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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 14:03:55 GMT
Here in New Orleans we are approaching the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which made landfall in Mississippi but caused the levees in New Orleans to breach and flood the vast majority of the city. That was on August 29th 2015.
It's hard to believe it was 10 years ago.
The storm has become part of the daily vernacular in that rarely does a day go by when one doesn't hear some kind of reference to this event. Pre-K, Post K, take your pick... While engaged in conversation about just about anything, the last time you saw so and so, what ever happened to that place,etc. is almost always prefaced by , I think it was just before Katrina, or, that place is long gone, Katrina wiped them out, etc. etc.
There have been a plethora of books and music, films, you name it that gave birth by this event.
There are also a huge number of events scheduled to commemorate the anniversary. My dear friend from Miami will be in town that long weekend as she was very involved in the recovery process and did her doctoral dissertation on a home in the lower 9th ward, one of hardest hit areas of the city.
Our neighborhood renegade parade< Midsummer Mardi Gras, (I can hear Kerouac's groan from here...) will march on the evening of the 29th as it falls on the last Saturday of August.
To be continued...
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Post by bjd on Aug 3, 2015 14:08:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 14:13:26 GMT
Wow!! Yes, people do not realize that so many properties remain blighted.
Thank you so much for that link BJD.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 3, 2015 14:26:41 GMT
It's amazing and sad that such an impactfull event drops so quickly off the 24-hour US news cycle, yet its effects linger on and on for the affected area and its inhabitants.
Having watched two seasons of Treme, I hope I have a better understanding of what New Orleaneans have been going through in the aftermath of this huge natural disaster, made worse by mankind's engineering attempts.
It's disheartening to realize that things haven't improved that much in all these years. And ironic that it's a British paper that posts such a tragically beautiful photo essay.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 3, 2015 15:19:22 GMT
I didn't realise it was still so bad. Surely they can do better?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 16:15:48 GMT
Yes, one would think so. There has been some resilience no doubt, but, I still know and am aware of how much more the city needs.
In some ways it has been a boon, the public school system in particular has improved with the introduction of charter schools, but, that too has had some drawbacks.
The major tourist oriented parts of the city have indeed been upgraded, or rather, gentrified and property values have risen in many areas.
However, insurance rates and in particular flood insurance rates have risen sky high to the point of many folks not being able to return and having to relocate.
It certainly did bring the people of the city together on a more united level, but, not enough.
One cool and positive thing I heard this morning on the radio is that the city has acknowledged and enacted an ordinance that would best serve people with pets. (kind of like, No Pet Left Behind). So many animals had to be left behind and while many did survive, too many did not because no shelter or means of caring for them was available.
As an aside, somewhat amusing on one level but despicable on another, that my husband and I saw yesterday while waiting for a table at a breakfast/lunch joint in Mid-City (another area hard hit.) There were photos on the wall with the owner of the restaurant and her service staff posing with then US President "W", and former Mayor C. Ray Nagin (now doing time in a federal prison for a myriad of fraudulent crimes). The irony and tragedy of it all will always remain.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 16:46:44 GMT
Oddly enough, I found myself looking at a video of Hurricane Sandy this morning because I was wondering how some of the devastated areas in New York look. I would be particularly intrigued to see Breezy Point in Queens, where more than 300 hours burned down during the height of the storm. Apparently there has been huge amount of reconstruction there, unlike the Gulf Coast after Katrina. More money, obviously.
Having been born in a town that was even more devastated by Katrina than New Orleans, obviously I will never forget it, just as I will never forget Camille in 1968 even though my family left the area in 1967. I've been back to the area twice since then, and it is still such a dismal sight. I was reading in the local newspaper they they are finally destroying the concrete slabs that mark where the buildings used to be. Took them 10 years to do it.
When I was little, when my family came to Europe, I was totally wide-eyed to see damage from WW2, of which there was plenty in the area where my grandparents lived. You would see ruined factories and the shells of houses along the road. I would estimate that I saw damage from the war up until about 1980 when most of the visible stuff had finally disappeared.
