Katrina Update #42Katrina Update #42Janis and I drove to Tallahassee, FL Sunday night, stayed at yet another Fairfield Inn, and then met up with Adam and Megan around 1PM. Their friend Brad brought them to Tallahassee. On our way out of town we stopped by Cary's house so Janis could see the damage first hand. I finally got her to agree to let go of the bedroom set. When seen in person she agreed it could not be salvaged. Since the I-10 Twin Spans were damaged, we decided to take the Causeway to I-12, then I-12 east to where it joins I-10 east of Slidell.
Perhaps no where in our travels was Katrina's damage more evident to us than along the drive through east New Orleans, Slidell, and then along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Tall metal billboards with diameters of six feet or more at their base were broken in too like kindling. We had seen many a McDonald's sign with the inserts blown out, leaving only a frame. Somewhere near Biloxi there was a McDonald's sign whose arches were actually completely twisted and malformed!
On our return trip, we went through a Slidell subdivision called Eden Isles in order to get to US 11, which is the old bridge that runs parallel to the twin spans. Before reading further, I suggest you click the link to Eden Isles and look around at the beauty of this location — at least before Katrina. This was a picturesque area, with many homes on the marshland with direct access to Lake Pontchartrain.
The eye of Katrina went somewhere between Slidell and Waveland, MS — which was literally wiped off the map. Waveland received the worst winds — which some insist were well in excess of the 155mph needed to make it a Category 5 storm at landfall. Winds on the west side of the eye would not have been much less. While driving on I-10, starting about 5 miles from where you are forced to exit at Eden Isles, if you looked to the south you would see a mound about 150-200 feet tall, towering above the otherwise completely flat reclaimed swampland in the area. This mound dwarfed the car dealerships in front of it and had what seemed to be dozens of machines — front end loaders, fork lifts, bulldozers, and dump trucks — scurrying about its surface not unlike ants on an ant hill. This went on for 2-3 miles. What we were looking at was a huge trash heap. It appeared as though the town dump, which had expanded many-fold in size, now contained more of the town than what was left.
Once we exited I-10 we wound our way through the subdivision towards US 11. Every single house had been flooded. Every single house had piles of debris at least 10 feet tall in front of it. Some were as tall as 20 feet! Every single house! It was as though God had run out of toothpicks and decided Slidell was as good a place as any to get more. A bayou that connects to the lake runs adjacent to Hwy 11 on the right side (generally, westbound). There were many homes that sat on property here. Most were torn into pieces. Some of the better-built homes could now be seen across the highway, where they slammed into other buildings without prejudice. The best built were merely tilted off their foundation, anchored by one stubborn corner that refused to yield to Katrina's fury.
We crossed the US 11 bridge about 5:30 PM. (You can read more about this unique bridge here.) It survived Katrina mostly because it is further in, and the twin-spans had already taken the brunt of the winds. Already, the eastbound lane of this two-lane bridge was clogged with bumper-to-bumper, slow moving traffic. These were people leaving New Orleans. Some had gathered what they could from their obliterated homes, and were heading back out to the homes of friends or relatives. Some were contractors, who, for lack of enough lodging in New Orleans, were heading out after a long day's work.
After making our way across — which happened at nearly the speed limit, thanks to the time of day we were coming in — the backup of traffic waiting to cross the bridge coming the other direction went on for miles. But that was not what caught our eye (and kept it for the next 12 miles to New Orleans). Once again we were completely overcome by the damage. Car lots full of new cars, now completely ruined with water lines at the roofs. Miles and miles of homes and businesses rendered completely uninhabitable. Buildings completely collapsed. Signs not only blown out, but bent completely out of recognition. More than once we saw a twisted piece of metal along the side of the road — and sometimes in the median — that gave no clue to its origin.
I wish I had pictures, but I was driving and they wouldn't have come out too well at highway speeds anyway. Just driving through the area, it is not hard to imagine why they predict 140,000 to 180,000 homes will have to be demolished. Megan, already in tears after seeing Slidell (where her parents live, in — thankfully — a house that was repariable), was sobbing by the time we got to their house near the Bywater area of New Orelans. Her reaction was not unlike mine when we first got to our house — extremely relieved and reassured to see that all their stuff survived without damage, yet emotionally devestated by the catestrophic damage she had just witnessed.
