[StBernard] After Katrina - nearly a year]

[Westley Annis]

	 Once again a friend has painted an incredibly detailed picture of
what we are all living through. I thought I would share it. Even though she
lives in the New Orleans area, all of us from St. Bernard can relate. It's
worth the read.
	J dolese 
	
	
	 *******************
	
	
	It's been almost a year since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
fundamentally changed life in southern Louisiana and Mississippi.   and I've
had trouble sitting down to write this "installment" of my Katrina log.
	 
	Some of my delay is attributed to the fact that I got married in
late June, which was a wonderful "distraction" from all that life offers us
here now.  Focusing on a positive event, the arrival of family and friends -
all provided me with the balance that is so incredibly missing from our
lives right now.
	 
	A friend said the other day that this past year has been an
incredible exercise in patience.  How true!  Many of you have built or
remodeled homes in the past.  Contractors have had a long-standing
reputation for not really doing what they say they are going to do in the
time frame in which they say it will happen.  Well, that has risen to an art
form here in the past year.  Employers recognize that when an employee says,
"the contractor is coming this afternoon", that the employee NEEDS to leave
work to meet the contractor and probably will be gone for the remainder of
the day.  It's all a part of doing business here these days.
	 
	The other analogy that has stayed with me is a suggestion that we
are living in a frontier town.  Everything takes a little longer than it
used do - sometimes a LOT longer!  Things that we have grown to expect to be
there in an American city.are not.  Life is more complicated - yet in some
ways more simple because of lack of choices - than it was a year ago.
	 
	I've gotten upset recently as people refer to our "new normal".  We
are by no means "normal".  Life in the area is not "normal".  Nor will we be
for some time.  And my fear (which is what causes my angst) is that if we
begin to settle for this being "normal", we are doomed.
	 
	Well - with that as a preamble for my ramble - here's what I know to
be true as we approach the one year "anniversary" of Katrina's landfall.
	 
	DEBRIS:  The current estimate for New Orleans alone is that there is
50 MILLION CUBIC YARDS of debris associated with Katrina, Rita and the
construction associated with rebuilding.  Roughly 8.2 million cubic yards
had been picked up by mid-July.  Clearly, the citizens of the area are
frustrated that so much debris remains in the city.  (The debris continues
to appear on the street as more people return to the city, and begin the
process of gutting their homes and repairing them, either to live in or to
sell.)  It's hard to fathom that a year after the storm itself, we still
have better than 80% of storm-related debris remaining to be picked up!  And
yet, I have difficulty comprehending numbers like 8,200,000 cubic yards of
trash.  A cubic yard is 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet - quite a bit bigger than
your washing machine (just pull out your tape measure and check it out).
	 
	The estimated 100,000 cars in the metropolitan area that were
destroyed by Katrina and have been sitting under our highway overpasses for
so long disappeared, as if by magic, about a month ago - when a contract was
finally let to do the work.  However, the current estimate is that nearly
40,000 of that original number were stolen in the meanwhile - and delivered
to area chop-shops.  Wherever you are in the country, if you are buying a
used car, check the VIN number - and make sure you aren't buying a
refurbished "Katrina car".  They've been located in nearly every state of
the union already.  (One young "entrepreneur" was arrested for stealing
abandoned cars for profit as the city dithered about the terms of the
removal contract and was applauded in letters to the editor - removing cars
at no cost to the city and making money as well!)
	 
	There was an estimate of 1,000,000 "white goods" (washers, dryers,
refrigerators, freezers) sitting out on the curb waiting to be picked up
after the storm - most of these seems to be gone now.but not until after
someone captured many of them in "The Refrigerators of Katrina" - a spoof on
the photo compilations of doors from various cities, etc.  Some hilarious
commentary was written on these items (i.e., "Do not open - FEMA rep
inside"), attesting to the unsinkable humor of the people of the area.
	 
	Clean, woody vegetation was used for wetlands restoration, chipped
into mulch and sold to Home Depot and others (yes, there was something about
this on the internet about us shipping our termites to you - but they won't
survive the first hard freeze for those of you north of the Mason-Dixon
line).
	 
