Katrina Update #58Katrina Update #58Apparently, the new official way to greet someone from New Orleans is to say "How's your house?" At least, that's what I found out while Janis and I were at Macworld Expo in San Francisco this past week. It had already become a mantra among the locals in New Orleans – and perhaps even a bit passé.
While working the MacSpeech booth at the show, occasionally someone would come up and ask where we are from, or notice the "Salem, NH" as the location of our company on the show badges. We would say, rather offhandedly at first, "New Orleans." Immediately people got this shocked look on their face – a little like we had said "Mars" or perhaps as though we had just suggested that if they move one foot in either direction they would be sucked into a huge, bottomless pit or step on a land mine. Not quite a "deer in the headlights" expression, but close.
Some would share stories about someone else they knew, while others would start talking about how they hadn't met anyone from there – until now. Always, however, their first question after finding out we were from New Orleans was "How's your house?" This was invariably followed by "is it really as bad as it seems on TV?" After that, the conversation would become more unique with each person.
A software developer was telling me they weren't sure if they still had a copy of our software because they had a flood in their building and then stopped mid-sentence when they realized where I was from. They said "Oh, never mind. Our flood was like a toilet over-flowing compared to yours."
Perhaps the best reaction was when I was showing a friend of mine who was at the show from New Jersey the "Go Anywhere" map on the PBS.org web site. I moved the flood outline over the area of Philadelphia in which they grew up and his jaw just dropped and his eyes bulged as he saw the area of devastation relative to his own hometown.
It is remarkable that people have trouble believing that it is going on 6 months since Katrina slammed into the coast and 40 percent of New Orleans still has no electricity, gas, or water. Of course, it is equally remarkable that that much of New Orleans still has no electricity, gas, or water.
One person even suggested that the Bush administration was using weather control techniques developed in the 50's by the Russians. Their assertion was that Katrina and Rita were enhanced and targeted to move people out of the gulf coast so the area could be taken over by the oil companies.
People sure are funny.
Since we haven't been home this week, we don't have much to report except for the usual juicy gossip that's not fit to print. We'll be in California until 1/21, so I will do the next update next Sunday and hope to get you caught up on friends and family then.
- All facets of government (local, parish, state, and federal) continue to act without expedience when it comes to providing displaced New Orleans' residents. In the mean time, however, some returning residents find the accomodations not only acceptable, but downright plush.
- A debris fire that started at 11 PM Thursday night was declared under control. About 5 acres of wood furniture, matresses, refridgerators and other trash caught fire and burned out of control for all of Friday.
- Levee repair is under way and the hope is to have everything shored up before the 2006 hurricane season arrives. What they are doing is building coffer dams around the breeched part of the canals, and repairing them first. They will then put temporary flood gates at the mouths of the canals to keep water from flowing in from the lake during storms. This, of course, means the pumps can't operate until the gates are opened, so there is some concern of at least partial re-flooding of damaged areas should any kind of serious rainfall event (greater than 3" per hour) occur.
- Movie production has resumed big time in New Orleans. Filming for "Deja Vu," starring Denzel Washington, and Jim Caviezel, (who portrayed Jesus in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ.") is slated to begin in February. Washington plays a time traveling FBI agent who tries to save a woman from being murdered. They reportedly need thousands of extras.
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