So Now I’m The Crazy Neighbor

My mother thought a good idea for a Mother’s Day present for my grandmother would be a framed photo of myself with Pugly, but she said that the photos I’ve taken of myself with the wigs on are all so fun that I should do the portrait with a wig on. O.K. No problem. In New Orleans, I used to do the costume wigs and costume stuff all of the time.

O.K. This is Maine. Definitely not the same as New Orleans.

And rural Maine? You cannot go out of your front door wearing a blue page wig, a Indian-made blouse, and blue jeans and carrying a tripod, a camera and a Pug and not have every single one of your neighbors come to the edge of your yard and stare like you’re about to climb up a water tower with a rifle or something.
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Tags: Pug, dog, the puppy, neighbors, dress up, New Orleans, rural, Maine, Mother\\\'s Day, family

Work Your Brain — 09/02/06

First Some Fun

• Thursday Thirteen #3 — Baggage @ Baggage That Goes With Mine wrote thirteen reasons why the internet is better than real life. This is my favorite.
  

  11. On the internet, you can pop into a forum or a blog and tell a person that their beliefs are dumb, they should be breastfeeding, they should never co-sleep, they should divorce their husband, they should shave their legs, and they should stop wearing mom jeans. In real life, people would punch you in the face.

In Memory Of Katrina

• But you can keep them for the birds and bees — Mac @ PeskyApostrophe wonders about all of that Katrina aid money the U.S. asked for and got from other countries last year. She comes to the same conclusion I did.
  

  I’m appalled at a variety of things when it comes to the Katrina rebuilding effort and FEMA’s role in it all, but this is a whole new level of incompetence. As part of my new job, I am now involved in grant-writing. In a good portion of grants, the grantee expects a report as to how the money was used. While I’m sure these gifts did not come with any reporting requirements, if one of our grantees found out their money had been either wasted or didn’t got to the program for which it was intended that would pretty much guarantee they’d never give money to us again. And you have to wonder if, should another emergency situation arise, these countries would think twice about giving aid money to the U.S. if we’re not going to use it and use it wisely.

• First the Flood, Now the Fight — Spencer S. Hsu @ WashingtonPost.com wrote a special report on the butting of heads between FEMA and state and city officials in the rebuilding of the Gulf States and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. FEMA swears it’s not trying to be difficult but the process seems to be designed to wear down those requesting help until they just give up and either take what little they’ve been given, which isn’t much if anything.
  

  Through hundreds of such disputes large and small, the most costly disaster in U.S. history is fast becoming its most contentious, with appeals and disputes worth nearly a billion dollars bogging down repairs of critical public systems and delaying the return of residents.

  Current and former officials at all levels blame FEMA workers’ inexperience with eligibility rules, weaknesses in U.S. disaster laws and inconsistent treatment by Congress for much of the wrangling. The huge scale of the storm and honest disagreement over whether federal or local taxpayers should pay the tab add to the conflict.

  “Disasters should be difficult to declare. . . . But once you get them, FEMA should not worry about cutting costs,” said Daniel A. Craig, who stepped down in October as head of FEMA’s recovery division and is now consulting for New Orleans. “Public entities are eligible for everything they have lost due to the disaster. It is not up to FEMA to cut corners or makes sure money is saved.”

  Gil H. Jamieson, FEMA’s deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery, agreed that “we’re in this to rebuild the city” and added: “We are not in it to delay for the sake of delay. Are there folks who sometimes hose it up? Absolutely. But I think we’re doing a good job of helping it recover.”

  The disputes come as the costliest part of the recovery begins: restoring water, power, roads, bridges, schools and other public facilities along the Gulf Coast. Agency veterans said the spending will have more impact on the physical rebuilding of the Gulf area than anything else FEMA does over the next decade, possibly eclipsing its role in aiding individual victims of the storm.

  The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, for instance, sustained $446 million in storm losses, said Executive Director Marcia St. Martin. But FEMA has committed just $113 million so far.

  FEMA notes that New Orleans promised U.S. environmental regulators $640 million in repairs before Katrina, and that the antiquated system is too big for the Crescent City’s reduced population.

  “That’s what makes a city — if you don’t have water, sewer and drainage, you don’t have a city,” lamented Robert Jackson, spokesman for the sewer board. “The money so far only scratches the surface of the devastation.

  Hat Tip: Susie @ Suburban Guerrilla

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Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Internet, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, aid money, Gil H. Jamieson, Daniel A. Craig, Gulf Coast recovery, New Orleans, Islamofascism, George W. Bush, Muslims, women in the media, Support the Troops, defense appropriation bill, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, Lower 9th Ward, National Hurricane Canter, 9/11, Max Mayfield, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, terrorism, Ann Jones, Taliban, NATO, Christians, American Dream, Martin Niemoller, Germany, Nazis, Rocky Anderson, Utah, Salt Lake Tribune, patriotism, lie, Walter Jones, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Caddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld

Maine Is Hotter Than Hell

O.K. Probably not.

