In those five weeks, plumbers, electricians and other contractors swarmed over the building to get it ready for new patients, new staff and a renewed lease on life. Chris Mangin is senior vice president of operations for Ochsner LSU, and he said the crews literally worked 24/7 to get the building back online.

About 30 years ago, the elder McCommon started working in video and built a sound studio, and Clint later began doing projects with Red River Radio that became the Shreveport House Concert Series. He and partner Bob Robinson saw an opportunity after Hurricane Katrina brought the movie industry to Shreveport.

Most days you’ll find him sitting in a chair on his dock looking out at Caddo Lake. “I’ve sat right here, and God’s creation is all around me. I’ve watched the cormorants last week come from Mexico. I watched the wood ducks make a nest right out here. I watched the eagle yesterday dip down out here and catch a fish.

It has been sort of like the response of the United States to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The entire nation suddenly realized that there was a new normal, that things would not be the same, and that it was up to everyone to make the necessary changes for survival.

“We get a lot of people referred through the court system and drug court,” Maurice noted. “That can’t happen now because those systems have also been shut down. We get quite a few from the treatment centers,.

According to figures released by the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association last week, West Texas Intermediate futures for oil traded below $11 a barrel for the first time since 1986. LOGA said that was a drop in price of over 80% since the beginning of the year.

One such person was Eric Hess, one of the glass artists at Sanctuary Art Glass near downtown Shreveport. He and his partner in glass, Michelle Pennington, were just two more citizens cast adrift on the shores of idleness. Hess was noodling around Facebook when something caught his eye.

No one needs to tell you that Covid-19 has had an impact on almost all aspects of our lives in the past month. The ArkLaTex is once again getting a taste of the shortages, rationing and sacrifice of the war years last century, but there are ways to cope our ancestors would have loved to have.