I thought I'd start a new thread and give my impressions, first-hand, of the recovery rebuilding effort from my own perspective. I live in Slidell, La, a city roughly 20 miles from New Orleans. We are 5 miles west of the MS state line. Slidell suffered a good deal of flood damage and a good deal of wind damage from Katrina. So with that intro... 1. FEMA announced on the radio this weekend that they were going to be in the city of Slidell taking applications. For those of you counting, that's 21 days after the storm. Last week, some a-hole set up a fake FEMA office and had taken the very personal and private information (including bank account info) from about 50 families before he was exposed and the police nabbed him. My neighborhood has about 400 homes. As I drove around I noticed some not to friendly signs directed at FEMA and insurance companies. (One was painted one the roof for the politicians incessantly flying over). 2. The Red Cross is catching hell from the citizens as well. Apparently when you call the 800 number it is forever busy. Phone service in this area is spotty at best. So IF you can get a line out, and IF you can get the number to connect, it is busy. To add to the frustration, if you do get a ring an automated voice will pick up and say (after 2 minutes of needless info) "All of our lines are busy, please hang up and try again." I heard a man on the local raio callin say that he and 4 others drove all the way to Pensacola, FL to the red cross office on Saturday. His reasoning was that the office in Pensacola would be the most experienced in handling storm disasters. He was stunned to find out that the Red Cross office "does not take applications on weekends". 3. Again, the insurance companies are still doing the minimum they can. Using their clout to walk the fine line of legality and leaving many many people disappointed in the amount of coverage they are receiving. I haven't seen my adjustor yet... 4. The good news is coming from the NGO's and churches in the area. Hot meals, AC, water, and volunteer cleanup crews from around the country are coming in and helping to gut homes that flooded, haul furniture to the side of the road, and help clean the massive amounts of debris in the yard. The response has been stunning. 5. I also have to give a tip-of-the-hat to the electric companies. These folks have been working hard. My electric company lost 4000 miles (out of 5000 miles) of power lines. The place is just crawling with line crews. Personally, my good news came over the weekend: WE GOT POWER! This is a small step but very very welcome. Funny, we got power before FEMA even made it to the area.... hmmmm.... 6. Apparently the phone system has been utterly destroyed. We were told by a phone rep over the weekend that our target date for phone service is Nov 15th. Oh well. I hate the phone anyway but that also ruins my internet access for 2 months... Not complaining... 7. The pastor for my church was driving thru the area looking for people who may need help. Our church has taken it amongst itself to start with helping six families. Get them an apartment in the city of their choice (where the PCA has a presence). Pay the first 3 months rent. And help them get a job. This is a bit ambitious for us but the PCA churches around the country have been pouring help into the area. I have been given the task of spearheading one of the families. Actually, he is a 54 year old blind guy living in a small house here in Slidell. Never married with no living family, this guy rode out the storm (if you can imagine) in his small rental home, with noone offering to help him evacuate. Here he is: blind, raging winds, 36 inches of water in his house, and he rides the floods sitting on his dining room table. Unbelievable. The owner of his home has refused to fix anything yet, waiting for the insurance company to see it. Although our plans for this fellow are ambitious, we are going to purchase a camper for him to live in temporarily ($6,000). Purchase his home from the owner (we are negotiating at around the $35,000 mark). Completely gut the house and remodel it (price unknown). We have plenty of workers from churches in Jackson, MS., Chattanooga, TN. Memphis, TN. and even one all the way from New Jersey will be sending a crew. If you want more details I can provide them. If you, or someone else you know, or a church in your area would like to donate You can send all donations to: Trinity Presbyterian Church, 701 S Military Road, Slidell LA, 70461. Mark the donation as "JD's fund" and it will be used only for the purchase of the camper and materials 100%. There is no overhead and all of the labor is voluntary. (All donations are of course tax deductible.) Noone is getting paid with any part of the money. Well. That's about it for now...
Thanks for your post Yankee... I have tried to read as many of these first-person accounts as possible, in order to have a better perspective on tragedy! This guy's story (on the dining room table) seems like a Movie of The Week account! I understand they rescued one person over weekend in New Orleans still holed up in his home! That's a long time! Has every home been checked at least once in Mississippi yet? You mention trailers/mobile homes being used for short term survival... Weren't these prohibited in certain sections of coastal communities due to their inability to wisthstand even small tropical storms?
