Post Katrina: New Orleans Five Years Later

It has been interesting reading the mainstream media news reports and their select interviews with people from the New Orleans area on the fifth anniversary of Katrina as one who has had family living in the New Orleans metro area for over 30 years, and who visited that city often both before Katrina and then spent an extended period thereafter as a homeless Arizona refugee and whose parents medical conditions and concerns and other reasons led to an extended stay on and off from late 2006 through early 2010 and who was then in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for Gustav in 2008.

New Orleans has changed from a frequent long time visitor, but "outsider's" point of view, and it is a city still reeling from the effects five years later.

When I arrived in late 2006 for the Christmas holidays after storing what was left of my property after an enforced sale of my home in Arizona, even the area in which my family lives was much changed since I had not been back to visit for several years while parenting teens in the Southwest and due to numerous trips when younger and stretched finances also, were beyond entertaining with the usual tourist sites in their older years.

The area in which my parents live which is across the lake from New Orleans population had exploded, and traffic in the area worse than Phoenix metro area, which is saying something due to its huge growth from the 1960's, mostly due to all the residents of New Orleans that had fled their homes and decided afterward to sell and get what they could for their damaged properties and now commute from across the lake.

This was an area that was also heavily affected by the high winds of Katrina, but did not suffer the flooding after the levees "broke."

There is still much dispute there about what truly did happen that resulted in the breakage and lawsuits flying five years later over the homes that were flooded, many of which in poorer areas, with allegations that due to the rising Mississippi imposing danger to the bread and butter of New Orleans, the levees were "helped" to break in order to protect both the Quarter and the Garden District from extensive damage.

During that storm, my sister's husband, who also live in area, stayed instead of evacuating and purchased a generator and lived in their home for three weeks after Katrina hit, patrolling the neighborhoods with others in order to protect their homes and property from any further damage since the lake was also reported to be rising and there was such an influx of stranded people fleeing for weeks thereafter.

The sewage lines were also contaminated, so those that stayed ended up bagging their refuse and hauling it to parish dump sites for two months thereafter. The electricity and power was not restored for six weeks in their area, and even longer in parts of New Orleans.

My parents almost didn't leave. They had left in 1996 when there was another threatened hurricane and went to Mississippi, but returned after two days and my mother and father were in their early 80's so another "false alarm" trip for them was not something they were looking forward to at their advanced age. It took them 16 hours to make a normally six hour trip to another sister's house in another state further north.

Counting my parents and my two sisters' families, and their in-laws who had a home in Chalmette, one of the areas most affected by the levee breakage, there were all told 12 people and three dogs at their home for four weeks. My parents, both on medications, could not reach their doctor however did finally get refills on their prescriptions at a local pharmacy that was kind enough to waive the requirements for a doctor's okay on their refills.

They survived and had insurance and got a new roof, and two of their trees that were stripped away and damaged were removed by some volunteers from a local church, and they only applied for a small sum for the food which was contaminated that was in their refrigerator and pantry due to the power outage for those four weeks, although a few years down the road a large settlement crack in their bedroom appeared and as with many of the homes due to the amount of water there have been some have had further lasting effects in "sinking."

I stayed for Christmas, but had thought I might be able to make a fresh start in New Orleans as part of their restoration as a photographer/artist, and my own rather need to rebuild, so I left and took a small room in East New Orleans in one of the hotels that had been converted to weekly housing that was still left standing.

Most of those there were working for the government contractors on the repairs, and the parking lot was full of heavy equipment for the ongoing repairs.

In fact, in order to get into my room after leaving, I had to show identification since there was a National Guardsmen at the entrance who was charged with protecting the equipment from vandalism, not the security of the residents there.

The elevator did not work for the entire time I was there, which was over three months until that spring. The 7-11 on the corner had no power and was only open during the day, and all the food that needed refrigeration was in ice chests such as beer or soda. There were sea shells everywhere and as you walked through some of the neighborhoods there would be homes still standing untouched, while right next door several homes were missing. Toilet seats and other items were buried in the sandy ground throughout neighborhoods.

