K+10 - We survived Katrina again

We didn't know how we were going to get through August 29, 2015 amid all the hoopla around the "Anniversary." G suggested we throw a party, invite friends over and fire up the grill. Sounded good to me. The morning of I saw our next door neighbors and invited them over. They moved in about 2 years ago (In 2005 the house was empty. The owners finally renovated it and sold it.). I told them we were having a party for the anniversary and to please come by. She said "That's nice. It's your anniversary?" I replied "No, for the Katrina Anniversary." She said "Oh, we weren't here then so I'm not sure of the actual date." I won't hold it against her, they are very nice people.

We're not the only ones who were not in the mood to rehash history. Many of our friends felt the same way. One of our friends blogged about it and it's been shared wide and far. Katrinaversary Blues: Of Resilience Tours, Carpetbloggers & Disaster Tourists. 

Even Chris Rose, who spoke to us in the months following Katrina from the NOLA.com website, wrote a piece that appears on Vice.com: New Orleans Is Tired of Talking About Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately Chris Rose has had a tough go of it, fell on some hard times, and hasn't been writing as much as he used to. Every page of the Times-Picayune this past week seemed to have a K+10 story, complete with a special logo. Sunday, there was even a 68-page, full-color insert by ESPN titled "After The Storm: A summer in search of saints, sinners and lost souls in the New Orleans that Katrina left behind." Not gonna read it. Who has time?

I spent the weekend with friends and it was wonderful. Some friends were from Pre-Katrina but many were not. One of our newer friends told us his story. He wasn't living in New Orleans when Katrina struck, but was visiting with his girlfriend. He was lucky they were staying with some of her relatives, because he was able to evacuate with them, instead being stuck in a hotel and then loaded on to a bus bound to who knows where. Even after that he chose to move here.

When I shared the Chris Rose post on Facebook, a friend from Miami commented "Remember Hurricane Andrew here in Miami? Eventually it just becomes a 1 hour special on the Weather Channel." I do remember. It was a huge storm. I had been in south Florida visiting family and left just before Andrew hit. I had just graduated from FSU and was planning to move to New Orleans. My friend who was also moving and I wondered what was going to happen in Louisiana. Would we still have a place to move to? Thankfully we did. I never evacuated all the years I lived in Florida (I was born there). But I've evacuated more time than I can remember from New Orleans. We were in Houston when Rita hit and we were puzzled by how badly everyone was freaking out. Houston's pretty well inland and above sea level. We only had 1/4 tank of gas and couldn't leave even if we wanted to because all the gas stations sold out of gas 2 days before. The city shut down and looting began before the storm arrived. We hunkered down in the 2 story house we were staying in and never even lost power. Strange times.

K+5 and Rising Tide

Sunday will be the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi. Wow. 5 years. All week there's been TV specials and articles devoted to the anniversary. Chris Rose wrote an article asking "What if Katrina Never Happened?" which is something I can't wrap my head around.

For book club we are reading two Katrina related books, City of Refuge by Tom Piazza and Nine Lives by Dan Baum. I'm halfway through City of Refuge. I loved Piazza's book Why New Orleans Matters but I'm just not connecting to City. I think it would be a very good book for someone who doesn't live in New Orleans to read. It's a novel but very true to life, following two families Katrina experiences. Their stories are ones we New Orleanians have heard many times. I have yet to start Nine Lives.

I have learned that rituals are a good thing to help get through a difficult anniversary. Every year to remember my mother's passing (August 23rd-I hate August), I cook a special meal while listening to some of her favorite music, then watch one of her favorite movies. The first year after Katrina, G and I didn't do anything special. We tried to pretend it was just another day, went to work, didn't go to any wreath layings or bell ringings, but it wasn't a normal day and it felt off. The 2 year mark we drank a bottle of wine we had picked up in Sonoma and was saving for a special occasion. Every year around this time is the Rising Tide Conference. To me it's a great way to mark the anniversary. I started blogging because of Katrina and have met a whole host of wonderful people after the storm through our blogs. I don't post as often and I have not been keeping up on others' blogs because of Facebook. I'm looking forward to the group FYYFF shout out.

The artwork is a revised design from the t-shirts I put on CafePress after Katrina. Occasionally someone still buys stuff. I had to do something to keep from going crazy.

I think I can safely proclaim summer has begun in New Orleans. It started, was it Thursday or Friday? Up to that point I could still drive around with the car windows down and we hadn't turned on the AC in our house yet. This weekend has been blazing hot and no cooling rains. Last summer, people were still in panic mode, especially with the first hurricane season since Katrina bearing down. This summer, people are fed up with the slow pace of recovery, corrupt politicians and insurance companies and quality of life issues. Trash, littering and recycling have been hot topics lately. Lots of ink spent covering these topics in the T-P. Chris Rose is back in fine form and sums up some people's feelings:

We may feel powerless in our battles with the faceless bureaucracies of the Corps of Engineers and FEMA and Allstate and the Road Homeless and the drive-by shooters and Bill Jefferson and everyone else who would screw us over, but when affronted by a potato chip let loosed in an uncivil fashion, then we feel like maybe that's a battle we can win. (read whole article)

I think you do have to be crazy to live here. Bill Jefferson... indicted... everyone asked "how did he get re-elected?" How indeed. The murder rate keeps growing and historically it increases with the heat. And there may be litter related shootings soon. June 1 the media was waving the "hurricane season has started" red flag, but it only lasted a few days. I think people didn't pay attention. We all know things don't get bad until August and we all had already made our disaster kits last summer.

On a positive note... Saturday Greg turns 40! Greg not one to make a big deal about his birthday, but the big 4-0 is cause for celebration. He's been making steady progress on the bedroom renovation (too hot to work outside). The cats are happy and healthy - I still haven't replaced my digital camera. My garden is growing out of control and it's a challenge to keep everything watered. For the past few months, Sunday was grill out night but not tonight. The grill will be lonely until October when the heat breaks.