We left Adam & Megan's house with them in tow to go to Coop's, where Adam would get his schedule squared away for the coming days. They did not have time to do the laundry before they left, and the condition of their washer was questionable, so they spent the night at our house.
Today, Janis and I went to CompUSA to get some printer supplies, then to the post office to mail a package, and finally to an appliance store to buy a new refigerator. Sounds all pretty normal, except that it took us from 10:30 until almost 3PM to do it all. Traffic inside the city of New Orleans is a breeze, although it is getting worse each day. But the reason it is a breeze is because there are still things you must go outside the city in order to get. office or home repair supplies, or if you intend to mail anything, are a few of the things that must be done outside Orleans Parish. Since everyone else is doing all those things, too, it takes pretty much 1/2 day to do anything except get groceries or go out to eat. I read somewhere that travel times to the outskirts of New Orleans are about what they were in the 1930's, and to travel east across the lake now has been set to pre-1900 time lengths.
The good news is that it looks like we may have gotten ourselves a refrigerator. Best of all, it is the Maytag #MFD2561H I had originally picked out. It turns out the small appliance store I visited ordered the wrong thing for a customer and just happened to have it in stock. They gave us a good deal, and it may even be delivered by the end of the week. I figure what we will save in eating out expense will help pay for the extra cost of such a cool unit, (no pun intended), since everyone else claimed they could not deliver before 10/26 at the earliest. Besides, we are supporting a local business, which means more of the money we are spending will filter through the local economy. Everybody wins.
So if you were loading up that pickup truck, stop. But come on down and party with us anyway. The city needs your money.
And, btw, add to the list of Lessons Learned taking all the perishable food out of the refrigerator and freezer before evacuating. We figure we can throw it all in coolers with some ice, and if we get back into town soon enough, have a party. If not, just throw out the coolers!
I published updates on a few other people on the People page.
You may have seen a story about a 64 year old man who was beaten bloody by New Orleans police. It didn't help that the police in the tape were white, and the victim was black. All the reporting I have seen was pretty sensationalistic. There are subtlties to this story that are not being reported. The "victim" did resist arrest, although that, in itself did not justify the excessive treatment he received. The flip side of this story is that the police are tired. Really tired. And they are sensitive to the fact they are being criticized on a national basis. The good cops are reacting to the bad press about the bad cops.
Look — defend this city and its police force to anyone who calls them to task, would you do that for me please. Consider the following: up to 80 percent of the police force lost their homes. They have been seperated from their loved ones, living in cramped quarters on cruise ships, for six weeks. There is essentially no criminal justice system in the city of New Orleans: the city doesn't have money to continue supporting the operations of the district attorney, the criminal sheriff, the clerk of criminal court and the criminal courts. So criminals are getting prosecuted by the state attorney general's office, which is already over-worked due to the overcrowding of Baton Rouge (and increased crime there).
So as a result of this, they are going to start cracking down on curfew. Not that I have a problem with that. Given that there are only 174 restaurants that have passed inspection and far fewer open in the city, it really shouldn't take all that long to get your buzz on. Be home by midnight, then get your butt out of bed and do something to help bring the city back — even if that just means showing up for work on time. That's my take.
In another development, it has been rumored that the FBI is investigating the New Orleans PD because allegedly 84% of the 500 cops who did not show up after Katrina hit were "phantom" cops — they were on the payroll, but never really existed. Now I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is, it sure would explain a lot of things — like why Police Chief Eddie Compass was forced to resign (he supposedly new about it, and was complicit), and why the majority of those missing haven't shown up yet, and come to think of it, why there is never a policeman around when you need one (except for Mardi Gras, of course). My big question is that if this is true, how could Chief Compass know about it, but Deputy Chief (and now acting Chief) Warren Riley not? Just goes to show: no matter how much things change, they always stay the same.
With all this police stuff going on, you'd think we would be worried about safety. Not so. In fact, the reaction of the police, while excessive, shows you that they pretty much have adopted a "no tolerance" mentality. As more people come into New Orleans, it is only natural and correct to assume that a certain percentage of these people will be inclined to break a law or two. So far, the arrests are going up, but the crime rate is not. New Orleans has almost no crime right now. My biggest concern is what happens to these people once they are arrested.
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