On one tour I made from East New Orleans to Slidell there were boats washed from the lake all the way across the highway. The Irish Bayou was devastated and the homes looked like haunted houses, abandoned. There was a Six Flags amusement park near the Chalmette exit that looked like it was right out of one of those horror movies, the huge wooden roller coaster was missing so much timber and the park abandoned.

Huge thirty foot car dealership signs were bent in half, and former large scale department stores closed and boarded up. That was in 2007, but on a trip back in 2008 and 2009, although most of the large debris had been cleared away, the vacant and abandoned homes and businesses for the most part remained.

Although right down the street was a reminder of "home."

In front of the local Home Depot there was a taco stand and cart, and day laborers waiting to be picked up to work on the repairs. For those that have left New Orleans, others have taken their place - many of them the illegals working for the government contractors, and also the large scale opportunists who have moved in to score post-Katrina. Similar to what occurred after the Civil War during the reconstruction, I would imagine.

Few in that area of New Orleans could afford to rebuild.

Many were fishermen, or Cajuns who lived along that swamp and who owned their own land, but had mostly small fishing shacks and shanties with their boats their most prized and expensive property. Many of those, of course, washed away during the storm. And most of their money went into providing for the repairs to their fishing boats, rather than their homes - and when you live in a swamp without air conditioning and a fisherman or shrimper, you aren't in your home very often to begin with.

New Orleans proper has changed, and the Quarter much less trafficked than in years past unless there is a Saints game going on.

The street artists and such that battled for space along Jackson Square are not as abundant, and many have been replaced by card readers and others. The costs of permits has gone up, so most of those that sketched or worked their magic in plein air landscapes are gone.

And there is a quota and "approval" process now for most of those that wish to work their art for those permits. The cost was out of my league, definitely.

The British have moved in and bought most of the housing and commercial buildings in the Quarter, since even many of the wealthy could not afford to keep their properties due to rising costs of insurance and other costs of ownership after the storm. And their currency, of course, is much greater than our own. Many working for BP and the government contractors working on those repairs with some of those major contracts.

New building standards also have been imposed for rebuilding which has prevented many from finishing the work on their homes, requiring many be built now ten feet off the ground, and insurance costs for those now "flood prone" areas once again are pricey.

And while I can appreciate Mr. Pitt's involvement in rebuilding, I'm just wondering how many are going to be able to even qualify for that low cost housing with the insurance costs and such as they are. And many even five years later are fighting with insurers, if their homes were mortgaged, over some of those repairs.

In addition to those new building standards, I was also informed that there have been new city ordinances passed which require those that own land in the flooded areas to either rebuild, or forfeit their land. It does appear that the developers have arrived and the city/state and developers just may be using Katrina as an excuse for one of the largest land grabs ever. Many cannot get bank loans or funding to even rebuild, although the developers can. Thus, the price of that land and property has been driven down even more so than what is occurring in the West and Southwest in those flooded areas.

Even the outlying areas have been affected along the River, since those beautiful restored plantations that were also stops for many a visitor to the area are also facing declining revenues.

And now, BP.

The South will rise again. But the character and those who made New Orleans what it was pre-Katrina are clearly being replaced by "foreigners" more and more.

Even the jazz sounds different.

Super Bowl Sunday: And The Saints Go Marching In

As a boomer who remembers the first SuperBowl back in the '60s and the Steelers/Cowboys/Jets/Colts/Redskins eras, it has been interesting also "politically" to see just how this one game has changed from its inception to last Sunday's SuperBowl and all the hoopla leading up to it.

Especially those commercial breaks, and the half time entertainment.

What started out simply as a game between two rival football groups and franchises, the AFC and the NFC, has evolved into a yearly event that is choreographed now almost a year in advance insofar as the politics that go in insofar as even the selection of a venue for this all important game.

This year, of course, the Saints finally made it to "the Bowl," and the Who Dats, for the first time in 43 years, came back with the trophy to a city still reeling from the devastation of Katrina almost five years ago and in which the amount of citizens and residents has dwindled, while the amount of long and short term visitors and foreigners has increased in leaps and bounds.