But it is technically hotter than New Orleans today according to the weather channel.

Now, all those whiners in New England really do have something to complain about.

Really, it wasn’t until after lunch today that I thought it was bad.  There was a nice breeze and everything and people were still complaining about the heat and how they were probably going to have to get AC in their cars next time they bought a car — hello?  high gas prices, anyone?! – and people on the street where pretending to melt, but now I can say that it is officially New Orleans hot.

Though the humidity really isn’t that bad at 56%.  Admittedly, yesterday’s humidity felt worse…my upstairs bathroom had a nice sheen of water on it.  I should have taken the opportunity to mop, but it was too hot up there.

I was a little amused by the DJ on the radio station this morning who was bartering for a window AC for his apartment.  Someone apparently gave him one for free in the end.

And my office has taken pity on us and the ice cream truck is sitting in the parking lot and they’re buying us free ice cream…though I must admit that the music is starting to drive me a little mad…and I feel sorry for the poor kid in the ice cream truck.  Plus, as one co-worker pointed out, things have changed a lot since he remembers as a kid — the line is now full of aging, overweight people, half of which seem to be taking the opportunity to smoke while chosing whether they want Dara the Explorer or the Original Bomb Pop.

Anyway, my make-up melted off my face while I was waiting for my Bomb Pop which is how I knew that it was New Orleans hot.  So I’m back to hiding in my cubicle where there is AC.

Tags: AC, ice cream truck, Bomb Pops, heat wave, New Orleans, Maine, Portland, Weather Channel

New FEMA Guidelines For The 9th Ward

Tags: FEMA, cartoons, New Orleans

Where In The World Is Iraq?

Maybe the reason that Americans think we’re so superior is because we don’t take time to realize we’re not actually alone and that there are actually whole other countries and cultures beyond our borders. Then again, we aren’t all that good with figuring out what’s in our own borders, are we? I recall my mother telling me that some friends of hers were on one of those game shows like The Price Is Right and it took them a year to get their prizes shipped to them because they lived in New Mexico and the show wouldn’t ship outside of the country — kid you not.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed.

The study found that less than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 33 percent could not point out Louisiana on a U.S. map.

The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study paints a dismal picture of the geographic knowledge of the most recent graduates of the U.S. education system.

“Taken together, these results suggest that young people in the United States … are unprepared for an increasingly global future,” said the study’s final report.

“Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events.” [“Study: Geography Greek to most young Americans (CNN.com)]

Tags: Iraq, education, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Gulf Coast, National Geographics, CNN

FEMA’s Double Standard

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Secretary of State Al Ater wants to know why the federal government agreed to pay for New York City’s municipal elections after Sept. 11, 2001, but refuses to pay for New Orleans’ elections after Hurricane Katrina.

FEMA recently turned down Louisiana’s request for the extra $3-4 million it will take to hold the April 22 New Orleans municipal elections, rescheduled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

But the agency shelled out $7.9 million after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks delayed New York City’s elections.

Ater said it’s a double standard.

“After the election, I’m going to dedicate my life to this,” Ater said. “I’m going to become very obsessive-compulsive about it.”

Orleans Parish doesn’t have the money to pay even the normal elections cost of $400,000 for the city. FEMA said the additional elections costs are outside the agency’s authority and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has not responded to a request to meet with the secretaries of state of Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama.

FEMA spokesman Manuel Broussard of Baton Rouge said he would look into the issue, but the agency did not respond. [“FEMA won’t pay for New Orleans Election” (Nola.com)]

Let’s not forget that more than 50% of  Katrina victims are still displaced as well and while displaced Iraqis outside of Iraq were provided poling stations, displaced Katrina victims in places like Houston, Memphis and Atlanta with large concentrations of New Orleans minorities will not have the same courtesy.

Tags: vote, FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

FEMA Deems Condemned Homes “Habitable”, Denies Assistance

The incompentance is just never ending. Thank God, for Houston’s Mayor Bill White!

A New Orleans house flattened but for a concrete staircase on a crumbling facade was among many storm-ravaged structures that federal officials deemed fit for occupancy by Katrina victims now living in Houston, Mayor Bill White said Friday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has notified about 8,900 heads of households in Houston, representing more than 20,000 Katrina evacuees, that they will be ineligible for the cash assistance intended to replace a massive city voucher program that has paid their rent.

A common reason was that the evacuees’ former homes were now habitable.

A team from Houston’s Hurricane Housing Task Force, however, conducted a spot check of 43 New Orleans homes deemed “habitable” by FEMA and found 70 percent unfit for occupancy, White said Friday after a briefing by the team.

