Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, September 15, 2005
Pet bird survives amid ruins of hurricane-hit house
Amid the choking stench of stagnant floodwaters and the houseful of broken, scattered furniture came the reassuring chirps of Peaches.
The red and yellow parakeet survived floodwaters that turned the main floor into a toxic swimming pool, 6-feet-deep. It went five days without food or drinking water.
And, despite floodwaters gracing the bottom of its cage, it lived to chirp about it.
"No one expected Peaches to live," said Pat Hoch of Onalaska, Wis., whose sister, Hilma Stolf, lives with her family in the hurricane-ravaged house in Metairie, La., near New Orleans.
Family members hastily fled the day before Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore, thinking they would be back soon. They left Peaches with a day's supply of food and water.
Last Tuesday, they returned home for a two-hour visit, their first trip back in more than a week. "Peaches was chirping away" when they entered, Hoch said.
The house, unfortunately, didn't fare as well.
The roof's gone, the furniture's in pieces, the walls are thick with mildew, and files and paperwork floated down the street.
"Actually, the flies were the worst," Hoch said. "You can lock the doors, but you can't keep out the flies."
The foundation, however, remains, and the family plans to rebuild.
"What was there is gone," Hoch said, "but it will be a better place someday."
Hoch said the family found great hope in the survival of their bird, who in its 23 years has withstood a trip through the vacuum cleaner and, now, Hurricane Katrina.
"It's a little miracle," Hoch said.
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