K+16 and Ida

 It’s the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and here we are, hunkered down at home, waiting for Hurricane Ida to hit. We only got 1/2 inch of rain last night, so far so good. The ground is really saturated already though. We are getting wind gusts with splatters of rain. Nothing sustained yet.

We spent yesterday prepping. A good number of our friends stayed and about half our neighbors. Everyone is keeping tabs on each other. I have keys to several neighbor’s houses who evacuated. I have already borrowed batteries and the NYT and T-P newspapers. Another neighbor who left just sent a text saying if we run out of food or booze, to help ourselves and sent the code to the front door and alarm system. This is one of the many reasons I love New Orleans and my neighborhood. 

I don’t watch TV news in general, too sensationalized for my taste. I can only imagine the hype on CNN and the Weather Channel today. I’m not a fan of FOX news EXCEPT for our local Fox8 station. Meteorologist David Bernard has been outstanding this storm as has the rest of the weather team. Good information, no hype. He’s the new Bob Breck.

I’m a little anxious, but I think it would be worse if we left. We usually go stay with family in the Baton Rouge area for hurricane, but it’s probably going to be worse there. I hope they all do OK. One friend left at 4am and had no issues. Other friends who left later in the day had gridlock traffic. Took one friend 8 hours to get to Mobile, AL, normally a 2 hour drive! It took another friend over 9 hours to get to Lake Charles, usually a 4 hour drive. Baton Rouge is a huge bottle neck. You have to get over the Mississippi River on I-10 then get through the Atchafalaya Basin. Going East on I-10 Mobile Bay is a bottle neck. 

So now we wait to see what Ida will bring.

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.

The weepy week of the year

Thinking about my mom who passed away 16 yeas ago. I think this is the last photo I have of her, from my BFA graduation show at FSU. She preferred to be behind the camera, not in front. Maybe that's why I'm such a ham in front of the camera because she took a ton of photos of me growing up. :-) I miss her but I carry with me her love of cats, reading, photography, art, music, laughter and The Blues Brother.

Mourning the loss of my mom this time every August gets compounded with the Katrina anniversary. I'm not always sure which event prompts which tears but with them being a week apart I spend a good part of the week grieving. I learned after my mother's death you cannot, and should not, try to ignore it. You have to let the grief flow and not fight it. I also found it helps to come up with you own way of marking these events. With my mom, there are plenty of good things to remember about her. With Katrina, not so much. But the occasion needs to be marked, and it's good to see how far you've come since then.

I finally settled on the way I like to honor my mother. I make a meal of Hungarian origins, because my mother was proudly half Hungarian. It is either chicken paprikash with spätzle, which I don't really recall her ever making but is damn tasty and my husband loves it too, or stuffed cabbage leaves, which she did cook. There's usually a cucumber salad because I love cucumbers and they are used a to in Hungarian cuisine. Since I'm making the chicken tonight, I'll also sauté some cabbage. Rouses grocery store actually carries Hungarian wine so I picked up a bottle of a red called "Bull's Blood." My mom was also a Dracula and vampire fan WAY before it was cool, as well as a fan of murder mysteries, so anything with word "blood" in it would be OK in her book. And last but not least, we'll pop in "The Blues Brother" movie to enjoy with our meal and drink a toast to my mother, Margaret.

As for Katrina, I haven't figured out a good way to deal with that bitch. And when I say Katrina, I'm not just referring to the hurricane, but the whole damn thing: the storm; evacuations; wondering what was happening to our city, friends, home; wondering where we were going to stay and when we could return; watching the footage of the destruction; hearing the national media and politicians lie; reading the hateful things people were saying about New Orleans. But I'll figure something out between now and Saturday.

K+10 minus one week

Here we are, one week from the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the Federal Flood ("Katrina" for short). Like most of my friends who lived here and through Katrina, I don't want to relive those days so I've been actively avoiding watching TV. I know it's not healthy to stuff the emotions down so I'll just deal with them as they come. I have been reading some articles and one that really spoke to me was this one by Robert Mann. I've enjoyed his OpEd pieces he writes for the T-P and hadn't realized he worked for Gov. Blanco at that time. I knew watching the reports by the big networks on New Orleans and Katrina that they were full of shit and making shit up, and he confirms that.

