Ink Stains from Katrina – Chapter 6 – Todd

Todd and the origami rabbit

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Todd Windisch
Contractor/Designer/Builder

Todd’s tattoo of an origami bunny is in memoriam to his friend Jason Sweznic who died shortly after and because of the storm. “Jason was the second person I met when I moved to New Orleans. He was a bartender at Café Degas for forever,” Todd said. “And he was my friend.”

Todd evacuated with his wife, Erin, and was in Atlanta only two weeks before coming back. He spotted a 4’ by 8’ hole in the roof of his apartment on Google maps. “The roof of our building got blown off by a tornado that ripped through the day of the storm. Our landlord had stayed and my friend, Jason had stayed. Jason called and said you need to come back and deal with your apartment because everything is getting ruined,” Todd said.

His landlord had covered up Todd’s musical equipment with plastic but when he got back, he said it took three to five days to grasp what had happened because he was in shock. “There’s no other way to put it, riding around in knee deep in water to board up houses and businesses around the city. Poker machines were looted, people were wrecking stuff for whatever reason, maybe maliciously. There wasn’t a stitch of light. The first couple of nights I heard gunfire and was too afraid to start up my generator during the day.”

Todd’s friend Jason came by to move his sofa with a chainsaw because they could not get it out the door. “Jason was very stressed; he could not grasp what was going on. He had moved across the lake and had gotten involved with a bad crowd and at the time he and I were not seeing eye-to-eye because of the way he was not coping.”

Jason died of an overdose shortly after the storm. “He was not a weak man, but the effect of the storm was that bad. There were five different substances in his system according to the toxicology report,” Todd said.

“Jason was a big kid. He was a guy with a huge heart. He got to be friends with my two kids and they all carved their names in a tree in City Park. He was an origami expert, could take a piece of paper and make a rose or a rabbit, drunk or sober. He had gotten bunny tattoos on each of his triceps before the storm. He loved bunnies for whatever reason.”

“I miss the guy. I miss walking into Degas and seeing him hanging around. I don’t want another person to be forgotten because of this freaking storm. It’s a damn shame. We’re not much further along two years later, but I guess everything is baby steps.”

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