Many native born and long term residents have "moved on," to other states and will not be returning. Once was enough for them, and since then another, Gustav, even occurred which then swelled the number of visitors to the City of Baton Rouge which already was bursting at the seams with the overflow from those also former New Orleans residents, some of whom now have suffered two devastating losses of homes or property in less than five years.

The Saints needed this win like no other. And the people of New Orleans are very loyal and grateful fans of "them Blessed Boys."

I still find it interesting that the Superbowl in this country, one in which the majority of Americans still claim to have a belief in God, is played on a Sunday to begin with, and why a Sunday was selected especially when college bowl games and such are over by New Year's week. This also puts a wrench in some of those travel plans in order to be back at work then on Monday after all that celebratin', especially now that it is held on Sunday nights and not during the day.

And, of course, now the "season" has been extended another week from the original which were held the last Sunday in January for many years.

The SuperDome, of course, used to be the the premiere venue for the SuperBowl after it was built for many of those games.

It, of course, suffered a great deal of damage after Katrina, but is back and the home field once again for the Saints.

Its just too bad that the game couldn't have been played in New Orleans this year, instead of Miami.

I would think that in order to acknowledge the true fans and contributors to the NFL franchises and those teams who buy all those trinkets and pay those now outrageous sums for season and individual tickets, that a game such as this one should be played on one of the two "finalists" home fields, wouldn't you?

I mean, the influx of tourism would help pay back some of those fans for their investment in those teams through all those seasons and all those games.

I know it might complicate those travel arrangements for some of those league officials and others who need to send advance teams to those locations in order to set up the camera crews and backdrops for some of the commentators and advertisers, but is that who is really important in the end, or the people that have stood in line and bought their tickets for so many years?

Perhaps in the future the selection of a home field for the game could be determined either by the regular season records of both, or on a coin toss.

Those that need to book their travel arrangements months in advance, well there is always local affiliates that could help with some of those arrangements by putting up a few of you executives and high end advertisers in their homes and thus maybe eventually reducing the price of some of those tickets in the process, or the price of your products.

I mean, this is a time of economic recovery in America, is it not, with a disappearing middle class which is being literally destroyed, for all intents and purposes.

It was also interesting to note that the half-time show was outsourced to a 60's era British rocker group, The Who.

Now I am a Who fan as one who did grow up in that era, but for such a national event such as the American SuperBowl, don't you think we could next year "in source" rather than "out source" the half time entertainment, with the exception perhaps of a rerun of Janet Jackson's performance?

I mean were Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Simon and/or Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane (Starship), or the remaining members of the Grateful Dead or Paul Revere and the Raiders all booked up, since it would appear they also could use the gig and may also be some of those in the disappearing middle class?

Is the half time entertainment also the subject of some of those free trade agreements, or are U.S. rock bands also headlining the halftime shows at the National Soccer/Football Championships in Europe and/or Canada?

Isn't it time you also contributed your part to the American Economic Recovery and Relief Effort, Commissioner?

Obama To Visit Post-Katrina New Orleans

It was announced by the AP that globe trotting Barack Obama is scheduled to make a domestic spin from the East to West Coast (for a black tie fundraiser in San Francisco, home to the bulk of the Global Socialists within one of the mainstream parties) via New Orleans in order to do a post-Katrina checkup.

As one who has family that was evacuated for both Katrina and Gustav, and a survivor myself of Gustav while there for an extended stay last year due to a family members illness and then subsequent surgery (although my 14 year old car is another story), it would appear that much could also be done to help the struggling Louisiana economy post-Katrina in providing new jobs for some of those displaced and still homeless.

Louisiana, of course, has seen a huge migration of the illegal immigrant population, most of which are being hired by the government contractors for the reconstruction.

Recently, the New Orleans City Council and its state legislators have been busy attempting also to protect them from some of those same government contractors. Some of which apparently have been withholding payment for their work even with those great discounts in taxation they receive for hiring foreigners as opposed to Americans.

With corporate America other than those that determine those salaries, the executives and Boards of Directors, even cheap foreign labor is not cheap enough to max out those profits on the repairs.

Of course, many have also flooded in from Texas and other nearby states in the construction industry. Many of which informed me while I was in Katrina ravaged East New Orleans and the Chalmette area were being paid $300 per day for clearing the debris. After getting all their mandated shots, of course.

