Report from New Orleans

Thanks Deckard. I realy appreciate that.

I don't have a lot of time now but will fill you in on more when I get back home.

 

Heritage Conservation Network. http://www.heritageconservation.net/index.htm

 

I just got back from New Orleans and it was quite an experience. I also went out to Bay St. Louis and Waveland Mississippi and things there are still pretty bad too with miles and miles of destroyed houses and buildings. Things are coming back in fits and starts and there is a lot of anger and confusion and from the stuff I saw and heard I don't blame them.

FEMA in Miss has been getting trailers out for people but its been slow. One of the biggest frustrations is that they won't put them on people's property until they have power and sewage. This has led to the condition where there are people still living in tents on their properties even though there are trailers available. Basic services are spotty and there are few stores or restaurants open. Clean up is proceeding but it is going slow. From what I saw in Bay St. Louis it looks like clean up there was much slower even four months after Katrina than what I saw in Thailand a month after the tsunami.

Its a similar situation in New Orleans too but in general I saw fewer trailers there. There's a lot of other frustration with FEMA in regard to getting aid and while some people who didn't have much damage have gotten paid others who did have a lot aren't getting any or less. As some people have said its a crap shoot with FEMA. There's a even more frustration with insurance companies that are underpaying but also continually contesting what is wind, which will be covered, and flood damage, not covered. While I was there I read that even Trent Lott is having to fight with his insurance company over that. I talked to a few people who are talking class action suits against insurance companies but others have just given up.

Another major frustration is that clean up and construction costs have really gone up. I heard from one person that it would cost $41,000 to gut and rehang drywall and cabinets in his 1,300 square house! A whole new industry has sprung up around gutting houses and mold removal and you see signs for them everywhere. There's a problem though that a lot of the work is being done by workers brought in from out of town particularly from Central America and there is ongoing tension that these jobs are being taken away from locals. Unfortunately there is a shortage of work and there are businesses, particularly small service jobs looking for workers but there aren't enough people to staff them. Also on the economic front I did some Christmas shopping in the French Quarter and every business owner that I talked to said that business was very slow and there is some worry about if some of them can survive. There is a debate too among residents whether there should be Mardi Gras this year with some saying its needed both for the money it brings and to show New Orleans is still going and others saying its too much to deal with and that many of the neighborhood people that made Mardi Gras aren't there.

There is still frustration regarding resettlement and I talked to a few people who were basically in limbo about whether they could go back to their neighborhoods. Just yesterday the Mayor's office issued a new plan that would let people go back to their old neighborhoods but there was no guarentee that all of those places would be given the same services, like schools, as others to encourage people to live in safer areas.

Everything is not bad though and the city is coming back. On Saturday the people I was staying with took me to a neighborhood bar that had just reopened. Their taps weren't working and all they had was Michelob and Miller Lite but everyone was excited that it had opened. Also on Sunday one of the Krewes had the first parade in New Orleans since Katrina and that night a few thousands packed in Jackson Square to sing Christmas charols. Life is returning but slowly.

On the personal side this trip did move me and there were times I was elated, depressed and angry. While during the first few days of the trip I spent my time in New Orleans in the 7th and 9th Wards along with some of the other older neighborhoods. While there were miles and miles of damage it was tragic but didn't get me down. It was when I got to East New Orleans that the magnitude of the tragedy hit me.

For all of those people who think that New Orleans is just a city of the indemically poor, artsy types and a historical anachronism should go to East New Orleans. East New Orleans is one of the worst hit places and there are also miles and miles of destroyed houses but unlike the 9th Ward its not a bunch of old ramshackle shotgun houses its miles and miles of single family ranch and contemporary houses, strip malls and office parks. It looks just like much of Houston or could be any suburb in the US. The people who lived there weren't the indemically poor ignorant blacks that so many people are stereotyping New Orleans evacuees these were middle class hardworking people.

One of the most difficult times I had was seeing a shopping mall that was totally empty and derelict on the weekend before Christmas. Every direction you looked it was empty. Empty Walgreens, empty Days Inn, empty Wendys.. This could've been anywhere America now sitting abandoned and rank with mold.

The other place that people should see is the Gentilly District. I grew up near West U in Houston in an upper middle class neighborhood and the closest thing I've seen to West U and the neighborhood I grew up in is the Gentilly District. Here again like so much of New Orleans were miles of derelict and damaged houses with trash and rubble piled up in the median of the elegant boulevards. It also wasn't unusual to see a once proud house that would fit into West U or even River Oaks with a FEMA trailer infront.

So for all of you wondering why we should care about New Orleans its because more than this being a human tragedy this is America. This isn't Indonesia, it isn't Africa and no matter how much people try to stereotype New Orleans and its residents as the American thirdworld (historical but poor, uneducated and corrupt) its not. Its people, rich, poor and even middle class who raised their familes, commuted to work, paid mortgages and shopped at Dillards. To not help them is to not help us and if we just ignore them than any city in America is susceptable to being forgotten.


I'll try to post some pictures later.

 

I heard this quite a bit from people in New Orleans that Congress and the rest of the government was hemming and hawing about funding a few billion for Katrina recovery yet wouldn't batt an eye approving the $100's of billions for Iraq. A common refrain was "why can't we rebuild Iraq but we can't rebuild New Orleans?

 

Actually much of Iraq is on the flood plain of the Tigris and Euphrates river and there have been historical floods going back to Biblical times and the story of the great flood is believed to possibly be based upon a catastrophic flooding that was also recounted in the epic of Gilgamesh.

Leaving that aside though as others have pointed out we're spending $100's of billions rebuilding a country still in a practical state of war, not saying we shouldn't, but there seems to be a lot more Congressional bellyaching over rebuilding here in America. On top of that where was the fiscal discipline rhetoric from the Republican Congress before? We'll cut taxes and increase spending on war and pork but suddenly the bill comes for the Gulf Coast and people start complaining about the deficit.

Even Trent Lott has said that he's so embarrassed by his party and the Admin's response that he probably won't run again.

As Deckard said though yes there are lots of problems with the infrastructure of New Orleans but so are a lot of other cities. Look at what happened with Allison and that was just a tropical storm and not even a category one hurricane. If a Cat. 4 or 5 struck Houston full force you would see devestation comparable to New Orleans with a storm surge racing up the Ship Channel into the bayous and the heart of the city. The construction of most houses in Houston isn't that much better, possibly worse since many of the old New Orleans houses that have been maintained were built sounder. Anyway its not just Houston. Many US cities are right in the way of huge potential disasters. The whole west coast to Earthquakes, tsunamis fires and storms. The whole east coast to storms and even possible tsunamis. The plains states to fires and tornadoes and the strongest earthquake in US history happened in Missouri, not CA, and that fault is still there.

So Yes New Orleans is in a bad location with bad infrastructure but that doesn't mean that other US cities are that much safer.

 

What does Houston provide?

I love Houston but if Houston was wiped out the oil industry could be replaced somewhere else and as far as tourism, culture and history Houston has provided next to nothing compared to New Orleans.

If Americans can write off New Orleans then practically any American city can be written off.