I worked for the governor of Louisiana during Katrina. Here are 5 things I learned. 
by Robert Mann on August 20, 2015

The Gambit has an interview with the former Governor and it's sad how politicized the rescue became.

Katrina at 10: An interview with former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco
The former governor talks about Hurricane Katrina and the politics of Louisiana recovery
By Walter Peirce

The lies that were spread immediately following the have mostly been proved wrong, but most people will remember what they heard on the TV. I remember ranting in my emails and my blogs posts to friends to not watch CNN or FOX news. I encourages them to visit NOLA.com and get news from a local source. I follow my own advice today. When a disaster hits a distant city, I go to the local media outlets to get the facts, not the sensationalized conjecture and speculation. Here's a wonderful video that overlays the chatter of the media reporting on Katrina with footage of the city today. It was put togther by several very talented men, graphic design Tom Varisco (to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude for taking the time to meet with a newly graduated art student looking for a graphic design job in New Orleans) and photographer Jackson Hill (who I had the pleasure of working closely on a number of projects).


High Water Mark from Tom Varisco on Vimeo.

Hurricane Issac

Today marks the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the Federal Flood. We are spending the day in the dark, listening to Hurricane Issac whip wind and rain around. Big gusts of winds but thankfully no flooding by us in the Irish Channel.

Our cats Gonzo and Harold seem confused. This is Harold's first hurricane, Gonzo's second. Hana, our our 12 year old cat, is snoozing peacefully on the bed. She's been through this a number of times.

So here we hunker waiting for Issac to move on.

Come on September!

Ugh August. I hate August. Thank gawd it's almost over. A crazy month with the East Coast getting a one-two punch of an earthquake followed by Hurricane Irene. Here in New Orleans we are in a drought, in spite of the fact it rained every freaking day in July, but hardly at all in August. And we are also on day three of a marsh fire burning out of control in NO East. The city was blanketed in smoke today. Makes me cranky, super cranky. So it's time to look back over to some of the good time in August - go to a happy place if you will.

I think it's saying something that I didn't do a post for 08-29-11 the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But I think that was because of all the above distractions. I came across this graphic on Tumblr - very nice.

http://stephanieshift.tumblr.com/post/9555965725

The husband and I always do something to mark this day. One year we drank a nice bottle of wine we bought in CA that we had been saving. This year we went to dinner at Coquette, a wonderful French inspired restaurant in our 'hood.

The annual Rising Tide Conference was this weekend. It just gets better every year. And it's great to see all folks we've met thanks to the blogsphere. I did miss the annual group proclamation of FYYFF. Very cathardic to yell that with a whole room full of people. After the conference I got all pink and sparkly and joined my Pussyfooters sisters for the Mid-Summer Mardi Gras. Something else I can cross off my New Orleans Bucket List. It was fun but dammit was hot. A full day of stuff to remind me why I live here. Sunday I had drinks with a friends who was visiting from out of town and one of them asked me a question along the lines of "have you ever thought of living somewhere else?" Yes of course I've day dreamed about living other places. I was in NYC earlier this month and I was ready to not come home. I think I gave him a look of horror though based on how he back peddled and tried to clarify what he was trying to say. That probably wouldn't have happen two days earlier when I would have yelled "YES and get me the hell out of here."

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.

You don't have to be crazy to live here but it helps.

I survived my trip, but just barely. Day two I went on a rafting trip. The river was running high, fast and very cold due to all the snow melt. We hit a rapid the wrong way and everyone got thrown from the raft except the guide. Two manged to swim to shore, me and another guy got pulled back into the raft. Never been so cold in my life. Scared the shit out of me and I got some lovely bruises. One guy twisted his ankle really bad. But we all were OK and we only lost 3 baseball caps and one paddle.

That white stuff is snow, my friends. Up to our knees in some places.