Good question. I really don't know the answer for certain I can only offer conjecture. The homes and areas along MS did not have sustained flooding. That is, the water surged in and left fairly quickly. I can't imagine that someone is still stuck in a home in MS unless they were pinned in. I would imagine that by now, every affected home in MS has been inspected. These constrictions on the use of mobile homes/trailers are being lifted in the interim to allow for temporary housing. This is a tenuous situation but will, I believe, be manageable. Temporary housing, at this point, has not yet been provided anywhere yet. I do have a fairly juicy story I am working on about a landowner that I know and their dealings with FEMA. As soon as I can confirm some aspects of the story I am gonna pass it on.
(Not a commentary, just a "here's this, too" kind of response--anyway, best of luck.) My wife was volunteering for the Red Cross this weekend, processing people who were volunteering to go down there. They were frustrated because they had to train first, which would put them in LA, MS, AL even later but... Anyway, one of the women she was working with told a story about volunteering a few days ago (not sure when) up here in MI, having the phone ring and when she answered was stunned to find herself talking to a minister asking for help in taking care of the dozens of people holed up in his church, since they'd seen no help of any kind yet. Apparently he'd just called "The Red Cross" and some occult switching mechanism had shunted him to a recently trained volunteer in Ann Arbor, MI. She hooked him up with her supervisor and I gather they sent somebody out to him.
I should have included some positive stories about the Red Cross. It's not all bad. As evidenced by your post. As to concerns about insurance/Fema/flood insurance, here is a story about citizens, perhaps, taking matters into their own hands. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9397712/
Ahhh... The old dual partnership of racism/cronyism have raised their heads here in Louisiana. Can I add ignorance and cold-heartedness as well? Ok. I just did. Seems as though the lovely parish (county) of Livingston (just east of Baton Rouge has voted to ban temporary homes for Katrina victims. This bastion of white loveliness fears the influx of Katrina victims sullying up their infrastructure. I'll be sure and pi$$ there on the way home this week... And yet another lovely story. There is a fellow employee here who owns 250 acres of land just west of Baton Rouge in West Baton Rouge Parish. Seems that over the past 5 years this person has been preparing the land for a housing development. Enter FEMA into the equation. FEMA has offered this fellow employee 10 million dollars for the land to put temporary housing. Jackpot, right? Not so fast. When parish officials heard of this plan they immediately took steps to outline that only "special needs" persons can live there if FEMA went thru with its plans. What does that mean? A committee would review the applicants to approve who can live there (read "no blacks allowed"). So while the deal is in a bit of a flux, one of the parish officials has "partenered" with a land owner to offer land further up the parish that would not have these restrictions. I am gonna work on these stories so that I can provide names and contact info to hopefully expose these idiots. Sometimes I really hate this place. But the fight is worth it.
Thread of the year. Thanks for the first hand accounts. It's not shocking that there is good and bad in every story. Continued good luck.
The guy who put together one of my bikes (and a coworker at my parttime job) just came back from NOLA this past Friday night. Since I came in late on his recounting of his experiences, I wasn't too sure what he did down there, but I do believe he said he helped gut out houses in NOLA for a week or so. He looked dead on Saturday morning when we had to work. He said they worked from 6am to 6pm (apperently there is a curfew in NOLA?). He also said the devastation was worse than what newspaper and TV accounts can convey. He also said the stench was really bad. He's not going back again, but he was glad that he did it. He was also telling us that one of his coworkers down there who "knows someone" with FEMA was telling him of how the military was called in to "take out" a gang of 40 or so people in NOLA that were protecting their turf. One of our coworkers asked by what he meant by saying "take out" and Brook said that the military personnel were shooting at these gang members. Apparently these gang members were shooting at relief works and the like when they tried to enter their territory. Any other stories similar to this that can confirm it? I must admit I was a bit shocked by this cuz I haven't heard anything on the news about it (I have also been trying to stay Katrina-free the past week or so). I've known Brook for a number of years and I do believe he was telling the truth. You have to keep in mind that he heard this from a coworker so something coulda got lost in his retelling of the story.
