美国国家公共电台 NPR Locals In Flooded Rural Areas Of Louisiana Say Aid Is Slow To Arrive

Locals In Flooded Rural Areas Of Louisiana Say Aid Is Slow To Arrive

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

In southern Louisiana, some areas are still flooded nearly two weeks after the region was inundated¹ by historic rain storms. Aid has been slow to arrive in rural areas of the state. NPR's Kirk Siegler sent this report.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE²: If you had to pick one consistent sound in southern Louisiana right now, it'd be these huge industrial fans trying to dry everything out. They're humming along in the three-room city hall in the small town of Maurice. Wearing a white polo shirt with black embroidered³ letters that read mayor, Wayne Theriot moves a couple of boxes and a broken chair so we can talk.

WAYNE THERIOT: You're in city hall, what's left of it.

SIEGLER: The computers are ruined. The staff and their spouses⁴ are hauling out boxes of files into a modular building next door that will serve as the temporary city hall.

THERIOT: One of my biggest challenges is I lost my home - trying to deal with that as well as trying to deal with this.

SIEGLER: He and his wife are now living in an RV that they happened to buy a little while ago. He figures they'll be in it for the next three or four months. But by the grace of God, he says, this town will get through this.

THERIOT: I know that you're from out of state and maybe unaware⁵ of our culture - Cajun culture - and that is we help people. We don't wait. We buckle⁶ down, pull up our boots and head out and help people.

SIEGLER: Another reason they didn't wait is because, until recently, a lot of places around here were cut off by flooded country roads - hard or impossible for aid to reach. And just like in Baton⁷ Rouge⁸, the need here is overwhelming.

WAYNE LEBLANC: You want some water?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I'm good...

LEBLANC: Yeah?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: ...But it looks like you need some. (Laughter).

LEBLANC: Yeah, I could use some.

SIEGLER: Down the road, Wayne LeBlanc is digging into his ice chest in the back of his pickup⁹. He's tired, hot and sweating from dealing¹⁰ with his house and workshop, which took in about 2 feet of water. He filed his FEMA claim more than 10 days ago - no word yet.

LEBLANC: If you wait on government or you wait on the help from the government-wise - I mean, FEMA hasn't even showed up yet.

SIEGLER: He can't wait. Otherwise, the black mold will take over. So with the help of his family and some students from the school where his daughter teaches, LeBlanc gutted¹¹ his entire house. Battered¹² furniture and debris¹³ is now piled up almost 15 feet high on the side of the road.

LEBLANC: And they all pitched in. Everybody came here and busted¹⁴ butt¹⁵.

SIEGLER: LeBlanc is staying with his sister nearby. His camper is parked in her driveway.

LEBLANC: So I'm fortunate. I've got a roof over my head. I can go home and go in the afternoon and sleep at night. But there's a lot of people in Lafayette and Vermilion Parish that do not have a home.

SIEGLER: He's still trying to clean out his workshop.

LEBLANC: Let's see.

SIEGLER: He's ripping particleboard off the wall, wearing a back brace¹⁶ for support.

LEBLANC: You can see that water just stayed there, you know?

SIEGLER: Nearby, in Abbeville, Mara Brown is getting used to the sound of the fans and this industrial humidifier running constantly in the first floor of her home.

MARA BROWN: I've never - I have never seen dehumidifiers this big before.

SIEGLER: After several days of calls and no-shows, her family finally found a willing contractor¹⁷ to help them with the demolition¹⁸.

BROWN: We've never been through this before, so we didn't know. And the contractor was good enough to tell me, look, I've never done this before, you know, so I'm just learning as you are.

SIEGLER: In her backyard, the murky¹⁹ floodwaters of the Vermilion River are still just a few feet away. The trunks of oak and cypress²⁰ trees are still underwater.

BROWN: I never thought the river would come up this high. If you look out there, you'll see how far the river is. With all the hurricanes, it's never come up maybe half of what it came up.

SIEGLER: And people like Brown are nervously²¹ watching the forecast right now with two possible hurricanes building to the south. She has no plans to start rebuilding until hurricane season is over. Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Maurice, La.

1 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 embroidered   

adj．绣花的

参考例句：

• She embroidered flowers on the cushion covers. 她在这些靠垫套上绣了花。
• She embroidered flowers on the front of the dress. 她在连衣裙的正面绣花。

4 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

5 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

6 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

7 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

8 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

9 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

11 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

13 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

14 busted   

adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You are so busted! 你被当场逮住了！
• It was money troubles that busted up their marriage. 是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。

15 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

16 brace   

n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备

参考例句：

• My daughter has to wear a brace on her teeth. 我的女儿得戴牙套以矫正牙齿。
• You had better brace yourself for some bad news. 有些坏消息,你最好做好准备。

17 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

18 demolition   

n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹

参考例句：

• The church has been threatened with demolition for years. 这座教堂多年来一直面临拆毀的威胁。
• The project required the total demolition of the old bridge. 该项目要求将老桥完全拆毁。

19 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

20 cypress   

n.柏树

参考例句：

• The towering pine and cypress trees defy frost and snow.松柏参天傲霜雪。
• The pine and the cypress remain green all the year round.苍松翠柏，常绿不凋。

21 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。