“Some of our worst fears were realized,” White said. “Many of these notices were simply in error. The vast majority of the structures we inspected were not habitable by any standard.”

The Houston team found 13 homes habitable and 30 uninhabitable, White said.

The city released photographs showing apartments and houses, including the one with little standing but the stairway, in severe disrepair. One apartment building, surrounded by a chain link fence, had been condemned, White said.

Read the rest…

Tags: FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, Houston, New Orleans, Bill White

Save New Orleans

“This is enormously frustrating to me,” said Sen. David Vitter, R-La. “I’ve been telling them since last November that they’ve sought way too little money for essential levee work.”[“L.A. Wants More Levee Money — And Quick (NOLA.com)]

Last week the Army Corps of Engineers announced new estimates of an additional $6 billion would be needed to raise and repair the levees to protect the New Orleans area from a major hurricane. According to this article in the Times-Picayune, while the east bank of Orleans Parish has financing for levees that would meet the necessary certification by 2010, $3 billion in improvements are still needed to bring Algiers, eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward, West Jefferson, and most of Jefferson Parish’s east bank, St. Charles Parish, Belle Chasse and Lower Coast Algiers to the appropriate protection levels; plus $3 billion more would be needed for Plaquemines Parish alone.

President Bush’s Gulf Coast recovery coordinator, Donald Powell, told reporters that the administration will decide in the next two weeks whether to request the additional money — nearly three times what the administration said was needed just a month ago.

But at a closed-door meeting in the Capitol late Thursday, Louisiana lawmakers said they told Powell that they want a commitment by Tuesday, the day the Senate Appropriations Committee is to take up an emergency hurricane spending bill.

A new request from the president is critical to the release of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s long-awaited flood-elevation maps, which will give residents and businesses an indication about whether to rebuild in the region. Property behind the upgraded levees could see relatively minor changes in elevation requirements, subject primarily to more typical flooding. Those areas without improved levees would have to build substantially higher to account for flooding and storm surge. [“L.A. Wants More Levee Money — And Quick (NOLA.com)]

However, Bush and gang is making no promises. In fact, a supplemental spending bill for hurricane recovery has already passed the House and it doesn’t include the costs of the new estimates.

Now, the administration is saying that to protect against a “100-year flood,” up to $6 billion more could be needed.

According to an analysis by the corps, that figure could be cut dramatically if the state is willing to make an excruciating choice: Leave some portions of southeast Louisiana without full protection against a hurricane with a 1 percent chance of hitting the area during any hurricane season.

About 98 percent of the New Orleans area population could be protected at a cost of $3 billion, but that would leave out increased protection for the 14,725 residents of Plaquemines Parish, according to the analysis.

[…]

“If you say you aren’t going to protect lower Plaquemines, what’s next? Lower Terrebonne? Lower Lafourche? And then what, the middle parts?” asked a visibly angry Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., as she walked out of the meeting with Powell and Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the corps. “Seven months after Katrina, they still don’t realize they have a bill to pay. They don’t want to pay it.”

Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, who represents Plaquemines Parish, said that basing decisions on population overlooks the economic significance of the parishes that dip into the Gulf of Mexico.

“This is about people, the nation’s energy production and fisheries,” Melancon said. “People don’t seem to realize the importance of south Louisiana.”[“L.A. Wants More Levee Money — And Quick (NOLA.com)]

So, it’s all about the numbers today. Nevermind the photo-ops and the promises and the mistakes. Nevermind the hundreds of nameless dead or the thousands of displaced and homeless. Imagine if this was your home; imagine if this was where your family had lived for a hundred years; imagine if everything you knew and everything everyone you ever knew wasn’t worth protecting or rebuilding or even considering by the government you pay your taxes to.

Don’t think it can’t be you. You need to stand up for New Orleans and Plaquemines and Louisiana now before you’re sitting on the doorstep of a closed FEMA shelter wondering where your tax dollars went when that tornado/earthquake/forest fire/ice storm/flood/etc. destroyed your neighborhood too.

Contact your Senator.

Contact your House Representative.
Hat tip to First Draft.

Further reading: “Levee Repair Costs Triple” - Washington Post

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, David Vitter, New Orleans, Plaquenines, Louisiana, FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, Times-Picayune, George W. Bush

New Orleans Library Book Collecting

Just a reminder that the New Orleans Library still needs books.

If you think you live too far away to collect books and mail them, let me just point out that I’ve collected several large piles of books thanks to generous souls in my writing group and at work and in a test mailing last week, I discovered that mailing books at the media rate through the post office is really quiet cheap. When I think that someone else could be making good use of those books rather than having them collecting dust on my overcrowded bookshelves, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Plus, my mother has concocted a rather smart plan. She’s collected some books from her friends in New Mexico on her own thanks to an email she forwarded from me. A friend of theirs in the process of moving from New Orleans to Las Vegas is making back and forth trips between the cities and on his next stop back toward New Orleans, she’ll pass on the books to be dropped off at the New Orleans Public Library from the citizens of Silver City, New Mexico. Of course, you do kind of have to know someone who’s going that way for the plan to work.