It's odd but understandable. TV or internet pictures give a flat, 2 dimensional moment in time of a particular scene. Add in the heat, humidity, odor, etc. and the moment in time becomes unforgettable. Honestly, I have seen more grown men and women cry in the past few weeks than I have ever seen before. Just at any time in a conversation, bam, the waterworks flow. Frustration, fear, remorse, regrets, anger, etc all add up over time. I am wary of the effects of seeing all of these grown adults being so emotional will have have on my own children. I have heard so many stories and rumors that it is really hard to distinguish fact or fiction. This story you have related is certainly within the realm of possibility and, most likely, probably happened. I have not heard this story though. My access to TV has been extremely limited. I am not aware of how much coverage the Katrina story is receiving on the news channels. Apparently it is getting to be a bit much and I wouldn't blame anyone for "turning it off".
A nice, hot bath in my own bathtub over the weekend. Not a shower. I am usually "too busy" for a bath, and prefer a shower. When I finished my day of work on Sunday at the house I instinctively turned on the shower, and, well screw this, I'm taking a nice long bath. Man was that nice. It's funny but I really miss my own bathroom as much as anything else. Well, anyway that's hardly any news... A sting operation in Livingston parish near here netted a handful of internet predators who were preying on kids at a local church shelter. Seems as though some kids had been lured in the past few days, they turned to the police and the sting operation was setup. Man. Most of the kids at this particular shelter are "separated" from their parents though I dont know the extent of the seperation. My company is throwing a party tonight. A party. Who da hell feels like going to a party? I guess me... I have heard a rumor and will try to confirm, that the SBA loans that are backed by FEMA have a strange interest rate system. Apparently if you have never borrowed money before, you get a nice low interest rate. If you have an established history of credit you get a higher rate regardless of your credit history. This doesn't really make much sense which probably means it is true...
The focus is still on cleaning up and making arrangements with insurance, FEMA, etc. but now Rita is on everybody's mind too. Rita looks like a large storm, and, if it all holds together, could affect us even though it's headed to Texas. The problem in our area is that the drainage systems are all clogged with debris. 5-10 inches of rain would pose a real problem. Of course, that does not even take into account the levees in New Orleans. I don't wish Rita on anyone, but couldn't this one just go to Mexico? My wife and the kids are moving back to the house today, while I will stay around to the weekend to clean up the camper and give it back and take care of the people who loaned us their driveway. I'll be going home on Friday and crank up the $%#^% chainsaw again.
Thanks for the updates. I will continue following your progress. Here's to things getting back to normal sooner rather than later.
Not only do we now have power, we have internet access! I gotta say that the companies to whom my wife are indebted have been fantastic. My mortgage company has given us a 90-day repreive on making payments. I owe on one car and, since we haven't heard from them (they are located on the beach in Bliloxi, Keesler Federal...) we haven't made any vehicle payments. I have one company though that I have a hard on for. A credit card company story: The phone service here has been eratic at best. I have not yet been able to place a call from work to my wifes cell phone yet. My phone at home is dead and has been since the storm. So yesterday my wife used a desk here at work to call around to all of our debtors to get an update on our accounts. We have finally been successful in getting our balance from our bank (We bank with a company whose offices were in Bay St Louis, MS. I think we are gonna "deversify" our locations.) Everything was rolling along fine until we got the credit card company. They were breathless with panic. "We have been trying to contact you for 4 weeks." They said. "You are two payments behind and will be behind 3 on the 30th of September!". (Admittedly we were a month behind already. Ecch. Purely due to laziness on my part). "We were wondering if you would like to make a settlement on your account." My wife explained that the hurricane had pretty much shut down communications and that we had only recently been in contact with the bank, could they just give us a balance due and we would pay them. "I dunno", the CC person said, "I'll have to call you back." No, my wife said, you probably won't be able to contact us... Long story short. They are demanding payment in full of the balance. If not, they are gonna turn it over to a collection agency. Pricks. I'm sure we'll get it straightened out. But just another crap trap to deal with. Which brings to mind Sprint PCS. I made arrangements with Sprint PCS to automatically withdraw our cell phone payments on the 1st of every month. Cool. One that I can't forget, right? Well, while we were "running" from the storm we had no cell service at all. My wife tried over and over to make calls with no luck. (Text messages worked fine though). On the 3rd of September she was able to finally get a dial tone. And where did the call go? Directly to Sprint customer services. They were unable to withdraw the money on the 1st (since the bank was essentially destroyed), so they had cut phone service. We had to pay the balance before we could use the phone. So, we make the payment, and, you guessed it, the phone never got another dial tone until the 6th of september. Idiots. (On a side note, while on the phone with the Sprint person, my wife made the comment that nothing had worked since Katrina hit and we were on our way home. "Well I am sorry for your loss but the balance due is $102.88"). Thought you might enjoy this:
Great letter that captures the people I know from LA to a tee. It reminds me of a story I saw over the weekend. Apparently, a lot of NO musicians have worked their way up to Memphis to ride this out. They have been welcomed with open arms, which has led to an interesting combination of up tempo new orleans jazz and the steamy blues you get from Memphis. Sounds like a good time to me. I've never been to Memphis, so this is probably as good a time as any.
