Get out while you can

Ida. She was a great lady who worked at a sushi bar I used to frequent.

Now she’s a hurricane and eyeing the New Orleans area with what is forecast to be as heavy as Katrina was in 2005.

I heard these new improved levees since Katrina will last 150 years.

That’s what was said after the 1971 Sylmar quake collapsed the 14/5 interchange.

The engineers at that time said something similar about the overpass that was built.

23 years later, it came down again in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

They built it again and named it after the officer I used to ride alongside on my way to work at the Woodley Lakes Golf course.

His name was Clarence Wayne Dean, and the 14/5 interchange overpass is named after him.

I used to fly down the 14 at 4:30 am everyday to open the cart shack.

Clarence would pull up beside me and give me a look that clearly said, “Slow down.”

I would always immediately take my foot off the gas and expect him to pull me over, but he never did.

I think he knew I was on my way to work. It almost became a game between us.

I quit that job in 1993 and a few months later, Clarence Wayne Dean died flying off the edge of the collapsed overpass on his motorcycle.

If I hadn’t quit that job when I did, I would have been on that road at the same time.

Now the new and extra improved interchange is said to last 200 years.

I’ve thought about that officer at least once a month since 1994. Rest in peace, officer Dean.

If I was living in New Orleans, I would get out now while you can still drive or walk out.

Mitchell Seyfer

Palmdale