	The visible mountains of debris are no longer staged throughout the
city - but the landfills are filling.  And a recently opened one has been
closed because of objections from the community near the site.  Debris
haulers have indicated that, if they don't have a place to take the debris,
clean-up will be further delayed.
	 
	HOUSING: It's estimated that there are 200,000 homes that have been
rendered unlivable or have been completely destroyed by the evil twins
(Katrina and Rita).  Apartments are being restored - or in some cases being
torn down and (hopefully) rebuilt.  Yet rents (and the cost to purchase,
repair or build houses) have skyrocketed - the supply and demand theory of
basic economics at work.
	 
	The federal government solution of trailers is an interesting
one.particularly in light of how we got here in the first place.  Where's
the last place you want to be in a violent thunder storm?  A trailer.
Where's the last place you want to be when the winds are high?  A trailer.
So, while these gifts from the government are allowing many people to cease
being completely homeless, an unintended consequence is that the area needs
a new element of its emergency preparedness plan - evacuation of all people
living in trailers, even for a low-velocity tropical storm.  There remains
great concern in the local governmental agencies about the probability of
people who have lost everything being asked to evacuate - and the further
probability that they will take it upon themselves to unhook their
FEMA-supplied trailer, hook it up to their vehicle and attempt to
evacuate.with the trailer in tow.  
	 
	Additionally, there are three recent revelations about trailer
living:
	1)       domestic violence is markedly up.absence does, indeed, make
the heart grow fonder.  And living in a 6-foot wide, 30 foot long white
sardine can with few windows understandably makes the blood pressure
rise.but in a much more negative way.  (The trailers do seem to "shrink" the
longer you are in them!)
	2)       There are only three lock manufacturers in the country for
travel trailers --- 118,000 trailers that have been currently installed in
the area may be unlocked with an incredibly small collection of keys.  So
FEMA will begin the process of re-keying EVERY trailer soon.
	3)       Thousands of citizens with disabilities are still awaiting
trailers that are compliant with ADA - and an RFP has JUST been released to
address this issue.
	 
	Rebuilding activities in the heavily flooded areas of town (New
Orleans East, Broadmoor, Gentilly, Lakeview, the Ninth Ward) has picked up
in recent months, with more houses being torn down, raised up on pilings, or
being repaired in place in these neighborhoods.  But there are still vast
areas with few visibly returning residents and areas that remain quite dark
after the sun goes down.
	 
	NATURE: We've lost so many trees - and are losing more in St.
Tammany parish (on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans and
on the way to the Mississippi Gulf Coast).  Trees that were weakened by
Katrina but not felled have fallen prey to beetles that eat (and kill) the
trees within two weeks.  And throughout the area other species of trees are
dead or dying from the stress associated with sustained wind, weeks of
standing water, and subsequent draught conditions.
	 
	And yet, when you take a boat ride even in areas that was heavily
impacted by Katrina and Rita, you see more life than death, more growth than
destruction, more healing than wounds.  Birds are plentiful, smaller
wildlife is clearly recovering, and larger wildlife is showing evidence of
doing the same as the food chain "does its thing".  (Some of you will
remember me writing of sated flies in mid-September, who had eaten so much
of the rotting food, etc. that they could barely fly.  Well the lizards ate
them.and multiplied.  Then the birds ate them.and multiplied.  And so on.
(OK, so I'll show my age by reflecting on the old Bobby Darin song,
"Multiplication".)
	 
	THE ECONOMY:  I don't know a single business that isn't looking for
workers - from minimum wage positions to senior management.  The incredible
loss of housing impacts people's ability to return - and the ability of
businesses to recover because of a lack of a labor force.
	 
	A recently visible trend is an increasing number of homes in higher
income area being fixed to the point where they can be put up for sale -
with the owners making final their decision to leave the area, further
impacting our available work force.
	 
