New Orleans, page 8: We are on YouTube

Scout and Athenae continue to provide excellent coverage of the New Orleans experience from last weekend; in fact, I believe Scout is still there until tomorrow.

Anyway, Athenae has posted a photo montage of the city and of our experience, and I thought I'd share it here as well. It really brought me back to last weekend in a very real, moving way. Enjoy.

(I'm the one in the red T-shirt. Well, the first one, anyway.)

New Orleans, page 7: Epilogue

I'm back in America's Glans™ now, but something is different. The impact of this weekend, from the most enjoyable times to the most gut-wrenching, is hard to explain. But the people I met, from the New Orleanians whose inestimable spirit gave me strength and hope for the future, to my fellow members of the First Draft Krewe whom I am proud to now call my friends, will stay with me for as long as I have memories and people with whom to share them.

We relaxed last night and attended a wonderful Louisiana pot luck at the beautiful "almost Metairie" home of Kim, a/k/a dangerblond. I snapped a few pics ...

Athenae and I found a perfect gift for Holden. It'll go great with his frilly pink dress.

Mike Danablog listens to Mr. A. make some important rhetorical point. I think.

The NOLA Blogger/First Draft par-tay.

Scout Prime and Athenae, who organized the Krewe. Thank you both for the opportunity to be a part of your community. I'm honored and humbled. (And I'm glad I could make you laugh, although I do apologize for the Eric Cartman imitation ...)

This blog may return to the mundane reviewing of the latest idiotic move by Drunky McStagger or some silly Florida happening, but a part of my heart remains in New Orleans. I'll be back ... and I'll be watching from afar, too.

P.S. Hi, Cyn. ;)

New Orleans, page 6: Pictures

Having forgotten my camera (well, to be precise, leaving its memory card in my laptop in the room), I'm left with pointing you to pictures from today over at First Draft.

Athenae did say I could steal her pics if I wanted, so at least I want to share the group pictures with you. Here's one from the start of our day, in front of ACORN's New Orleans offices:

Left to right: Ray in New Orleans, Tom, June, Athenae, Mr. A, me, Cynthia, Mike Danablog; in front, Cheri and Harry (archeop). spork_incident was the photographer.

And here we are afterwards in front of the house and the debris pile, along with the kids from Elon University and the other volunteers:


What a day. What a group of terrific people. Next time (and I'm sure there will be a next time), I hope you'll make plans to come, too.

New Orleans, page 5: Emotions

I don't know exactly where today ultimately will rank on my list of life-changing experiences (note: list does not actually exist), but I do know I have a lot of emotions running through my head today.

I'm angrier at the Bush crime syndicate than I've ever been. I know there wasn't anything they or anyone else could have done to stop the hurricane from coming, but I keep thinking that if we didn't have so many soldiers and National Guardsmen in Iraq, we could have sent them here to respond more quickly and assist in the cleanup and help restore this great city to her former splendor. Instead, we're trying to prop up a city thousands of miles away in a country embroiled in a civil war that we started ...

I'm saddened that the people of this city have had to endure such hardships and tragedy. There were such poignant moments today, like finding a hand-drawn Lord's Prayer, probably done by a grandchild ... a wedding picture, stained by water and time ... termite damage that made some of the wood look like coral ...

I'm heartened that there are people (outside the Bush cabal) who care, like the locals who joined us, and people here who appreciate what we're doing, like the man next door who shared his stories with us and then went out and bought us 125 chicken wings, enough to feed the whole gang.

And I'm wearily gratified that I had this opportunity to do something to help, even in some small way.

We worked somewhat silently at first, challenged by both the enormity of the task and the respirator masks we wore. As time went on, we loosened up a bit, but there still wasn't a whole lot of laughter. Yet there has developed an indescribable sense of community, of shared experiences and making a difference.

So, to ACORN, thank you for the chance to volunteer. I will be back. To Athenae and scout prime, thank you for including me in the First Draft Krewe. And thank you, New Orleans, for showing me spirit and determination beyond anything I've witnessed before.

And now, I need a shower ... and a nap.

New Orleans, page 4: 1773 Sere St.

A checkbook: Roscoe A. Allen, Jr.
A picture of a young girl.
Alphabet magnets on the refrigerator.
A Mickey Mouse figurine.
An old Cadillac Fleetwood in the driveway.

Memories of lives lived at 1773 Sere Street in New Orleans, immediately beside the London Avenue Canal and in sight of a steeple at Dillard University. All the houses here were virtually submerged when the levee and canal wall gave way just north of here..

I'm taking a break from gutting the house to write a quick post. We've torn down sheetrock walls, shredded ceilings, and carted out wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of debris: insulation, wooden slats, sheetrock, paneling ...