As always, if you live in the Portland, ME, area and can’t afford to mail books but would like to donate, contact me via the contact link in the sidebar and we’ll work out an arrangement.

The library is also accepting monetary donations.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Public Library, relief

New Orleans Public Library Needs Books

New books will be used to replace those that were damaged; used books will be distributed to families in need or sold for library fundraising. Please send books to:

Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations
New Orleans Public Library
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112

If you tell the post office that they are for the library in New Orleans, they will give you the library rate which is slightly less than the book rate.

You can also click here to contribute to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation Rebuilding Campaign.

UPDATE: If you live in the Portland, ME area and have books to donate but cannot afford shipping, please contact me and we’ll work something out. Thanks!
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Tags: New Orleans, Public Library, Hurricane Katrina, relief

Forgotten New Orleans

Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch has put together a document analyzing how much progress the city of New Orleans with the promised State and Federal help has made since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Known as The Mardi Gras Index and released yesterday, February 28th, it looks at over 235 indicators in 11 categories. The statistical outlook suggests that President Bush’s promise that the country “would do what it takes” to make New Orleans whole again has been forgotten a mere six months later and that very little progress has been made.

Here are just some of the statistics from the report:

Total number of people in Gulf Region acutely impacted by Hurricane Katrina: 700,000

Percent of those displaced by Katrina who were from New Orleans: 50

Percent of residents living in Katrina-damaged areas of New Orleans who were Black: 75

Percent who were poor: 29

Percent who were unemployed: 10

Percent who were renters: 53

Estimated loss of New Orleans’ black population if people are unable to return to flood-damaged neighborhoods: 80

Esitmated loss of New Orlean’ white population in such a case: 50

Percent of Ner Orleans streetcars lost in Katrina: 45

Percent of New Orleans buses lost: 53

Number of public transit riders per week in New Orleans pre-KatrinaL 124,000

Number of public transit riders per week in New Orleans of late January 2006: 11,709

Percent of the 470,000 Louisiana homes damaged by Katrina that were in New Orleans: 92

Number of the 434,216 homes in the seven-parish New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area rendered uninhabitable by the storm: 207,000

Esitmated residential replacement costs for Orleans Parish alone: $22 million

Estimated number of New Orleans residents evicted from their homes in November 2005 after Gov. Blanco’s two-month moratorium on legal proceedings ended: 10,000

Number of FEMA trailer homes requested by New Orleans residents: 21,000

Estimated number of those homes installed as of early February 2006: 3,000

Number of FEMA trailer homes sitting empty in Hope, Arkansas because the agency rules forbid their placement in flood plains: 11,000

Number of Louisiana’s 64 parishes that have granted FEMA unconditional permission to site trailers: 8

Percent of the approving parishes that lie in flood-prone areas: 100

Percent of New Orleans workforce displaced by Katrina: 50

Estimated number of jobs lost in New Orleans due to Katrina: 150,000

Number of New Orleans city employees laid off after Katrina: 3,000

Number of active unemployment claims in New Orleans at the end of January 2006: 13,046

Maximum amount of Louisian’s weekly unemployment payments: $258

Percent of New Orleans job market accounted for by small businesses (50 employees or less): 40

Percent of New Orleans small businesses destroyed by katrina: 60

Number of hospitals in Orleans Parish before 2005 hurricanes: 22

Number of hospitals open now: 7

Esitmated million cubic yards of debris created by the 2005 storms: 50

Millions of cubic yards that have been removed to date: 6

Out of 200 samples taken in Orleans Parish, percent that exceeded the Louisiana state cleanup level for pollution in residential neighborhoods: 37

Number of locations in residential neighborhoods of Mid-City, Gentilly, Lakeview, and New Orleans East where arsenic levels are more than 100 times higher than the EPA soil safety guideline: 7

Number of spills of oil, natural gas and other chemicals off the New Orleans coast: 423

Value of contracts federal agencies have awarded to private companies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: $9.4 billion

Amount given out by FEMA alone in the month after Katrina hit: $1.5 billion

Percent of those that had little or no competition: 80

Number of Orleans Parish prisoners who have not seen an attorney, some since before Katrina hit: 4,500

Number of Wrongful imprisonment petitions filed by one legal team on behalf of thousands of New Orleans prisoners, many of whom have been held for over 6 months without seeing a lawyer or, in some cases without ever having charges filed against them: 2,100

Number of prisoners who have been released as a result of those petitions: 1,000

Number of New Orleans public defenders before Katrina: 42

Number as of February 2006: 6

Hat tip to Pam.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

Supply & Demand - The Curse of Hurricane Katrina

One of the most frustrating things I’ve heard and read a lot recently is the complaint that Katrina Evacuees are mooching off the system when they should just get on with their lives and get jobs.

