BS: Return to New Orleans

Subject: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 29 May 07 - 02:20 AM

I'll be in New Orleans May 30 - June 7, with a group of volunteers doing post-Katrina rebuilding, working on Warren Easton High School, on Canal street in the Orleans Parish. I was going to refesh my thread from last year's work trip to Warren Easton, but couldn't find it. It might have gotten lost in the great Mudcat crash.

New Orleans, and other communities affected by the storm need you. Anyone willing to spend even just a week helping out are very welcome there. They are afraid of being forgotten, what with all the other world events. There is much to do, and it will take a long time for New Orleans to come back. When i think what a drop in the bucket it is to work there a week, I also think of the quote "Better to light one candle than curse the darkness."

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 29 May 07 - 03:51 PM

Here are a few of the organizations involved with rebuilding and relief efforts. If your time is not available,consider a contribution.

http://www.habitat-nola.org/projects/musicians_village.php
Musicians Village, a project of Habitat For Humanity and Branford Marsalis. A really interesting project, building a village of homes for displaced New orleans musicians.

http://bushclintonkatrinafund.org
Former presidents joining forces to help fund relief/rebuilding efforts for all communities affected by Katrina.

www.oxfamamerica.org
Oxfam America has been involved for many years with assisting the poor in building efforts.

www.directrelief.org

www.commongroundrelief.org.
This organization's volunteers live in the communities they serve. Don't know much about them, but they are very grassroots. Saw one of their sites in the lower ninth ward last year.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 May 07 - 03:55 PM

Good on you, Chantyranger. The Pastor of the Baptist Church where the Messengers recently celebrated their 10th Anniversary spent a week in Mississippi a couple of weeks ago, helping to rebuild a house. Our church provides financial support, as well. While the nee4d is great in New Orleans and Louisiana, it may be even greater in Mississippi, because there's no glamorous cache of Beale Street, the Mardi Gras and all the other things that people love about New Orleans. They're all in desperate need of help. When you think of all the government money that was wasted, it drives you nuts....

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 29 May 07 - 06:37 PM

Good point, Jerry. One of our contacts in New Orleans said that an entire town he went through in Mississippi was destroyed; it's just pretty much rubble. Katrina was, and is, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: PoppaGator
Date: 30 May 07 - 01:59 AM

Several entire towns on the Mississippi coast were completely wiped out by Katrina's landfall; no buildings at all left in the wake of the storm surge, just miles and miles of bare slabs. A number of small communities in Louisiana, well downriver from New Orleans, suffered similar fates.

If New Orleans had not been flooded after being missed by Katrina, thanks to the failure of levees inadequately designed and shoddily built by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the small coastal communities in Louisiana and Mississippi that were devasted by direct hits by Katrina would be getting a lot more attention than they have, and deservedly so.

But, as it happens, tens of thousands of homes in a major city were destroyed by prolonged flooding, and the spectacular failures of all levels of government dominated the national news for as long as the public was able to maintain interest.

The public at large seems to be tired of hearing about it, but things are still pretty difficult hereabouts. Getting better all the time, certainly, but a long way from being resolved.

The response of volunteers ~ individual private citizens ~ from all over the country has been wonderful and very inspirational. We're all very thankful and humbled. Can't say the same for the politicians and the insurance companies...

(PM on the way to Chanteyranger)

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:11 AM

Sorry I missed you, poppagator! I wasn't able to get on the web while there, but next time...and thank you for adding to this thread. I hope your life is getting back on track.

This was an amazing trip. There were about 50 in our group, 10 of us fiddlers, a keyboardist and a cellist from the San Francisco Scottish fiddlers. We were invited by the berkeley Rotary club, which was invited by the New Orleans Rotary. I hadn't known much about Rotary before our first rebuilding effort last year, but they are an impressive worldwide organization. "Service above self" is their motto, and they really practice what they preach.

Warren Easton high school is New Orleans's oldest HS. It serves as a beacon of hope for inner city mostly African-American students. It is a high-achieving school, with a high graduation rate and 90% of graduates going on to college. After Katrina, the school board wanted to close it and convert the building to condos. A community-wide effort, spearheaded by parents, teachers, Rotarians, lobbied the school board, and successfully got it opened as a charter school. Alot of the work we were doing this year was not all related to the flood. The school suffered from years of neglect by the powers that be. Greenboards were cracked and peeling, old paint peeling in hallways and classrooms, formica in hallways old and cracked, and since Katrina, termite infestation throughout the building, and in other buildings and homes affected by the flood. We were divided into work crews, some scraping off old paint, then priming, spackling, and putting on new paint in classrooms and hallways. The crew I was on was scraping off old greenboards and replacing them with whiteboards, where teachers can use eraseable markers.

It was heartening to see changes compared to last year. last year there was no electricity or running water in the building. We set up a generator with extension cords to use the few power tools we had, and to set up a fan. The first floor, where the cafeteria was, was flooded by Katrina and totally out of use. This year, the cafeteria was opened, electricity and water is on, and classrooms, some of which we painted last year, are open. Our lunches were donated and brought to us on-site by the local Episcopal church's "Fishes and Loaves" mobile meals program.

