first-hand accounts, it sounds as if a tornado really did pass through Belle River just a quarter mile north of me, knocking over sheds and trees, doing some roof damage, then passed across the river, moved that A-frame house I mentioned, tore through the swamp to Paincourtville where it did all that other damage. I have heard that LeBlanc Concrete company, which has been around for a long, long time, is now gone. One Belle River lady said she heard an awful roaring sound close to her house about the time the tornado knocked over sheds, et al.
Today the tree people are out and about. Very nice fellows but only one spoke English so it was a bit hard trying to explain that they needed to come back and trim a bit more by my house plus clean up a bit. They were all very cooperative and helpful, just not too communicative.

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be e-mailed at lindacooke1939@gmail.com.