So 10 years is really a very short time to recover from disaster. We are an impatient generation.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 17:14:14 GMT
What needs to be taken into account in the areas you describe that have so much to do with politics. We had an inept Mayor, US President, and a governor, all who were in no way cooperating with one another. Introduce FEMA, (still a 4 letter word here) and then director of that so called agency, "Brownie". Remember President Bush's famous quote: "You're doing a heck of a job Brownie" ? FEMA was really a fairly new federal agency 10 years ago. I can't remember exactly who the governor of Mississippi was but, I believe it was Barber, another charlatan.
Now, fast forward to Hurricane Sandy. A different administration in the White House, an exceptional Mayor of NYC, Bloomberg, and 2 US Senators (Schumer and Hildebrand), and Governor Cuomo. All on the same page and not wanting a repeat of the same that happened here.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 3, 2015 19:02:50 GMT
As sea levels rise with melting of the polar ice caps, more areas will be devastated by hurricanes and super storms like Sandy. Will the US be ready? Probably not.
One way to improve things would be for flood insurance to buy people OUT instead of paying them to rebuild again and again in low-lying flood-prone areas. Gradually the areas that can't realistically support housing could be returned to marshes or water storage areas, and the people relocated elsewhere.
This does nothing to preserve neighborhoods, however. But some neighborhoods, sadly, are unsustainable and it will only get worse as the climate continues to change.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2015 3:12:11 GMT
You are so right on Kimby but, unfortunately people are ignorant of that.And every year a North Wester will come along and virtually wipe out homes that greedy , rich millionairs have built up on Long Island. And, they go ahead and rebuild. People with mega bucks have built these enormous homes smack on the dunes, what's left of them. The erosion is so in evidence each time I go up there and visit.
Here is a similar phenomena, but,roots run deep here, and,people still have a hope of being able to return to a life well lived with a sense of pride and dedication,commitment and sense of community.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 4, 2015 7:45:43 GMT
Some very interesting observations here - thanks.
We whinge constantly in the UK about our weather but we have nothing, nothing that compares to this.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2015 12:08:41 GMT
While stubborn rich people build their palaces in danger zones on purpose "because they can" (Besides hurricanes, I can think of all of those fabulous houses in California that are destroyed by brush fires or go sliding down to the bottom of the canyon during the spring rains.), a lot of the problem is ignorance and naïveté on the part of new people arriving in an area, coupled of course with the corruption of municipal and other officials that allow houses to be built in the wrong places. There was a very famous event in France 5 years ago in the beach town of La Faute-sur-Mer. Big winter storm Xnythia swept in and drowned 29 people in their houses -- often in that nightmarish scenario where they have gone up to the attic and can't punch their way through the roof as the house is submerged. The housing development had been built in a big hollow protected by dikes. There had already been major flooding there in 1882, 1928, 1937 and 1940 and construction had been banned in most of the zone... until the mayor decided that he could make a pile of money by authorising building permits. "It can't happen again; we have reinforced the dikes." Well, it did happen again, and the mayor was sentenced to 4 years in prison and the assistant mayor to 2 years in prison for having hidden the flood risks in the urban planning reports. The government ordered 600 houses in the area to be demolished, and now people are lobbying to be allowed to build new houses in the same area on pilings.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 4, 2015 12:50:22 GMT
...a lot of the problem is ignorance and naïveté on the part of new people arriving in an area, coupled of course with the corruption of municipal and other officials that allow houses to be built in the wrong places. This is so true, K2. When we arrived in Montana from lush green Wisconsin where forests rarely burn, we built a house in the woods. Unfortunately, ponderosa pine forests DO burn, and in fact EVOLVED with fire. But we didn't know that, and the county government had approved the subdivision there 20 years earlier and most of the lots were already built upon. We also, naively, emulated most of our new neighbors and put a cedar shake roof on our new house, the worst thing you can do in a fire-prone area. The County building inspection department gets to review your plans before giving out a building permit, but they didn't suggest a fire-proof roof, or even clearing trees back 30 feet from the house to provide a fire safe landscape zone. So instead we shoehorned our flammable cedar sided, cedar roofed house into a tiny opening in the 60-foot tall pines. And then we had a few dry years in a row and a fire broke out on the hill above our house, burning 80 acres before firefighters and aerial retardant bombers got it out. Six years later, it happened again. Now, with global warming we have extreme fire seasons almost every year. But we breathe a bit easier since we replaced the shake roof and got a gas-fired pump for pulling water from the little creek in the back of our house, since the first thing they do when there's a fire is cut the electricity to the neighborhood, so our wells are useless. But if our house and neighborhood burned, we would NOT rebuild. We'd take the insurance $ and move on. Oceans don't burn however, and after a devastating storm still have just as much visual appeal as before, luring people back to rebuild in the same foolish locations. Only with rising sea levels, the storms will keep getting worse and worse. Maybe insurance should not be available for untenable locations, discouraging folks from building there in the first place.
