ARABI, La. — As families in Arabi continue to peel back the layers of scattered debris from last week's tornado, the reality of how to move forward is setting in. One family is filled with uncertainty about how, and even if they will be able to rebuild.
“Everything's gone, and I just, I can't fathom that I'm not going to have that house anymore,” Mimi Herbert, 65 of Arabi, cries.
Behind all the stories of loss and destruction in last week's tornado in Arabi, are personal stories that have families wondering how they will go on.
“I mean that was my house since I was one, and I'm scared we not gonna be able to rebuild.”
Seven years ago Mimi Herbert moved into the family home to care for her sickly parents. Just weeks ago her dad passed away.
“He painted the whole house for me because he knew I was going to live there, and I mean, he did all that work for nothing. I mean, everything's gone,” Herbert said.
Her mom has Alzheimer’s.
“And what makes it hard, is my mama, all night long, ‘ Louis, Louis, I want to come by you Louis,” she said about her mother calling out to her deceased husband.
Mimi and her mother were in the heart of the storm together.
“I jumped on my mama and I said, ‘Mama, we gonna die!’ And she goes, ‘No, no, no.’ And I said, ‘Mama, we gonna die.’ I said, ‘ But at least we gonna go together.’”
She is now staying at her mother's side in a local hospice facility, but they have told them, it's time to leave.
“That is the worst feeling in the world to know you don't have nowhere to go,” said Herbert.
Her home in St. Bernard right now is not an option. The carpets are all wet because the hot water heater broke. Furniture they salvaged, is piled up, so there is no space. Her husband is healing from a liver transplant after cancer. They think he got hepatitis when he went after a shoplifter, who then bit him in a drug store he managed. They have no cars, no insurance and no savings.
“And it's just hard. It's really hard.” When asked what are you going to do? She replied, “I don't' know. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I really don't. I have no idea. I cry every day, which don't do no good.”
So right now, just getting through each hour, each minute is all she can do.
To help the family rebuild: https://gofund.me/3b8ba171