These are pictures that I took on October 14th in Slidell. I have labeled each picture. This was my first visit back to Slidell since the hurricane. It was very hard to see the areas where I grew up still struggling to rebuild. Most of the pictures are from the Pontchartrain area. Those neighborhoods and businesses were hit the hardest with flooding and tree damage. I have also included some pictures of Stan and Sandy's new house.

Stan's new house off of Pontchartrain Dr.

The back of the house. The house sits on about an acre of property

These are the temporary buildings being used to house Our Lady of Lourdes students. The school is going to require extensive repairs. They will be rebuilding the classrooms on an elevated structure. This is where I went to grade school.

These next few pictures are of the Our Lady of Lourdes church. For those of you from Slidell, you probably know how beautiful that church used to be. It was by far one of the most beautiful Catholic churches I have ever seen. Father Hotard, the father of the parish when I was there and many years after, put a great deal of pride into that church. It had beautiful stain glass windows depicting the stations of the cross and a gorgeous alter. The roof of the church caved in during the hurricane and it completely destroyed the building. Amazingly enough, the bell tower still stands. This was the hardest thing I had to look at while I was there. To see something so beautiful destroyed was very sad.

This empty field is where Salmon high school once stood. The building to the far right in the distance is one of the only original buildings remaining. The rest of the buildings in the background are new temporary structures put up to house students.

Lauren Plaza still boarded up. This is on Pontchartrain near Hwy. 11

This was taken at the Bayou Liberty marina. I was surprised to see that most of the boat clutter had been cleared from this marina and Eden Isles. Some boat debris was still scattered around, but nothing like I expected.

The Act X apartments on Hwy. 11

This is a photo of a "hurricane proof" house built on Lakeshore Dr. after the hurricane. It is designed to withstand winds of 300 miles per hour and is made of fiberglass. The real question...is it waterproof??

Still some boat clutter at the Eden Isles marina, but overall I thought it looked pretty good.

This is the Pontchartrain shopping center that used to house the old McKenzies bakery and the Carafe & Draft movie theater. It is completely gutted.

This is the McDonalds on Pontchartrain. It is still closed down. Although it's been updated since I grew up there, it still brings back a lot of memories. I spent a lot of time at this McDonalds, mostly in the drive thru.