I have been to Memphis but never experienced the music. NO jazz is so upbeat and infectious that I am rarely not in the mood for it. My own little pet peeve is that cajun/zydeco never really became popular. Nor has "mardi gras" music. I should also send a RIP for Clarence "gatemouth" Brown, a Slidell resident who recently died after evacuating to Texas for Katrina. Apparently his condition got exceedingly worse after hearing the news that his home was completely destroyed... "Long way Home" is an awesome album...
First some good news. The blind fellow I mentioned in this thread is now in pretty good shape. He has a temporary place to live and things are looking good for the repair of his home (the next step). Sorry, but I am just in the mood to bitch, bitch, bitch. First off, local politicians: St Bernard residents have been waiting 4 weeks to return to their homes. One Month. Today was the day they were to return, get any personal belongings from their house and leave before dusk. You see, St Bernard was 100% flooded with 6 plus feet of water. Not one home or businees or structure in the parish was not flooded. Today, the day that everyone has known for a month was to be their return date, and the entrance routes thru New Orleans are closed. Why? Because the exit ramps were not yet blocked off and this would cause a security problem in New Orleans. *&%% &*$%^#. Bush comes thru and every exit is shut down in 10 minutes. St Bernard residents had weeks of lead time and now there is a traffic jam on the interstate waiting for the police to block all of the exits so these residents don't cause a security problem in New Orleans. You know, they just want to go to their homes, see what's left, maybe grab some pictures and leave. Tragic. Politically connected companies: Shaw Group gets two $100 million contracts to assist FEMA. Shaw has to be one of the most connected companies in LA. Should have known. The Red Cross: How much time does it take to go to the red cross website and donate money? Minutes. How much time does it take to go to the web cross site and APPLY for assistance? Impossible. It can't be done from their website. How much time does it take to call the 800 number for red cross and donate money? Minutes. How much time does it take to call the red cross 800 number and get assistance? Weeks of persistent phone calling (assuming you have a phone. FEMA: Literally thousands of trailers sitting in Lumberton Mississippi 4 weeks after the storm. Sitting. This I can verify. Noone yet in my area has received any information about when the trailers will be available. In Mississippi, some trailers have been delivered to affected residents. Once the trailers are delivered the residents are told that they cannot occupy the trailer until electricity is connected. Electricity can only be connected by a FEMA approved contractor. Time estimate? 1-3 weeks. Insurance Companies: You are pricks. Sorry. You are. I've got tens of examples, but here is one. A person I know went up to visit his insurance company at a "disaster assistance" location. He filed his claim and reported, among other problems, that some shingles and tar paper had blown off his roof. The "disaster assistance" person told him to get on the list for the FEMA supplied tarp. He did, and 4 days later FEMA showed up and put the tarp on. The person's adjustor showed up this weekend and, with a self-assured little smirk, informed him that "Katrina didn't damage your roof, the federal government did." And denied the claim on the roof... Random: If one more politician flies over my house in their "escorted" helicopters to cry alligator tears down unto the minions, I'm gonna puke. Hmmm.... I need to make a big sign on my roof for them, what should it say? Well, this weekend started out pretty good and went to crap fast. Rita, small winds, little rain, dreary skies... sigh... We started going thru the neighborhood checking on some of the seniors to make sure they aren't trying to stick it out in mold infested homes. The first ones that we checked on was just tragic. A couple really to old to be here with walls literally falling down with nasty mold. And then to top everything off. We drove around to another neighborhood to check on a friends parents. And there, right on the side of the road in a ditch across from cemetary, lie 3 coffins just sort of tossed into the ditch carelessly. I finally cried.