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Post by htmb on Aug 4, 2015 13:57:44 GMT
I've always admired how many communities pull together to help others after disaster strikes. Our area has often sent firefighters, power workers from the local utility company, and other emergency-type crews to help out during times of need. Often for weeks at a time. Community involvement became very evident to me when Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida and our community loaded several tractor trailers with emergency supplies, all purchased by local citizens or donated by local businesses. After Katrina, many of our local citizens pitched in as they could; some bringing dogs to Gainesville, housing displaced friends and family members, or going into the damaged areas to help with food and water distribution, cleanup, or lend a hand in any way needed.
Many church communities do the same. Over the course of three Sunday's, our church raised close to $50,000 for hurricane relief by asking members to give from the heart. The amount was certainly a drop in the bucket when you looked at the big picture, but the money was a major gift for us. It was divided into two, with half going to a specific church near Long Beach, Mississippi, and the other half going to a church organization that contributed to relief within the greater New Orleans area. I'm sure communities all over the US, and others from around the world, made similar contributions to help out individuals they would never meet, but with whom they felt a human connection during a time of terrible tragedy.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2015 14:23:13 GMT
It is interesting that the United States refused spontaneous offers of aid from foreign countries when Katrina struck and then begged for it starting September 4th. Besides misplaced pride, one of the reasons was apparently because the U.S. does not know how to coordinate incoming foreign aid -- the concept was not on their organizational chart.
Meanwhile the world watched those floating corpses in horror as well as the scenes from the Superdome every night on the evening news. For all that seemed to be happening in those early days, it might as well been Haiti or some other devastatingly poor country with an ineffective government. Casimira is right to point the finger at Bush Jr. and "Brownie" and of course a lot of the local politicians, and I think we can add Condoleeza Rice to the list.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2015 0:19:38 GMT
Ah yes, I had forgotten about Condasleeza .
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2015 0:38:28 GMT
There are so many issues to be addressed with the pertinent and insightful responses.
Yes, HTMB, so many people did rally, more than FEMA and other governmental agencies. And, the political agendas were of no help.
There are still church and other volunteer groups coming here. I saw a group of them back around Saint Joseph's Day (3/19) working on a house in Arabi, a close section near the 9th Ward.
I was not aware of the reluctance for foreign aid. I know that forces from all the over the world contributed. The Nepalese government donated a "boat load"of money. In turn, there were several charity events here and donations to help the Nepalese people after their devastating earthquake in April of this year. There was a huge event in City Park with music, food and an outpouring of people on a dreadfully hot night which some friends of mine and I attended. It felt good to be able to give something back to these good people.
Tennessee Williams nailed it with "......relying on the kindness of strangers". A certain irony in that he lived here for most of his life. How uncanny.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 5, 2015 2:21:57 GMT
Some of my more conservative friends argue that people should not be taxed to pay for helping others, that we should do it voluntarily, out of charity. But I highly doubt that the people with the big bucks are charitable enough (except maybe Bill Gates and Warren Buffet) to meet the great need. Churches take in piles of money, but I wonder how much of it goes toward helping folks in need. (Too much Catholic $ going to settle sexual abuse lawsuits to allow much charity.)