	Tourism remains weak - although it traditionally is during the
hottest time of the year.  Businesses that depend on tourist traffic to
survive are struggling, despite a strong local commitment to buy locally, to
eat out in area restaurants and a thriving building trades business sector.
The cruise lines are beginning to recommit to the area, which will bring a
real boost to the economy.  
	 
	Sales tax revenues are up dramatically in St. Tammany and Jefferson
parishes, which have absorbed a lot of area residents and transients
associated with rebuilding.  
	 
	Personally, I've seen a return of my clients since the first of the
year and am as busy as I've ever been.  The issues that my clients are
facing are a bit different, but they have (for the most part) moved past the
initial stages of recovery and are starting to focus on the future -
recalibrating their business to the needs of the community now and trying to
guess at what the future will hold.
	 
	POPULATION:  The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is partnering
with local entities to conduct a comprehensive population study, not only of
New Orleans, but of the entire coastal area of Louisiana.  The results
should be available in early September and should give us more current
information about the number of people now living in the area - and those
planning to return who are elsewhere in the state.  Traffic, school
enrollments, and other anecdotal connections to population suggest that far
more than 50% of the residents have returned and that we continue to have
over 25,000 temporary construction workers in the area (with a huge percent
of that workforce being undocumented, Hispanic workers who have brought
their families with them).  The un-flooded areas are back roughly to their
pre-Katrina levels.
	 
	With the reopening of schools (staggered openings range from having
summer sessions that began in July to some schools who will not open until
October when the worst of hurricane season is past), we are seeing families
return to the area or make more final decisions about staying away.  
	 
	UTILITIES/AMENITIES/INFRASTRUCTURE: It's estimated that 90% of the
traffic signals are working in the area - but it's a rolling 90%.  We've had
to re-learn, as a community, what the rules are when you encounter a
flashing red or yellow light and how to manage through a crowded
intersection that is governed by stop signs.  (Lots of car crashes attest to
the difficulty of relearning this concept.)
	 
	Water is potable (drinkable) throughout the city, although there are
rolling problems with water flow throughout the city.  Fire fighters are
constantly challenged with low water pressure as they battle blazes often
created by reconstruction efforts.  Helicopters are often seen carrying
large "buckets" of water from Lake Pontchartrain to fire sites to aid in
putting out large fires.
	 
	Electricity and gas service is restored to most of the city, but
intermittent power outages and gas failures are a way of life.  And
restoration of power to an area of the city doesn't mean that power is
restored to the houses in the area - that's dependent upon people returning
to the home or business and asking for power to be turned back on.
	 
	Health care remains decimated - with roughly 70% of our medical
personnel lost - probably permanently.  This is also true for dental
services and other specialty care.  Mental health workers are estimated to
be fewer by anywhere from 40% to 90% depending on how you measure.  Yet we
live in a time of incredible stress in the community and have a great need
for these services.  Recruitment and retraining efforts are beginning, but
the difficulties of life in the area will limit those who are interested in
the job - a challenging environment, an opportunity to practice medicine in
a "frontier town".  Anecdotal information suggests that the vast majority of
doctors in private practice who were within 10 years of retirement.did.  The
length of time that it takes to rebuild a practice is simply too long to
make any other choice. 
	 
	Most grocery stores are back in business in the more populated areas
of town.  Yet there are wide swaths of the community that have no nearby
grocery store.  The same is true for restaurants, although more are opening
every day and our favorite places are beginning to re-emerge.
	 
	As I indicated earlier, schools are re-opening throughout the area
and planning on a public school population of about 34,000 in New Orleans
for example (down from about 80,000 before Katrina).  One of the unexpected
results of Katrina is the total re-invention of public schools in the area.
New Orleans has long had dismal public schools (with some notable
exceptions).  Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes have planned for a
population close to or larger than before Katrina as a result of
resettlement.  
	 
	Shortly after Katrina struck, the state took over nearly all the
schools in the city of New Orleans.  An amazing collection of charter
schools and state-run schools augment a very small number of schools that
remain under the control of the local school board.  Creating an open market
where parent can CHOOSE what school their children will attend, and where
schools compete for teachers and students will surely improve the
educational outcomes of the city - and the schools that remain poor
performers will suffer from students leaving to go to better-performing
schools.  This is an experiment that could NEVER have been initiated but for
the catastrophe of Katrina and the ensuing floods.  We won't really know the
results of the experiment for a while, but it's very exciting to watch and
be a small part of.
	 
