Lafayette, LA – Just when we had scheduled to put CB back together, Hurricane Katrina showed up on the radar screen. What we thought would be yet another hurricane, a few days lost, and back to work, has turned into a life-changing phenomenon, one that always happens to others or in Hollywood movies.While Lafayette, the home of CB, was spared by Katrina, its after effects are nonetheless as bad as having taken a direct hit. Several members of the team were born and/or brought up in the New Orleans area. Their parents, siblings, cousins, friends, and foes all pretty much live in that area. The hurricane has literally wiped out the homes and belongings of their entire clans and support system.
To make it very graphic, one team members knows eight families, all directly related by blood or marriage, who have turned into refugees, with their homes swallowed by the floods.
Since very early stages, Team CajunBot has weathered challenges on a daily basis. However, those challenges were quite different, requiring essentially McGywer-like instinct to create solutions from day-to-day like things, such as duct tape and zip tie.
The wrench thrown by Katrina has created a completely different challenge. The team members who are used to devoting every waking hour to CajunBot have essentially been asked to choose: CajunBot or family and friends. That sure is a pretty cruel test just a few weeks before the NQE opens.
What Katrina probably does not know is that Team CajunBot is one big extended family. The pain of one member is shared by all. When one of our team member is down, we reach out to help and also stand up to fill the person’s place.
As I write this (in the middle of the night) work continues in the lab with reorganized priorities and responsibilities. There is a determination in the lab, just as in rest of Louisiana, that we will not let Katrina get us down.
Friends and fans, you can help in many ways. Please support the efforts of the many charitable organizations in bringing relief to the people rendered homeless and refugees. After all you too are part of the team.
- Arun Lakhotia