Our blogger group now includes a few New Orleanians, and we also have a group from Elon University in North Carolina, on a "Weekend After Spring Break" science trip.

Incongruously, an ice cream truck is approaching, playing of all things a tinny rendition of "La Cucaracha." I'm reminded of the enormous cockroaches that scattered from the walls in the kitchen as we tore them down. They reminded me of the Bush crime syndicate, except that the cockroaches stayed here.

The gentleman from next door has stopped by to show us pictures of when he lived in Chicago after he evacuated. He's kindly offered us use of the bathroom in the FEMA trailer he calls home, in the front yard of his house. Otherwise, we'd have to drive somewhere (as some just did) or find a convenient area outside.

The trash pile grows taller. I need to get back to work. Four hours to go.

UPDATE (7:08 pm 3/31/07): Athenae, being a trained journalist, naturally got more facts than I did. Go see her excellent post.

UPDATE (10:31 am 4/2/07): spork_incident has more commentary and pictures.

Correction

The quote previously attributed to spork_incident actually was performed by Mr. Athenae.

Steve Simels regrets the error.

Whoops

So much for pictures. I left the camera's memory card in the laptop at the hotel. I am a certified dumbass.

Will you accept a narrative?

We're at ACORN's hq awaiting our assignment. Lots of talk of respirators and masks (thanks Spocko!) and goggles.

Weather is pleasant but humid. Sounds like a good day to gut a house ...

New Orleans, page 3: Breakfast of champions

And the First Draft Krewe said, let there be work.

We are heading out this morning to ... well, we really don't know where yet. Chances are they'll send us to gut a house somewhere, but as spork_incident Mr. A. said last night, once they get a look at us, they may just have us pulling nails out of boards or something. Ha! (We're not the most imposing lot, let's put it that way ...)

I'll take as many pictures as I can and post them this afternoon when we return. In the meantime, just send us good thoughts and hope that we can keep the hammery thing on our hammers. (That's one of our new catchphrases -- they're flying fast and furious here.)

Your morning New Orleans picture for today is breakfast. It's a tradition, after all.


Does anyone have any good ideas on how to get powdered sugar out of a laptop keyboard? ;)

New Orleans, page 2: photo log

This afternoon we drove around some of the hardest hit areas in the city, beginning up near Lake Ponchartrain. This is where the infamous 17th Street Levee failed and swamped thousands of homes in a fairly middle- to upper middle class neighborhood (Lakeside) and a more working-class area (Gentilly).

Then, we saw the Lower Ninth Ward, the hardest hit area of all. You cannot believe the devastation until you see it for yourself. A thriving, teeming neighborhood is utterly barren, with entire blocks nearly devoid of homes or with only concrete slabs to show that a house once existed there. I saw many stoops with steps leading to ... nothing. Only a handful of people - perhaps six houses' worth - still live in an area that once was home to thousands.

We completed our tour by going a few miles into St. Bernard Parish, which for all intents and purposes no longer exists, at least farther downriver from where we were. In the towns of Arabi and Chalmette, there seemed to be more houses still standing than in the Lower Ninth, but that was deceptive, as the houses were largely brick rather than the wood of the Lower Ninth. The houses themselves still were mostly empty, standing as silent sentinels over a scene of utter destruction.

Here's some of what we saw today.


This was just across from the breach in the 17th Street Levee, in the Lakeside neighborhood. The levee was behind me as I took this picture. The dumpsters are literally all over the place, as containers for the houses themselves as they are torn down. The empty spaces (no grass) mark where houses once stood.

Here is a typical house near the breach of the 17th Street Levee. Remember, this occurred well over a year and a half ago. And also remember, houses standing are outnumbered by sites where houses once stood.

This is the actual site of the 17th Street Levee breach. Note the change in color of the wall (if you can see it).

FEMA trailers in the Civic Center parking lot in Chalmette.

The sign at the Chalmette Civic Center has yet to be repaired. Also, note another of the ubiquitous trailers out front.

This is tough to see, as I was taking it from the van while we were driving, but in the center, you might be able to make out a house, the upper floor of which fell onto the bottom floor. And yet, this is one of the few houses still standing at all in the Lower Ninth Ward. (Click on the picture for a larger view.)

More to come.

New Orleans, page 1: Sobering

I'm with scout prime, Athenae, and others in New Orleans. I'm posting by email right now, but I will have pictures to share later.

As I type this, we are driving through the Lower Ninth Ward, and the devastation is astounding and heart-wrenching. I may not take pictures here for fear of offending residents (if there are any) or relief workers. But there are few buildings left here.

More to come. I feel like crying.