The security detail checkpoint that I had to go through in order to get to a nearby hotel I stayed in (whose elevator still had no electricity that visit, almost three years later, nor did the local corner gas station store) was actually there in order to protect the heavy equipment from vandalism or theft.

Not those living or staying in the area at all.

This area, of course, suffered much of the damage due to a nearby levee which broke the day after the storm.

My sister's inlaws returned to their home in Chalmette four weeks later when the power was restored and found the water line at the 10 foot level in their home, which then had to be totally destroyed and rebuilt. They were fortunate. They had flood insurance.

Many did not, and were and still are being given the run around by the insurers even though a great deal of the damage is clearly Katrina related. Many lost their roofs which resulted in total destruction even before the levees broke.

Obama has promised and highlighted his commitment to pump a great deal of money into the area in order to rebuild the infrastructure that was destroyed. But if some of those government contractors are now withholding payment for some of their illegal workforce, I just wonder what other corners they are cutting in the repairs themselves.

Louisiana is notorious, after all, for having some of the worst streets and roads due to the fact that much of the taxes that are collected are pumped also into the tourism industry rather than infrastructure needs.

And the beautiful homes in the French Quarter, America, did survive since they were so well constructed over 200 years ago. And built, of course, on the highest ground available.

However, many of those owners had to end up placing those homes also on the market due to the astronomical increases then in insurance for all those living in or near any of those levees, like within 200 miles from many of the homeowners' reports. The entire state actually is "high risk" due to those two storms within less than five years.

There is also a new edict from recent reports of some of the homeowners that the state has enacted a law that requires that those that owned homes that were affected by the storms MUST rebuild within a certain amount of time, or lose their land to the state.

And, of course, new building standards for flood prone now areas. There are now additional costs of construction that are required so that homes are now, in some case, mandated to be built on concrete pilings 10 feet above the ground.

Except, of course, for those that are being subsized with federal funding, or those that are being built with private non-profit funding for those displaced low income families. Which simply means if another should occur, they or their posterity will again be homeless.

How's that for "property rights?"

Seizing now the land of some of the victims who certainly may not be able to rebuild with the cost now of insurance to rebuild on those tracts of land. Which law, of course, depresses the price those owners can expect even from selling the land, or using it for some other purpose such as merely as security for any other purchased property.

Many of whom were also in the lower income brackets to begin with, and thus have little savings for down payments on new homes in the area, or any other state for that matter. And now without even the wealth they had built up in the land itself to use as a factor in negotiating for a new or replacement home post-Katrina.

Which is why Louisiana does have one of the lowest income levels per capita at this point with the aftershocks of Katrina still reverberating, Brad Pitt's efforts notwithstanding, since even those low cost homes being built still require the banker's due and upfront costs for financing.

Most of those still standing homes in the Quarter which are on the market are being sold and marketed to the British and listed with Sotheby's, not local realtors or real estate companies.

I ran into several while walking through the Garden District last spring. Their money is now at a higher exchange rate, and it does appear that the British are buying up a great deal of America's assets, including its internet and television stations, and now even those stately old Louisiana homes.

It's gotten to the point that as an American, and refugee from Arizona due to the foreign invasion which has occurred there, I do feel like a stranger in a strange land.

My own country.

I hope Mr. Obama isn't just using this visit once again to push his globalism agenda, although will find a more favorable audience now that there are so many foreigners now who have taken the place of the Americans who were forced to flee during Katrina.

His scouters and advisors might have warned him. Maybe he should hold two townhalls at this point. One in English. The other in Spanish.

Just to make sure that all "stakeholders" are well informed and reassured that the "rebuilding" efforts go as planned.

Except that part of his speech that was released also included the fact that part of his mission is to advise those townhall attendees that Washington will soon be easing funds so that residents can become self-sufficient.

Maybe he needs to speak with the insurers about that.

Or create some new jobs by inspecting the government contractors labor force, and travel through the French Quarter and Garden District and speak with the new owners, the British.

Before he heads off on Air Force One for the San Francisco black tie event.