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Dear All,
My wife and children are fine as is everyone that evacuated New Orleans. We know that both our home and office are underwater. We will be allowed to return home for 36 hours to assess and secure the damage and get essentials when the water receded. We are then requested to not return home again for two months while clean up and emergency crews take care of damaged and dangerous streets. In the meantime, most of our friends, family, and patients are between Baton Rouge and Houston. Baton Rouge is one hour from our home and Houston is about six hours away. We are about 15 miles away from Lafayette, Louisiana (two hours from our home). I will be using a friend’s office in Lafayette to handle my patient’s emergencies, once they are able to contact me. Phone communications, including cell phones, are very poor. I have finished setting up a computer and am assessing E-mail again. We have already visited with our insurance agents, which fortunately happen to be here where we are staying. Our future will be dependent on the insurance assessors and the amount of hurricane damage. Unfortunately, flood insurance will not cover anywhere near the losses caused by the flooding. We are confident from the news we have gathered that there is definitely some hurricane damage, and our insurance will take very good care of us. I am already prepared with a mobile home and dental equipment to begin working as soon as power is restored to our area. We have a builder to supply hookups. Sadly, I am way ahead of the game, but all the residents of our town and the surrounding area will not be residing back there until their homes are restored within the next 6 to 24 months. Therefore, we will have very few patients with dentistry as a priority for some time.
Other AACD dentists [Editor’s note: Dr. Roethele is Chairman of the American Board of Cosmetic Dentistry, the “credentialing authority of the AACD”] are in similar situations.
Few people have an opportunity to start over, and now we have that chance. Looking back, though, we have been so blessed that there are few things we would change. I had my backup mobile home rescued before the hurricane hit by my sister, so the only regrettable loss, other than the obvious, are my nine binders of slides and photography equipment. Rest assured that we are well, and we are prepared for any situation. We are inspired by the outpouring of prayers, good wishes, and offers of assistance. I will continue to serve the AACD in the same capacity or more, since I will have some time on my hands for the next few months.
Thank you so much for your extremely generous offers for work assistance and prayers. My wife and I both cry when we read them. We have been kicking many ideas around, and it has been difficult to make any decisions with so much uncertainty in regards to restoring home and office, insurance considerations, and schools for our children. All of this is on an extreme lack of sleep. We went from a 5000 square foot home to a 500 square foot attic room, which serves as bedroom and office for all of us.
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We are happy and excited with anticipation of what the future holds as we start over, like so many others. We are among the fortunate, as so many of the people here in Louisiana have been more gracious than you can imagine.
We have purchased a mobile home to serve as our home and office, but are still struggling with City Hall with permits, fees, and waiting periods. We estimate two weeks and we will be up and running. This will serve us temporarily until our home and office are rebuilt/repaired. Insurance adjusters still cannot get in to assess the damage or write checks. Starting over in a new town is kind of exciting, but still very uncertain. The dental representatives here say that there are many displaced dentists looking for housing and work. I was told a story of a dentist who flagged down a Patterson truck in Baton Rouge to ask him to spread the word that he is available to work anywhere as a dentist, hygienist, or assistant. Communication is still poor. Traveling the streets is worse than rush hour all day long, everywhere. And building supplies and manpower to reconstruct are scarce and hard to find.
But the people here have been wonderful and extremely generous, along with our patients, the city, and our people from back home.
We attended orientation at our children’s elementary school for displaced families. The school cafeteria was filled with families in the same clothes they evacuated in. Everyone was still in disbelief. Some of the students were wearing donated school uniforms, while other students were wearing street clothes. They are calling out the student’s names to be escorted to their new classrooms. The Principal called a little boy’s name in 4th grade. The little boy stood up in tears, and the Principal went to pat him on the head to console him. The little boy threw his arms around the Principal and hugged him with all his might, sobbing profusely. The 4th grader’s father was wiping tears and the entire crowd in the cafeteria began to cry and sniffle.
When I was negotiating with the landowners to place my temporary building, I asked if we could work out a graduated lease term agreement to pay less in the beginning of the lease, because we had no income and no access to our bank, so income was low. He said, “I tell you what, I am not even gonna charge ya.” He is an attorney and has helped me work with plumbers and electricians and local banks to get going. There are people cooking for the people in shelters here every night. There are volunteers, including my mother-in-law, who are doing the laundry for those at the shelter here.
This is just a glimpse of what displaced are going through and the generosity of the people around us. We still consider ourselves among the fortunate and have an opportunity to begin again.
Be good and God bless.
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Dedication of Dr. Levit’s headstone in Argentina with