Tag Archives: gulfcoast

bm279 Demolishing New Orleans, Post Gustav

It is no secret that the post Katrina rebuilding effort has been mismanaged, but now the city of New Orleans is taking that to a new level, post Gustav. My guest on this podcast is Karen Gadbois, who writes the blog squanderedheritage.com, focusing on housing and history in New Orleans. Together we look at the city’s accelerated policy of demolishing houses with minimal to no notice.

Among the topics we discuss:

  • The policy
  • Gustav as the excuse
  • Post Ike damage
  • The living museum that is NOLA
  • Grassroots action and organization
  • The role of bloggers
  • The other arguement, rationalizing the speedy demolitions
  • Demographic change and development plans
  • Wetlands resoration and the need for it
  • Entergy
  • Jail

Music:

Mof Def – Dollar Day
Dirty Dozen Brass Band – Whats going on?

Still Mismanaged to a Criminal Level

I want arrest warrants issued for all US government officials, local and national, who have missed continuous chances to really initiate a true sustainable plan for the gulf coast in rebuilding and properly preparing the coast line for the storms that are inevitable.? I suppose as its only a cat-2, the charge for mismanaging Gustav will only be criminal negligence and embezzling relief funds.? But I want to see people brought to justice who have not fulfilled their promise as public servants.? While we’re at it, we can issue long overdue murder and attempted murder warrants to all those? who stood by before, during, and after Katrina only a couple of years ago.? Being fired or shuffled from your cabinet position does not count as justice, a trial is still necessary.

Now we watch Gustav pass over the Gulf Coast, it isn’t Katrina in many ways, but the truth that Katrina confirmed, once again shines through — the money hasn’t gone where it should have, the recovery has still not been properly carried out. Levees in places like the West Bank aren’t finished, while others are simply too small.. and in either case, these are known facts. In other words, criminal acts where individuals have failed to do their essential jobs – planning, funding, and carrying out the work that is needed.

As I write this there are levees over topping and spilling over into neighborhoods around New Orleans. Authorities are quick to point out this damage is no problem and that in some cases the rebuilt levees are just barely managing to hold.? All this from a category 2 hurricane and storm surge. What would happen with a category 3 or 4? Would the city’s flood protection system be able to handle such storms that will, of course, come eventually? No.

There’s money for political party conventions and sending everyone a check for a few hundred dollars. There’s even money somewhere in Louisiana, set aside for Katrina recovery and properly rebuilding infrastructure, but none of this money goes where it can do any good, towards preserving communities and saving lives.

The storms continue and the criminals, they carry on as if they’ve done nothing wrong.

bmtv45 Long Beach, 1.5 Years Later

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This vlog entry is my attempt to show you what Long Beach, MISS. looks like today. 1.5 years after hurricane Katrina destroyed the coast and thousands of families lost their homes. It includes a walk around a destroyed neighborhood with my friends, the Tuepkers.

Fall Out Mississippi

I arrived in Long Beach, Mississippi a little earlier than I expected. John and Jo, my hosts and local experts, were not home yet. Which allowed me to follow my nose and explore the barren landscape on my own.

Some 35,000 people lost their homes along this coast line, and up ahead I can see the beach.. or what is left of it. Mostly all I see is the extremely bright white sand that looks like it was just dropped off there to pretend to be a beach, and the ocean which is right there looking like any minute it will swallow everything in its path, yet again.

While it has been a year and a half, not much has been rebuilt along the shoreline. No one would dare to, I guess. On the other hand many of those families are still waiting to see if they can get some insurance money or funding from one of the designated sources. And beyond that, I hear that many have already picked up and moved inland… a mass exodus away from the ocean that helped to erase the homes they had known and loved.

I head towards the beach drive, which seems like it should be pretty as it follows the coast for as far as the eye can see. Lots and lots of beach.

However beautiful is not the word that came to mind. Baghdad is actually what came to mind, especially when I got to the two street lights that had been destroyed and left only the aluminium polls hanging over the street, looking like the two swords that hover over that main Boulevard in Baghdad.

Interesting comparison.. the gulf coast and iraq. Oddly enough more members of the Mississippi national guard have probably worked in Baghdad than in Long Beach. More money goes to the Iraqi government and the occupation effort than to the rebuilding effort. Fortunately for Iraqi’s, they didn’t have to deal with insurance companies that pretended they were there for the community and then refused to pay for the damages caused by Katrina. Then again, in Long Beach there are no troops going door to door searching houses and there’s no danger of suicide bombers, that I know of.

Eventually I got over the comparisons in my head and just focused on understanding the environment around me. Driveways leading up a hill… to nowhere. No houses, just slabs, or more ghastly.. the pillars.. white pillars which once held up a house, now looking for like the ruins of some destroyed Greek villa. Scraps of clothes, and other assorted person items can still be seen in a few trees and on the ground, the majority I later see in photos, having been cleaned up by the army corps of engineers.

After seeing all this and feeling like some stranger trampling a sacred burial ground, I went back to John and Jo’s. Sure enough, they were home… and that’s when the real learning process began… starting with how things went, day one after the storm.

Photoessay; Long Beach, Mississippi

As I was on the road for 6 hours today and am now secluded in Florida for an evening, I present to you a photo essay from Long Beach. Talk about desctruction.. just nothing left.. slabs of nothing.. overgrown with weeds and debris. Never seen anything like it.