People like to point out that there are a lot of jobs in New Orleans right now. Why just about every business has a sign out that they are hiring. Anyone who claims they can’t find work must be moochers.
Meanwhile, people who are working in the city are getting kicked out of their hotels because FEMA won’t pay anymore. FEMA is handing out rent vouchers so folks can move into more “permanent” temporary housing. These are people who had places to live before Katrina. Some of them have houses they are trying to repair or rebuild. Part of the problem is that there is very little rental housing actually available in the city because of the devestation of that same hurricane. Those apartments and such that managed to survive in tact or have been repaired are already rented or are rental rates higher than what FEMA is handing out.

If these people are working why can’t they afford to pay their own rent? I imagine because they are also trying to recover from the financial and material devestation heaped on them as a result of this tragedy. I imagine that it’s difficult to work, buy food, pay bills, pay rent, pay a mortgage for a house too damaged to live in, pay for repairs your insurance company is refusing to reimburse you for, and repurchase your wardrobe, your necessities, and your life.

And what about those trailers FEMA promised? I have a friend who finally was told last month she could have one if she could find a place for it. Since she was living on rental property before the hurricane, she doesn’t have a place for it unfortunately, and FEMA has said she can’t put it on her parent’s property because there’s not enough space on the lot. Hundreds of empty trailers are sitting on large parcels of land all across the country and FEMA is paying rent to the owners of that land, while Katrina victims go homeless.

But what about those that are being kicked out of those hotels again? Those that have jobs in the city but no where to live? Some of them are planning on staying in their cars while others are going to the nearest shelter — in Shreveport 5 hours away. Some are having to return to their original evacuation locations like Houston, Memphis and Atlanta. So that’s more people who are being exiled from the city, more empty jobs…

And what about those countless vacant jobs? Most of the jobs that are advertising are minimum wage or manual labor. What about those New Orleans residents with degrees and experience in other things? Would you expect a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant to find work at McDonald’s or Target just so they could stay in the city or would you expect them to find work elsewhere?

And from there, we have a circle. Those who would work those available jobs can not afford the cost of what little housing there is and those that would be able to afford the cost if they had the jobs they are educated and experienced at are unable to find work in the current market.

The government keeps talking about how they need to bring the city back to life, but with no housing and no support, how do they expect people to return and stay?

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, politics, FEMA

Mostly Grim News From New Orleans

I spoke with PW last night. She’s currently in New Orleans preparing what’s left of her personal possessions for the trip to England. She said that she has about six changes of clothes at this point and from her descriptions, it sounds like everything she rescued can fit into four suitcases, carefully packed to not be more than 50lbs each.

She said that New Orleans is very much a cash-based economy at the moment. There aren’t a lot of working phone lines for those credit card machines. Plus, she also verified that most stores as well as post offices and government offices are only open a few hours a day. Apparently it’s a big deal that the Wal-Mart is now open until 8pm.

Not that it really matters since she’s going ahead and moving to England, but she received a letter from her employer telling her that everyone had been laid off since none of the 5 stores are currently in a condition to open.

However, she verified that everyone seems to be hiring. (One friend even emailed me that Burger King has signing bonuses of $2K to $6K if you sign on for a year.)

She had a run in with the Jefferson Parrish Police Monday. She had bought her truck the week before Hurricane Katrina hit, so it still only has a temporary licence tag, which has expired. She talked to the DMV last week and they told her that the paperwork had been caught in the flooding and it had been sent elsewhere to be sorted, etc. They told her that she should call back this week and that if she got pulled over, she should explain this to the police and have them call the DMV.

A police officer pulled her over on Monday, hauled her out of the truck, made her put her hands on the hood and everything and refused to call the DMV. He told her that she couldn’t drive the truck with the expired temp tag, ripped up the tag, and fortunately left. She drove over to the auto dealership where she bought the truck and they fortunately gave her a new temp tag.

Since she’s leaving in less than 2 weeks anyway, she’ll probably just sell the truck back to the dealership. The license probably still won’t be there.

Really, it’s quite ridiculous that the police officer wasn’t just a tad more understanding. She had paperwork in the vehicle to back up her story. Of course, with other stories I’m hearing, she’s lucky she’s not on a chain gang somewhere.

My friend who told me about Burger King also verified that the stories about the “prisoner camps” and chain gangs is quite true. He basically said that you shouldn’t go into New Orleans alone and you shouldn’t go in after dark at all.

Oh, and PW said that Metairie and the area of New Orleans she’d been to have a horrible stench. People are using the neutral grounds (that’s a median for the rest of you) as trash dumps. There’s garbage everywhere and with no mosquito control spraying regularly, it’s gotten nasty even in the areas that didn’t flood.

