Call It A Comeback
The phone number is being passed around New Orleans message boards and to say the least, they are not happy
UPDATE: Channel 4 out of New Orleans is revisiting the issue and the anchors are openly editorializing on this and just brought it up out of the blue.
While many might expect me to criticize him, I think he’s got a very valid point and I’m glad he brought it up. I’m afraid he’ll be badgered for this comment even though it is a legitimate question.
That said, I’m not sure saying all of New Orleans should be abandoned, but certainly the foot print should be more manageable and the Parshishes below it should not be rebuilt.
UPDATE: I may agree with him regarding the substance of this, but he’s politically screwed up–the statement is taking on a life of its own in the news—New Orleans TV anchors just spent several minutes on it.
From the BBC. I’ve stayed away from any of this until this just blew my mind:
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we’re having to deal with it and will,” he said.
From the Boston Globe’s August 29th Edition (written before the hurricane hit)
For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl-shaped city as much as 10 feet below sea level in spots and dependent on a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry. It’s built between the half-mile-wide Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, half the size of the state of Rhode Island.
Estimates have been made of tens of thousands of deaths from flooding that could turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems.
Actually everyone was predicting this as a very real possibility and problem and doing it for years. With Katrina it was specifically feared. In fact, the expectation was that a direct hit would lead to far faster flooding and probably more levee breaches than we’ve seen including the Mississippi River levees.
This is a ‘better’ situation than was predicted.
I’m so absolutely baffled by this bullshit I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
Butler Miller’s, a friend in Saint Louis, family business is a barge company–Miller Barge. He graciously provided some initial thoughts on what the impact of Katrina will be on the barge industry–which is not trivial to the coming harvest.
Hurricane Katrina will have effects, immediate and longer lasting, on the shipping industryin the New Orleans area. ?For right now, with the amount of sunken equipment in the shipping channels, it is not clear when ships will be
allowed into New Orleans harbor. ?New Orleans is the major terminus of
grain export in this country, and without ships coming in, no goods can
be delivered for barges to receive, and, with harvest upon us, grain
elevators will quickly reach their storage capacity and loaded the
barges may be sitting for a while, sucking up time that the barges could
have been delivering goods to other areas.. ?Getting reliable information about marine equipment is still difficult
because a lot the industry workers have their homes and lives to tend
to. ?I have to rely on news footage, thinking ‘that barge could be ours
floating through that neighborhood’ because I just don’t know where all
of the equipment is. ?Initial estimates have at least fifty barges sunk,
with many, see above, unaccounted for. ?Looking a little longer range, it is not clear what infrastructure may
have been destroyed by Katrina. ?Other ports like Lake Charles, LA,
Galveston, TX and Houston are understandably looking to ‘help’ in this
turbulent time. ?While the city of New Orleans itself, I believe, is
changed forever, I do believe that New Orleans as a port can comeback.
Remember, it was Lake Ponchartain that broke the levees not the Mighty
Miss, as the Mississippi River is sometimes called. ?
As a quick update: Transportation rates are going up, both due to fuel price increases and the tragedy in New Orleans with some in the industry for 30 years saying it’s the highest ever. This is depressing grain prices, which hurts farmers already reeling from a horrible year to due to drought.
The Liberal Blogging Network is joining together with an coordinated effort to raise money for the Red Cross–I’ll be featuring the ad at the right for the next 2 weeks at least. Please consider giving–if it’ll help, I believe I can track money from my site, and I could set a goal. Tell me if you think that’s a good idea or not in comments. Or just give at the Red Cross site. Just give really.
First, help by donating to the Red Cross, then celebrate New Orleans musical history by seeing Kermit Ruffins on Saturday.
Obviously check and see if Kermit is actually going to make it, though the with all of the stages–something will be worth it.
UPDATE: For those that have been there, I haven’t been able to get Tipitinas or Le Bon Temps Roule out of my mind. Strangely, Mark Brown mentions Tipitina’s in his column. Perhaps odder, both are probably in relatively good condition given their location in Uptown.
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