On another topic, forest fires are becoming a natural disaster to rival hurricanes, with every year now a "bad fire year". Fully 62% of the Forest Service budget now gets spent fighting fires, and soon it will be 3/4. Some think wildfires should fall under FEMA's purview, so the USFS can get back to its job of managing forest resources and recreation. Worth considering.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2015 11:41:04 GMT
I think this little video of my home town is interesting. It shows scenes from before Katrina, then right after the storm and then again 10 years later.
And here is another one of nearby Biloxi.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2015 14:26:37 GMT
Those are pretty powerful images . Thanks for posting them.
Another sad and tragic thing that occurred after the storm was the huge number of "contractors" who descended on the city preying upon people who were desperate to have their roofs and other damaged parts of their homes repaired. Some were adequate but charged outrageous prices, and then there were others who did virtually nothing and then skipped town taking the money paid them or worse still moving on to another section of the city to do the same. I know a ton of people who were victims of this practice.
Then there were property owners who took advantage of the huge influx of Hispanic persons who flocked to the city to find work. Many were hired for huge jobs and grossly underpaid, housed in deplorable quarters, cramped and crowded with inadequate plumbing. It was awful.
Many of these workers stayed on and were able to get decent jobs, many of them in the service industry and were/are paid fair wages and treated well. They for the most part have been a valuable addition to the city's population. Honest, hard working people.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 8, 2015 1:09:30 GMT
I was working in Amsterdam when it happened. The Dutch didn't comprehend it at all. I'm sure that where I was staying was as much below sea level as the flooded areas in New Orleans. The Netherlands sent engineers over, but I'm not sure how well they were able to coordinate with the local professionals. I think there are three layers of dikes in Netherlands. Back home, there were charity concerts for NOLA, with Québécois, (North) Acadian and Louisiana musicians. We've always felt a kinship, as with Haiti after the earthquake. The Guardian has always had good coverage of US issues, and no, it is not all bemoaning how horrible the Yanks are. For years I followed the writings of Gary Younge, a Black British journalist (think he is of Bajan descent) and his adventures covering US electoral campaigns. www.theguardian.com/profile/garyyounge As you can see from his picture, he is the kind of Big Black guy likely to be stereotyped as either dim-witted or criminal (and a similar Big White guy would at least get the dim-witted part), when he is anything but. He got pulled over a lot...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2015 17:47:48 GMT
Another sharp memory that comes to mind is the number of refrigerators that were put out on the street due to being contaminated. People were asked to kindly empty the contents of them. Some complied, others did not.
Many people spray painted graffiti on them. Everything from "FEMA IS A FOUR LETTER WORD", HECK OF A JOB BROWNIE" etc. I wish I had pics of some of them.
I got into a tiff with one of my neighbors who refused to empty her refrigerator contents and it reeked god awfully. She is one of those people with a huge sense of entitlement. I like to think I shamed her sufficiently.
BTW, today's NY Times Book Review section is dedicated to all things Katrina related.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 9, 2015 21:46:09 GMT
After Hurricane Charlie hit Sanibel and access to the island and electricity were cut for at least 6 days, many refrigerators ended up on the curb, reeking of the frozen shrimp that unfroze and rotted. House-sitters for absentee owners were definitely not paid well enough to deal with what they had to deal with!
Roofs were also torn off by high winds, so a lot of furniture and flooring and Sheetrock were piled at the curb, even from stilt houses that were well above any storm surge or standing water.
We were lucky to lose only a few shingles, but our next door neighbor had to gut his whole house after his roof failed entirely.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2015 23:39:44 GMT
The sanitation/garbage lworkers in NOLA have always been my heroes. They surpassed themselves after Katrina.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2015 15:41:10 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2015 19:35:57 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Aug 19, 2015 12:53:27 GMT
About to begin season 3 of Treme. I feel like season 1& 2 gave me a better idea of what folks in NOLA had to deal with in the aftermath of Katrina, which went on and on for those affected, but pretty much ended for the rest of us when the media decided it was "old news"....
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 19, 2015 15:45:06 GMT
Just comes up blank for me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 22, 2015 14:18:56 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 22, 2015 16:43:39 GMT
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