They still haven’t been able to find the landlord who’s business and home phones ring unanswered and who has not been to the building at all — when most landlords are actively trying to get tenants to move their stuff out so bulldozing and reconstruction can begin quickly. PW thinks he might be one of the bodies.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

Update from New Orleans

I spoke with El yesterday. She painted a rather grim picture of the apartment she used to share with PW. The images she painted were similar to photographs seen all over the news and net.

The higher parts of her first floor apartment had a watermark 4″ from the ceiling, but most of the apartment was lower than that and was completely under water. Those rooms are in danger of having a sagging ceiling falling in. She rescued PW’s jewelry by breaking through the back of PW’s dresser which the water had wedged somehow and then breaking through the back of the jewelry box and grabbing it all. El herself found her ruby jewelry but could not find the jewelry or watch her current boyfriend had given her. She said that everything is covered in black muck and mold — except this one statue of Yoda which suddenly appeared completely clean in the middle of the living room. She talked about how things in closets ended up in other rooms but the closet doors were closed when she left and when she returned. Both heavy wood beds have been toppled and proped so they are at angles. She was unable to reach the computers which they think are behind the desks. She did find a box of her checks…well, she found a soggy box with mushy paper. Her passport is still MIA.

She has been unable to find the landlord who’s home was aparently in Slidell.

She also talked about how the mail is spotty. Sometimes there is mail and then sometimes it’s days before anything else or any sign of a mailman. The post office for her mom’s address where they are staying currently is still closed. Many of the stores are hiring at $10/hour but they’re only open a few hours a day and most of them can’t get new/replacement stock in so there’s nothing on the shelves. She and her mom are planning on going to Hammond or Baton Rouge to go shopping this week for basics.

She did complain that Nagin is planning on making Canal St over into a Las Vegas-type strip — any hotel that can house 500 or more can have a casino; supposedly this is to get money back into the city.

She also talked about how most city employees are getting laid off — the city has gone 6 weeks without taxes being paid, which is how it keeps running; the city is broke. However, she said there’s aparently an emergency fund of some large number that the city can’t touch. It’s just sitting in a bank account somewhere because it can only be used legally to pay overtime…so the overtime money is there, but they can’t get it because they can’t afford to pay people regular time.

Meanwhile many firemen and policemen are working as volunteers because there’s no money.

It just sounds like a miserable mess.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

I Know It’s None Of My Business

I spoke with PW last night. Apparently she is flying back to the states the Saturday with the boyfriend who’s now a fiance to try to salvage what’s left of her stuff.

She said that El told her that the water mark was 4 inches from the ceiling, which is not good. Also the ceiling apparantly is dripping and El is afraid it’s going to fall in before they get their stuff. It’s none of my business but I don’t understand why anyone is letting El walk around in the mold and toxins considering she supposedly has a weakened immune system. El also told her that the door of their shed was ripped off and some of the stuff at the front of the shed had been washed away — PW is now upset about her five years or so of collected Hallmark Star Wars ornaments.

Now PW told me that she really misses her cat, but she’s grown accustomed to her “life of leisure” and really doesn’t want to stay in New Orleans and try to find a job and a place to live. She is going to ask El if El and her family will watch the cat until January (this is all part of the legality of moving the cat to England without him having to go into quarintine). However, she would much rather that I take care of the cat because she knows that El will forget to fill out the paperwork and take him for his vet visits he needs for the move and she trusts me to do it — last night, I was feeling generous; today I feel a bit taken advantage of.

Of course, part of what will determine if she stays or leaves is a visit to the British consolate or whatever in New York or Chicago to file for a fiance visa. If that falls through, she’ll try to go back on her passport, but of course, there’s a limit to how long you can legally stay on your passport and apparently someone actually keeps track.

I know it’s none of my business, but I really think PW should stick to one of her original plans of either staying with El or somewhere else in Louisiana and getting a job (everyone is hiring there now apparently) and care for her cat and take care of the paperwork herself or come up here to Maine with the cat and get a job and take care of her cat and take care of the paperwork herself. It’s a matter of responsibility. I understand that she’s “in love” and probably does enjoy the not working thing but if she truly loves and misses her cat as much as she claims then she would act responsibly. I mean, that’s what I would do in her place but then, I miss my cats horribly if I’m away on vacation for a week and can’t wait to get home to see them. Maybe I’m not normal. I just think it’s selfish of her to abandon her cat with someone and expect them to do all the work so she can reap the benefits…by the end of January, he might not even know who she is. That’s a long time in the life of a cat.

Well, I guess we’ll see once she gets here.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

Nawlins On My Mind

As I try to catch up with the day’s events after being locked up with the crazy people I work with from 8am to after 5pm in a little hot room, New Orleans weighs heavily on my mind…

Probably because there’s been quite a few stories in the news about it today.