Volunteering in New Orleans isn't all about hard work. After work, there's time to take in great food and the city's unique culture. Our "group within the group," the fiddlers, stayed in the French quarter, in an 1840's small inn. Just about every night we were taking in jazz. My personal favorite venue is an intimate jazz club in the quarter, called "Snug Harbor." Great performers, reasonable cover charge, and no pressure to buy drinks.

We were led on a tour of the 9th ward by one of the local Rotarians who lost his buiness in the flood. Last year, he led us on a "devastation tour," this year a 'revival tour" to see changes. it was a profound tour; an education it what has not been done, what has been done, and what needs fixing. There are many empty streets, where last year we saw ruined houses and rubble, this year there were whole neighborhoods of empty lots and weeds, where there were once neighborhoods. Imagine your whole neighborhood where you grew up, vanished. A new seawall is under construction, but as our tour leader, Henry Lowentritt pointed out, NOLA needs to save and revitalize its wetlands, which serve as natural protection against floods and are withering away due to human interference.

It is so important to NOLA's people to not only rebuild lives and homes, but to save its unique musical culture. One of the interersting rebuilding projects is musician's village, a joint effort of Habitat For Humanity and Branford Marsalis. This village houses musicians displaced by Katrina.

The bottom line is, Louisiana and Mississippi need you. Katrina was, and is, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Last year there was a very long and heated thread here about the politics surrounding Katrina and the aftermath. While there are obviously political problems locally, statewide, and nationally, and that a dialogue is important, it can't be stressed too much that they say what they really need from us is, either financially or with your presence, optimism and help in building, not endless arguing. Consider helping out. It's a commitment not all of us are financially or physically able to make, but if you can, it is one of the most rewarding experiences.

If you've read through all this, you are hereby awarded the Ecoile de Chanteyranger medal. thanks for reading!

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: HouseCat
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 02:15 PM

Beautiful, Chanteyranger. NOLA has a special place in my heart. Being a few easy hours drive from my home, we visited there alot. I haven't been back since Katrina, but worked with several familes who evacuated here from Louisiana and Mississippi. My church "adopted" families and helped them with housing, furnishings, clothing and food, and aided them in getting established here. Even hearing firsthand from them about how devastating it was couldn't show us the reality of it all. The children especially wrung my heart. One little girl said, "I just want it to be like it was. I don't like my life anymore." No child should ever have to feel that way. God bless you and your friends in your work.
HC

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:40 PM

PoppaGator: "...thanks to the failure of levees inadequately designed and shoddily built by the US Army Corps of Engineers..."

The USACE is one of the finest and most advanced engineering organizations in the world. The are well respected around the world for their work, their research, their acheivements, and their advancements.

To say that they inadequately designed or shoddily built the levees is not only incorrect, it is downright piss poor. The politicians decide how much money gets spent and where it gets spent, not the USACE. You get what you pay for. To blame the engineers for not being given enough money to design and build levees that would withstand more than a Cat3 is ludicrous.

Many terrible tragedies occured. But, to blame them on those who did their best with the tools they were given? Unacceptable.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 04:19 PM

Thank you, so much, Chanteyranger and Poppagator. CR, you have brought tears to my eyes and heart. Petty bickering has no place when people come together in such efforts.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 02:21 AM

"No child should ever have to feel that way." Amen, Housecat. The emotional trauma kids are going through is heartbreaking. One of the ways Warren Easton students who have moved away with their families have kept in touch is through the website "Warren Easton in Exile."

Thank you, Kat.

PoppaGator, when you have the time and inclination, it would be great if you update us on your situation.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: gnu
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 12:52 PM

Well. The PM's I received were not expected. A couple not warranted. No way did I trivialize the tragedies or injustices that resulted in the inadequate response by the US government and it's departments and agencies. Indeed, if anything, I was critcizing same for inadequate funding for the prevention of the devastation that took place.

Perhaps I can try to explain my position more eloquently. The politicians ask the engineers how much money they need. The engineers give the politicians dollar figures for varying levels of protection. These levels of protection are based on varying storm intensities. These intensities have a probabilty attached to them. When a politician hears that a storm of Cat4 only has a probabilty of happening once every "many less than it will take to get my pension and be gone" years, they spend the money on things that will get them re-elected.

Seriously, that is how it works. I once was admonished by a senior company official. I had designed a structure for a fourty year life. I told him that to go from a twenty year life to a fourty year life was only 4% of the total project value. His response was that the president of the company had a five year contract and he wanted to know how much a five year life design would cost!

I don't work there anymore. But, some young engineer does and he is likely getting the screws put to him too... just like the USACE.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 03:46 PM

That should surely be "many more than it will take to get my pension and be gone"...

Quite how it is possible to give adequate political weight to the interests of our children's children (let alone their children and so forth...) is a major problem no one has solved. They don't get to vote. They'll just get to pick over the ruined places we are liable to bequeath to them.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: gnu
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 03:53 PM

I stand corrected.... thanks McGrath.

Subject: RE: BS: Return to New Orleans
From: gnu
Date: 16 Jun 07 - 03:57 PM

Good thing I didn't design the levees, eh?