Arkansas Sportsman

Parts of Louisiana healing slowly

Joe Macaluso has been busy since he retired as the outdoors editor of The Advocate in Baton Rouge, but probably not in the way he envisioned.

Macaluso lives in an old area of Baton Rouge. His home was spared the flooding that inundated Baton Rouge, Lafayette and other communities last week, but the neighborhoods around him were devastated.

Cheryl Macaluso, Joe's better half, shared this news Tuesday when I called to check up on them. Joe probably wouldn't be home for some time, Cheryl said, because he is coordinating relief efforts at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Baton Rouge.

"Tonight, he and [son] Chris are making up 900 plates of spaghetti," Cheryl said. "You find out pretty quick that people get real tired of eating jambalaya every night, so they're trying to mix it up a little."

Cheryl said Chris Macaluso stopped by the other night to drop off his young son, who covered for his dad.

"He said, 'Daddy can't come in because he's going out to save people,' " Cheryl said, choking up.

Baton Rouge was caught unprepared for the flood, much as New Orleans and its parish governments were when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, and that help has been slow coming, Cheryl said.

"You hear a lot about the 'Cajun Navy,' but that's what we do here," Cheryl said. "All these fishermen around here, anybody that had a boat, they just went and started picking people up and taking them to safety."

A full-time newspaper gig is a jealous mistress, as Cheryl well knows. She accompanied Joe to Bassmaster Classics in Greenville, S.C., and Birmingham, Ala., but she didn't have any fun.

"Joe always worked too hard at those tournaments," Cheryl said.

He worked harder than almost anyone else at the Classics, but he played hard, too. After he filed his last story, he would convene with a group of regulars somewhere in the hotel and tell stories into the wee hours. He's like a Louisiana Jerry Clower, and he could probably make a fortune as a one-man show.

Cheryl Macaluso scoffed at that idea.

"I'm hoping when this is all over I can finally get my husband back," she said.

On the upside, Joe-Mac has been working so hard on relief efforts that he's dropped a full pant size, Cheryl said.

"That's 5 pounds," I said.

"Probably closer to 10," she said. "When this is over, I'm gonna have one good looking husband!"

"Isn't he already?" I asked.

"Well, some people think he is."

Chris Macaluso is the coastal outreach coordinator for the Louisiana Wildlife Federation. He is currently helping homeowners gut their houses and combat mold. Some folks are reluctant to accept help.

"A lot of people in their sixties and up, some of them have a real problem with people messing with their stuff," Cheryl said.

Baton Rouge has gotten most of what little attention the media has dedicated to this catastrophe, but other communities were hit, too. Chris Berzas, a regular writer for Louisiana Sportsman magazine, said that floods damaged many homes in Opelousas, which is 20 miles north of Lafayette.

"The water actually came up my front porch to the sandbags at the door and receded at the very last minute," Berzas wrote in a Facebook post.

Gordon Hutchinson, a Baton Rouge author and concealed handgun permit instructor, has postponed all of his concealed handgun permit classes until Sept. 24. His gun range is closed, and he said too many roads are closed to make alternate arrangements.

Hutchinson wrote the Quest and the Quarry, one of the finest hunting books I've ever read. Along with Todd Masson, he co-authored The Great New Orleans Gun Grab, which chronicled the concerted and abusive effort by city, parish and state law enforcement agents and National Guard units to disarm New Orleans homeowners after Hurricane Katrina.

Masson, of Metairie, La., is the outdoors editor for NOLA.com. His son, Joel Masson, has been helping Baton Rouge residents gut their homes. Todd said photos and video don't begin to capture the scope of the flood damage.

"If you think you understand the degree of destruction in Baton Rouge but you haven't been there, believe me, it's way worse than you think," Todd wrote in a Facebook post.

Katrina inflicted severe damage on Masson's home in 2005, but his family recovered.

Baton Rouge will too, because the community is unified and strong.

When that time comes, we're hoping Joe Macaluso can slow down a little and start enjoying retirement.

Sports on 08/25/2016

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