It’s no surprise to me that main stream media is under attack from misreporting the aftermath of Katrina. Euphoric Reality has an excellent post about it and I’ve already expressed my opinion.

Police Superintendent Eddie Compass of New Orleans resigned after the chaotic aftermath of Katrina in which 1/6th of his police staff may have deserted, two police officers committed suicide, and some police officers have been accused of looting.

“It’s a sad day in the city of New Orleans when a hero makes a decision like this,” said Nagin, who appointed Compass in mid-2002. “He leaves the department in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership.”

New Orleans evacuees at a shelter in Baton Rouge disagreed over the chief’s legacy and whether he should have resigned.

“It’s about time,” said Larry Smit, 52, who owns a construction company. “Get rid of all of them. They ain’t doing anything.”

But truck driver James Dordain, 41, said Compass had been doing a good job with an understaffed department and faced with an unprecedented natural disaster.

“They pushed a good man to the breaking point,” said Dordain, referring to other government authorities. “When they came, it was really too late.” [“Leader of New Orleans Police Resigns”]

Meanwhile the case-by-case investigation into nearly 250 New Orleans police officers who weren’t “at their posts” during the Katrina aftermath is being at least discussed, as well as publicized.

Meanwhile, El and her family are returning to the family home in Jefferson Parrish today. There’s no word as of yet as to when El and PW may be able to return to their apartment and the word from friends and the news is not good for recovering anything.

Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, Ray Nagin

Another Poor Hurricane Evacuation

A lot of finger-pointing has been going on in the aftermath of Katrina. Certainly a lot of fingers were pointed at Democrat Governor Blanco by Republicans claiming she and New Orleans city Mayor Ray Naggin are to blame for poor planning and not evacuating the city soon enough. They’ve been blamed for not commandeering city and school buses (though the drivers had abandoned ship) to evacuate the poor without transportation.

The tale from Republican-run Texas regarding Rita doesn’t sound much more organized and successful.

“I done called for a shelter, I done called for help. There ain’t none. No one answers,” she said, standing in blistering heat outside a check-cashing store that had just run out of its main commodity. “Everyone just says, ‘Get out, get out.’ I’ve got no way of getting out. And now I’ve got no money.” [“No Way Out”]

And those who had transportation didn’t get very far. Between the extra-large number of cars and vehicles trying to get out of the city and a gas shortage, much of Houston is stuck on Texas interstates, many for ten or more hours in the heat with no air-conditioning, many without food or water. Plus there’s reports that Texas didn’t open up the inbound lanes to outbound traffic, making an even bigger bottleneck.

Judie Anderson of La Porte, Texas, covered just 45 miles in 12 hours. She had been on the road since 10 p.m. Wednesday, headed toward Oklahoma, which by Thursday was still very far away.

“This is the worst planning I’ve ever seen,” she said. “They say, ‘We’ve learned a lot from Hurricane Katrina.’ Well, you couldn’t prove it by me.” [“No Way Out”]

So, less than a month later, we’re still not prepared…

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, New Orleans, Kathleen Blanco, Ray Nagin

FEMA: The New Four-Letter F-Word

I spoke with El last night. If you think Louisiana and the Gulf Coast looks chaotic from the comfort of your living room, you’re under-estimating the chaos. She has become extremely frustrated with both Red Cross and FEMA — though interestingly, she recognizes that Red Cross is made up of volunteers and FEMA is not and therefore holds more bitterness for FEMA.

With Red Cross, it just seems like not everyone knows what’s going on. For one thing, she’s supposed to contact her local Red Cross center (not shelter) for help, but the center for her area is in New Orleans. When she called Baton Rouge’s center to ask where she could get a eye glass voucher (she was wearing disposable contacts when she evac’d for what she thought would be a few days) and they told her that they had a long-time understanding with Lenscrafters and she should call them. When she called Lenscrafters, they knew nothing about it but had heard that the Red Cross was giving out vouchers.

Anyway, she also can’t get through to that 800 number Red Cross launched last week to offer some financial aid. She and her family have all taken turns calling throughout the night even. So, next week, she and her mother are driving back to Memphis where they had received a lot of help from Red Cross immediately after the hurricane.

As for FEMA, well, she called them to ask about rent voucher since it’s unlikely she’ll be able to get back to her apartment any time soon as it had been underwater in New Orleans. She was told that she can’t have the rent vouchers until after her building is inspected. Her response to me was “That could take years at the rate things are going!” Quite frankly I think that FEMA needs to rethink their rules there. After all, they have more than a whole city to inspect and people have to live somewhere. $2000 per household (not per person) is not going to go far and people are being discouraged from staying in shelters.