It's always interesting to travel-you realize just how dysfunctional yet unique New Orleans really is. The first week of my trip was small spent in small, charming mountain towns in the southern half of Colorado. One day were were so high up in the mountains that the snow still hadn't melted. The second week I was in Denver for a conference. Denver is huge and flat. Who knew? It's very clean and there's a good mix of older buildings and new ones. I thought "this is what it's like to live in a town with a robust tax base." I like the funk of New Orleans though, and Denver seems like it tries too hard. My friend and I visited Pearl Street, billed as "unique shops, excellent dining and community minded businesses nestled in a delightful, pedestrian and pet friendly setting." All three blocks of it. Whatever. It pales compared to Magazine Street which is 6 miles long full of shops, restaurants, bars and galleries.

Cute, mountain town of Silverton.

I did have an interesting experience. I have friends in Denver and they picked me up from my downtown hotel and took me to their house for dinner. I was there for about 5 minutes when the power went out. It was a very hot day so we all assumed it was a brownout. But it stayed out. Thankfully they lived within walking distance of some restaurants so we headed out. This was no brownout, traffic lights were also out. My friend pulled up the news on her Blackberry - an electrical substation had exploded and thousands of people were out of power! We were lucky there was an area near by that had power and we were able to have dinner. They took me back to my hotel around 9pm and it was creepy. It was dark, no lights, no traffic lights - very reminiscent of parts of New Orleans after Katrina - plus smoke. Thankfully downtown had power so my hotel wasn't affected.

Getting back to crazy; I come home to extreme heat and humidity, the start of hurricane season and the on-going oil "spill" in the gulf. I won't lie, it was a relief to be away from all the bad news for a while. As well as away from the humidity. But we do find ways to distract ourselves and make it worth it to live here: incredible food, amazing music, copious amount of booze available 24/7, the laissez faire attitude, Mardi Gras, festivals and other crazy things. For example, I just found out today I got accepted into the Pussyfooters, one of the female dance troupes. There are others; Camel Toes Steppers, Bearded Oysters and The Muffalottas. I also play on a Skee Ball team every Thursday. Excuse me, it's a skee ball and drinking league. The guy who formed the league just made this great video. I'm a member of two Mardi Gras krewes, so I get to dress up in costumes and parade through the street with a drink in my hand, throwing stuff at people-it's really a hoot. If you are thinking "grow up" then you don't have the right attitude to live here. Yes, people do have jobs, pay bills, own homes and raise families. We just like to have fun while being all grown up and responsible.

The New Orleans Saints Superbowl Drinking Game

1. Every time they mention hurricane Katrina, drink 1
2. If they show pictures of the City of New Orleans right after Katrina, drink 1
3. Every time they say how much the Saints mean to the City of New Orleans, drink 1
4. Every time the words “tragedy”, “flood”, or “devastation” are used, drink 1
5. Every time they talk about how good Reggie Bush was in college, drink 3
6. If they show Kim Kardashian in the stands, drink 5
7. Every time they show a picture of Reggie Bush with a bat or say “bringing the wood” drink for 5 seconds.
8. Every time Reggie Bush gets negative yardage trying to run around in the backfield a bunch and outrun the defense, drink 1 and turn to the person next to you and say “I told you Vince Young should have won the Heisman”
9. Every time Reggie Bush gets up and flexes his arms in that pose he likes to do, drink 1
10. If they mention Tim Tebow for any reason, funnel a beer
11. Every time they say that “it’s destiny for the Saints to win” drink 1
12. If they show footage of Katrina survivors at the Superdome, take a shot of cheap liquor
13. If they call Saints fans the most passionate fans in football, drink 1
14. If they say that the Saints, Saints fans, or the City of New Orleans “deserve” a Superbowl victory, drink 1 and yell Who dat!
15. Every time they say how good of a story the Saints are, drink 1
16. If Jeremy Shockey pretends to be hurt after dropping a pass, drink 2
17. If they mention the Saints beating the Falcons in 2006 in the first game after Katrina in the Superdome, drink 5
18. Every time they compare hurricane Katrina to the Haiti earthquake, funnel a beer and yell “bullshit!”
19. Every time they mention Drew Brees as the Mardi Gras king, drink
20. Every time they show Archie Manning, drink 1. If they show old footage of him with the Saints, drink 5. If they mention how tough of a decision it was for him as for whom to cheer for, drink 10.
21. Every time they show a saints fan yelling "Who dat!" Or a sign/shirt saying the same, drink 1 and yell Who dat!
22. If they show Chris Paul at the game, drink 1 and mention to someone how much better he is than Marvin Williams.
23. If they show former Mayor Ray Nagin, drink 5 and then do a little dance since he'll be gone after May.