I too was moved to sadness by the level of destruction, particularly in Cameron and in Beaumont, Louisiana; it seems the entire area is completely devastated... nothing much at all left! You comments on the Slidell area leave me with a basic question... could it be better to declare these areas damaged beyond repair and relocate residents? What are the pros and cons? Since the Fed is now handing out billions what if a flood plain was established all along Louisiana's coast; from beach front to up to three miles inland, and moved residences from the zone? I support the short-term aid of all folks down there now, with temporary trailers of which you speak, but I am more interested in the long term picture so such destruction and such temporary infrastructure repair need not happen again: A three-mile floodplain belt along Louisiana's southern coast? After the short-term aid for Louisiana, what of the long term? Rebuilding many of these homes simply is establishing targets for the next Gulf hurricane... why? Cannot something more lasting be done?
All good questions. this is the best article I've seen on the subject. http://205.188.130.53/ngm/0410/feature5/?fs=www3.nationalgeographic.com Louisiana has no real beaches. And 3 miles wouldn't be enough.
YB, Thanks for the update. Things sound awfully depressing, but Its good to hear y'all found a place for JD. Good luck.
It would seem that letting the bayou have much of it back would be helpful on several levels, none of them economic. How did they do it at Love Canal? Is a similar scheme on a bigger scale possible? The economic approach to reconstruction (market based) will rebuild on existing ground levels with gentrification. The market is incapable of acting for long term goals. I think the area, at for the remainder of the multi-decqade hurricane cycle, is simply a bullseye. next year, hell, next month, it could happen again. There is another, worse risk. a New Madrid earthquake would liquify the entire Mississippi valley for dozens of miles either side of the chanel for a hundred miles. The volume of water running into NO would be beyond staggering. I just dont think the city is sustainable.
New update coming soon. I have to fulfill the duties of my employment first, but consider this a "bump".
I was in Beaumont over the weekend for clean up work. The report was that the area was not hit near as hard (by Rita) as Lake Charles and areas east of there. The damage was impressive and will take many months to get repaired.
First if all, thanks to all on here who have donated to the fund for JD (mentioned in a previous post here). That will make a nice segue into what I'd like to talk about first. Generosity. I am astounded and heartwarmed at the outpouring of support from outside of the area towards the Gulf Coast Area. It is truly amazing. I really dont know where to start. Can New Orleans rebuild? I dunno, but people give. Is it smart to rebuild New Orleans given the geographical problems? I dunno, but people give. Aren't the people in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana stupid redstaters? Yep, and people give. Isn't New Orleans mostly black? Yep, and people give. Aren't Mississippians just backwards? No. Maybe. And people give. Maybe you don't even know anybody from the area, and yet you have given. You have given in the form of money, time, materials, and labor. We have people who are taking vacation time from their jobs and traveling to the hot climate and helping for a week. Gutting homes, tree cutting, clearing debris, etc. In many cases doing the work with strangers who they have never met and will never meet again. Is all of this uniquely American? No. But it does demonstrate that, whatever the motive (Christian service, plain compassion, etc) that the love of fellow man is there. And it beats loudly in the hearts of millions. In the noise of everyday life we can't hear it. But when life is stilled by sudden tragedy, the noise of this compassion is resounding. I think I am in the beginnings of post-traumatic stress. The last 5 weeks being such a blur. Unable to concentrate at work. Working to the point of exhaustion at home. Bills still due. Trying to help those who desperately need it. Trying to be in 3 places at once. Living in the shell of a home that is now practically worthless. Commute time has gone from 1 hr to 2.5 hours. Dad has been hospitalized for the second time since the storm. I am tired and there is still so much that needs to be done. Maybe I'll try to get a little vacation time, but, work is really the only place that I can take the guilty pleasure of some semblance of normalcy. The Red Cross is now up in Slidell. They are limiting service to 1300 people per day. They start at 9:00 am and have had the limit of people by 5-6 am every day for 6 days now. In other areas, the Red Cross has since stopped announcing the locations of new assistance centers because of the fear of being overwhelmed by people. This causes locations to be announced by word of mouth and, of course, once the rumors kick in you end up with people going to places where they "heard" the red cross was located, but they aren't there. Something for you Red/Blue staters to chew on. Washington Parish, which is probably one of the reddest parishes in La. has opened 8 red cross locations. Now all of the red cross locations that opened elsewhere allow people from any location to apply. The one in Slidell has people coming from New Orleans, Mississippi, etc. But what does "red parish" Washington do? They only allow Washington Parish residents to apply at their locations (this, I suppose keeps the riff-raff out of their precious parish...). It is especially aggravating since Washington parish residents were applying in Slidell (St Tammany parish) until Washington opened their own. Here's a finger to ya Washington Parish... Sorry for the rambling...