She also told me an interesting bit of news from down South. Apparently, the sheriff’s department in Plaquemines Parish has been running since the hurricane without pay 24/7 and they’ve been begging FEMA for financial aid for the last week. They can’t even afford payroll. Sheriff Hingle threatened to pull his entire department off the job and send them home tonight if they didn’t receive funding to continue. (I love those southern Louisiana sheriffs!)

Apparently, Governor Blanco stepped up to the bat and handed Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes a combined $16.5 million from the state’s general fund — though she is still hoping to get reimbursement. [“State sends money to keep St. Bernard, Plaquemines Sheriffs Going (KATC3)”]
Now, St. Bernard and Plaquemines are located along the lower reaches of the Mississippi River and were at the point of landfall for Hurricane Katrina. They were among the areas with the heaviest damage. Why then are they having to beg for help still? Why are they being ignored by FEMA?

My father says if you listen to the “local” radio station(s), you hear more and more hatred for FEMA and it’s incompetence and it’s lack of co-ordination. He said, “FEMA is a four-letter word down there.”

It does make you wonder what exactly they’re doing…

Tags: FEMA, Gulf Coast, Red Cross, New Orleans, Kathleen Blanco

Hurricane Katrina Soapbox From A Displaced Nawlins Native

I got one of those emails that’s been forwarded from who knows who’s friend’s uncle’s cousin’s friend in Baton Rouge. Needless to say that while I agreed with 99% of it, since I don’t have a clue who wrote it, I don’t feel it’s appropriate to reprint it here. Instead, I’ll put into words my own opinions inspired by the mystery writer’s words.

In regards to Hurricane Katrina, a lot of talk has been going about saying that racism has been running rampant in the decision making about everything from evacuation planning to who was rescued when and how. Most of us from that area know it’s not a racial thing. Maybe the media is putting a lot of black faces on your tv sets and newspapers but if they’d just move over two inches or so to the other affected areas like Mandeville, Metairie, and Chalmette, they’d realize that Hurricane Katrina was an equal opportunity storm that affected people and neighborhoods regardless of race, gender, or wealth. While people both white and black and other ethnicities in areas other than the Superdome and the Convention Center were stuck dying, starving, and waiting for help, the media seems to have latched itself onto a few short miles in the city.

As for the looting and violence, it didn’t surprise many of us who’ve spent most of our lives in the city. Oh, we were just as horrified, but not surprised. While some of the looting was actually done by desperate people looking for food, water, and necessities, the real violence was done by people who might have done so on any given Tuesday in New Orleans. Oh, certainly, the storm was a catalyst for the lawlessness as it aided in the breakdown of regular rules and authority. But, surprised? No. I’m remembering the last time the Superdome was used as a shelter and when they opened the doors to let people go home, the people, who had taken shelter there and complained about lack of free food, looted the building and took everything that wasn’t nailed down.

One of the misconceptions is that all of the people, who were trapped in the city after Katrina, couldn’t have left the city because they didn’t have cars. When the waters drain, I hope the media shows all the drowned, rusted vehicles parked on the neutral ground and abandoned by their owners homes. Yes, there are always some people who don’t have transportation, but for the most part, if they wanted to leave, they would have gotten a ride. Most of those people who stayed behind did so because they always do. They believed they could ride out the storm like always or they were too lazy to leave like they always are. And if they get a free meal or two out of the city all the better.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, racism, New Orleans

Discombobulated Thoughts — 09/07/2005

• I did end up wearing two of the shirts I said I wouldn’t wear on the airplane.
• My whole body hurts from my vacation.
• I bet my feet hurt for a week.
• Joss Wheddon was a no show at DragonCon, which annoyed me.
• Apparently author Robert Asprin lives in New Orleans. Has anyone heard from him or his wife Lynne Abbey?
• My childhood home is underwater in New Orleans.
• My mother has apparently trained hundreds of nurses at the Astrodome. My dad says she leaves at 7am and doesn’t get back until 10pm. She’s my hero.
• I know a lot of people are collecting necessity items for refugees. I’m thinking of starting up a collection of reading materials like books and magazines and maybe old computers to send to shelters. Not sure how to go about it. Obviously, I want to wait until people get settled a bit, but I figure people are going to need something to help them pass the time once they get the necessities and find their families.
• The cast of Serenity that I got to see/meet (Jewel, Marina, Adam and Ron) were very nice. They were collecting money for Hurricane Victims. Adam Baldwin seems like a big goofy 8 year old. I thanked Jewel for playing an engineer/mechanic on the show — I told her how important it is for little girls to have role models that can be pretty, smart, and dirty all at once.
• Meg and Peter are trying to find reasonably-priced housing in Baton Rouge as both their companies are rebuilding there. However, they say that everyone is renting/selling to the highest bidder.
• Did I mention my feet hurt?
• I completely redesigned Nothing Tastes As Good and cleared the DB since I’m restarting Weight Watcher’s today.

Tags: DragonCon, discombobulated, New Orleans, Serenity, blogs, Firefly