Other Rules not involving the Saints:
1. Every time they show Eli Manning in the press box, drink 1
2. Every time Pierre Garcon is mentioned with Haiti, drink 1
3. If Brett Favre is mentioned for any reason, drink 1

If I play this game I'm going to be passed out on the floor by the end of the first quarter!

"The Soul of New Orleans"
A beautiful and moving video.

Good grief. 2009 is almost over. I have a lot of catching up to do. But first I have to share this article about New Orleans and the Saints football team. It's not about football but about the team and the citizens and the "soul of the city." Very well written and spot on. No tired clichés. This guy gets New Orleans. Make sure to have a few kleenex handy.

I will admit I never cared about the Saints before Katrina. But that first game at home at the Dome, the energy, electricity and hope in the city was incredible. The Saints were back home. I cried during the Green Day U2 opening performance. I still tear up when I hear "The Saints are Coming" or "Wake me up when September Ends." I've watched every game since that one. I am now a total Saints fan. For the last two years we walk over to our neighborhood bar to watch the games. It's usually packed, especially during away games. We yell, scream, curse and Who Dat?! until we are hoarse. It's a blast. Better than Mardi Gras. And you know what? The Saints team are a class act. Sean Payton is not going throw his head set in a tantrum because of a call he didn't like (though he will murmur "bullsh*t" behind his play card). The players are a team and respect each other. They have a job to do and they do it. I loved one moment during one game the commentators were talking about the team during half time. One guy said "They aren't your father's Saints." Ditka chimed in "They aren't MY Saints." He got that right.

As some of you may know, I used to teach at Delgado Community College. I was full time until I started my own company back in January 2005. After that, I taught one class a semester as an adjunct. I remember talking to my students on the first day of class of the Fall 2005 semester. I made a comment about how the fall semester before, we lost a week of classes because of hurricane evacuations. I said "Hopefully that won't happen again this year." DOH! How about missing a whole semester of classes? And the powers that be thought that it would be fine to host the college's website and data bases and so on, on campus with no off-site redundancy. Therefore, for weeks there was no DCC e-mail or website or data. They had to boat in to retrieve the hard drives if I remember correctly. If you had a non DCC email for someone you could try to reach them. Otherwise too bad.

Unfortunately, I have not taught there since, either because they didn't need me or scheduling conflicts. I miss teaching and being an adjunct was great. You show up, you teach class, you grade. You don't have to get involved in committees and other academic nonsense. I don't have much patience for bureaucracy, which is why I decided not to pursue teaching full-time and went back into private practice.

I haven't been back on campus other than to go to the Symphony book fair. I was sad to read this article in the T-P.

Meanwhile, Delgado is continuing its steady post-Katrina growth with 16,715 students this semester, 16 percent more than last fall and only 4 percent below its pre-storm high of 17,398, which it reached days before the hurricane struck in August 2005, Delgado spokeswoman Molly Jahncke said.

For the first time in Delgado Community College's 88-year history, the area's most populous institution of higher education has turned away 1,500 applicants because it ran out of building space.

About 40 percent of the square footage of the City Park campus' buildings is out of commission, including the library.

... eight of the 21 buildings on the City Park campus are unusable.

They used to have stuff about the flooding after the federal levees flooded, including photos, but that appears to no longer be on the web site. There isn't even a mention of it under "Our History." I typed in Katrina in the search box and the info does still live, Hurricane Katrina Chronicals, just no recognizable links from the current website.