	OUTSIDE HELP:  We still are seeing very little of the federally
promised (and allocated) funds that are designed to help us.  Were it not
for private giving and the faith-based and nonprofit community, we would be
in even bigger trouble than we already are.  The countless volunteers who
have given so incredibly of themselves over the past year - and continue to
give - have provided aid and comfort to so many.  Organizations have sprung
up to fill incredible gaps in the community.  A national effort has begun to
do two key things: match donors with specific needs and an attempt to get
1,000,000 people to give just $10 each - with all the funds to go directly
to delivering aid in the Katrina-affected area.
	 
	Through these writings, I've received a large number of offers to
assist and have been pretty successful at matching people with need.  I know
there are many others doing the same.  The ordinary people who have
demonstrated heroism in their quiet actions and tireless support in our time
of need are incredible.  We as a community, and I as an individual, can
never say "thank you" enough - or repay the debt we have incurred over the
past year.
	 
	SELF-DETERMINATION: One of the hardest things for me to come to
grips with is the loss of self-determination among people who have managed
their own lives until now.  There is a look in people's eyes when they
return to the area that changes over time.  First, a look of dismay and
despair as people take in something that is so big that pictures, still or
moving cannot capture.  When you first return, even now, the magnitude of
the problem finally becomes real.  Then, you can see a change when people
formulate a plan to rebuild their lives.  Then you can see frustration when
their plans become dependent upon someone or something else - whether it's
waiting for a payment or fighting with insurance companies, the
already-mentioned undependable contractors upon whom we are all depending,
the labyrinthian process for getting assistance from our state and federal
governments that seem to count on a certain percentage of the people giving
up somewhere along the way.  Yet, somehow, we continue - supporting each
other in ways that we haven't done in a long time.  Simple acts of kindness,
overwhelmed neighbors helping each other through, and steadfast
determination to reclaim our lives and our communities are prevailing.yet
facing what often seem to be insurmountable odds.
	 
	OUR FUTURE:  Those who have chosen to stay or return are people of
amazing strength, resilience and courage. They are rebuilding their homes
and their lives - slowly, but with determination.  And, often, they are
responsible for restoring not only their own lives and homes, but those of
their extended families.  Their stories will be told for the rest of our
lives - and we will never run out.  Listen to them, read them when they are
written about - they will inspire you more than you can imagine, and make
you thankful for the gifts of your life.
	 
	However, there are some who are here that do not really have the
capacity to continue to deal with the challenges of living in this place
right now.  We will lose some of them - to suicide, to unmanaged chronic
disease and stress-related illnesses, to mental breakdowns, to violence, and
to departure when it becomes too much to bear.  I've heard a number recently
that I cannot independently validate, so I won't repeat it here - but
suffice it to say that the mortality rate in our area is MARKEDLY higher
than it was a year ago.  Calls to the suicide help line, incidence of
violence, depression and suicide are all rising again as we approach the
one-year mark after Katrina and still are faced with so much left to do..
	 
	We will be a smaller community for a long time - here in the New
Orleans area and across the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  (I still don't have my
own knowledge about the southwestern area of Louisiana that was so badly hit
by Hurricane Rita a month later, but friends continue to remind me that this
area of the state remains devastated and suffers from many of the same
issues.)
	 
	But those who are here - and continue to return - come with a hope
for the future, a determination to restore their lives and their community,
and a brave commitment to work things through.  With the support of each
other and the many people from outside the area who have come to help us, we
will not only survive, but once again thrive.
	 
	Enough for now.  When August 29 arrives, remember us - and that the
work continues to restore this area of the United States.  Until we meet
again,
	 
	Nancy  


	-- 
	"It's not the lead that connects, but the connection that leads."
	Brian Kilcommon