The LW needs to stop obsessing. Stop the thoughts by popping a rubber band when she thinks them, whatever. The obsessing is holding her back.

My mother's house was across the Leon C. Simon bridge from Gentilly, near Lakefront Airport. Everything was destroyed by 5 feet of water. If the cabinent sat in the house it was possibly mold covered. Once the mold got it, it was not salvageable. I believe the landlady probably did throw it out if it was moldy. She had no choice. The mold spreads, and it was a massive problem in that area. Once any mold got on something, out it went.

If it was saturated with water, it was also a goner. There's no way to clean the filthy, chemical saturated water out of the wood. The piece may have looked OK, but it was probably not OK. It's contaminated. If you clean it with bleach, it will snap. If you don't, the chemicals will eat through the wood.

No one I know is taking that furniture. It was burning people's hands to touch some of the contaminated pieces.

Let it go. We lost my grandmother's furniture, the one hundred year old piano I was supposed to inherit, pictures, art, musical instruments, the works. Nothing salvageable. It broke my heart, and many other people's hearts. I still mourn. But my 70 year old mother got out, as did many relatives. Other older relatives and friends have died of heart attacks from viewing the wreckage. I know my family is lucky, and I have to not obsess over the loss.

The LW is in mourning. She needs to mourn and let it go. It's gone. Nothing will bring the chest back.

She's focusing on the chest, because a whole way of life is gone. Nothing will ever be the same. Thinking

My mother still cries every once in a while. 70 years old, and all she has to show for it is a shell of a double house, a good pension, and a car. But she's luckier than most. Many lost health insurance, jobs, loved ones. She still picks herself up and keeps going, because she has to. Because nothing will bring those things back, and she needs her strength to deal with governmental incompetence and corruption in the rebuilding. We deal with the tricksters, the con men, the evil predators every day. By focusing on the good people who help, who are coming down to aid the rebuilding, who good city, state, and federal workers help navigate the Byzantine set of rules about who can rebuild and how, not to mention the craziness of taxes, we keep ourselves sane. from this horro came a million people in a million ways doing good. Focusing on the good is hard. The bad always seems to speak more. But the good is there, and it can help keep you sane.

God bless you LW. I pray for your ultimate recovery.

Depending on where the piece sat, it may have been the only piece with mold on it. That happens. It also depends on the wood type. If some of the other pieces had metal parts in the water, etc, it's different. I have heard of one piece being mold covered while something else next to it was not. To assume that the piece was stolen because it was the only piece removed is a rather large leap of logic.

Most of Gentilly was under 5-8 feet of water. By UNO, you had less than 2 feet to inches, while by SUNO you have 5 feet+ (people had to get on top of the Science Lecture Hall to be rescued- the whole first floor of each buliding was covered). Without knowing where the piece sat in the house, or how much water it sat in (they did throw out a LOT of stuff, so there was a significant amount of water in the house), you can't just assume the landlady took it. In our own house, the mold crept over time (about four weeks) to cover darn near everything. The stench was horrendous. Animals got in the houses,a nd used the furniture for dens. Rats, gators, etc got into the houses and furniture. On my own block (6 blocks from Downman) nothing made of wood in any house was salvageable. Nothing. So I have good reason to believe the landlady.

The fact that the other stuff was not touched actually gives the landlady credibility. If she wanted to sell the stuff, she could have sold it all, and told them it was abandoned or stolen by looters. If she was evil, she would have not have given them permission in the first place. Habitable houses are renting for incredible amounts of money in N.O. (try $1-2000 a month).

The police will laugh at the LW if she tries to report it. There's a murder spree going on. One missing chest that could have had mold on it is not going to spark an investigation. I have family down there, fixing houses and working for the reconstruction. If that thing sat in any amount of water, it was a goner.