Tomorrow marks 4 years since Hurricane Katrina made land fall. I’ve struggled thinking about what to do to mark the occasion, like I did for last week’s anniversary of my mother’s death (Needless to say, August, especially this last week, is particularly emotional for me.). I have a friend’s baby shower to go to. I remember thinking when I got the invitation, “Are they crazy? Do they know what day that is?” But maybe they did it on purpose to symbolize rebirth and renewal; life must go one. I imagine anyone who lived here 4 years ago must have August 29th burned in to their memory, unless they are in very deep denial. I’m glad it falls on a Saturday this year. It was odd the last 3 years to go to the office and work, just like it was any other day. But it wasn’t. Sure there are bell-ringings, plaque dedications and wreath layings across the city, but I couldn’t connect with that. The other day, a friend who had surgery a few months ago proclaimed that she was finally ready to go out and wanted to go to Rock ‘n’ Bowl. I pulled up the music calendar and saw that Kermit Ruffins was playing Saturday. Perfect.

After bouncing around from house to house to house in Baton Rouge the first few weeks of September 2005, we decided to head to Houston. We weren’t the only ones, many of our neighbors ended up there, as did Kermit Ruffins. He wrangled a weekly gig at a Jazz Club downtown and it when he played, it would be overrun by New Orleanians. We got there early and while waiting for friends and neighbors to arrive, got a drink and noticed a couple sitting across the room. The guy was wearing a huge gold Saints Jersey and Saints baseball cap and we took the table next to them. Turned out the women worked at my friend’s gallery in the quarter and they lived in Gentilly. When Kermit took the stage I started crying, wondering when I would be able to go back home and what would I be going home to. It felt good to have other New Orleanians around who understood what you were going through and could talk about it. I hugged neighbors I wouldn’t normally hug and let Kermit’s music and voice wash over me. The crowd stood around listening to the music, but when he broke out into “We are Family” everyone cut loose, dancing and singing along.

Do it!

Please go to YouTube and watch our latest Public Service Announcement!

If enough people watch the video, it will earn a place on the homepage of YouTube where it may be viewed by millions!

The video shows why we all need the 8/29 Investigation - a truly independent and complete analysis of the Katrina levee failures on August 29, 2005.

Click here!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pqjIryjz1Ws

Best if done by NOON THURSDAY JUNE 5.

Help launch Levees.Org to the top of the YouTube charts!

Want to do more? You can also:
1. Register at YouTube and rate the video.
2. View and rate our other videos on YouTube.

Help spread the word. Help show why New Orleans and people nationwide deserve the 8/29 Investigation. We have shown that the levee study done by the government is flawed and controversial. We also know that the review done by the ASCE was shoddy and biased.

Thank you!
Sandy Rosenthal
Founder and Executive Director
www.levees.org

I'm glad THAT's over... August that is. Now to get through September. Last night we were out with friends at our new hangout, the Rendezvous on Magazine, G played "Wake me when September Ends" by Greenday on the jukebox. That was sort of a mantra September 2005 and holds true still.

The eve of K+2, we got together with neighbors after dinner. We stayed in contact with our neighbors through out our Katrina imposed exile. I'm the secretary of our neighborhood association so I had the email list of everyone. A couple of our neighbors also ended up in Houston and we got to see them there. It was nice Wednesday evening, sitting around and talking about normal stuff and not talking about K+2. G and I agreed that ignoring the anniversary was a bad idea. We needed to do something; getting together with the neighbors was good. We also drank a bottle of good wine we brought home from California last fall.

School has started, the college students are back, football season has started and we have elections coming up. People are starting to shake off their summer hibernation and the energy in the city is starting to pick up again. Thursday was a football first - the Saints and LSU Tigers were playing at the same time. I know there were many people attempting to watch both (we didn't watch either). Of course the LSU game actually means something. I don't pay attention to pro pre-season. Speaking of college football (Go Seminoles!) Gaby and I did the media guide for Tulane football this year. Our client has promised us tickets to the first Tulane game. Not that tickets are particularly expensive (I take taht back, looking on -line they . And they play in the Superdome so it's unlikely they'd sell out. I still say football played indoors is wrong. I've been to one Saints game and a couple of Sugar Bowls, and it's unnatural watching football in air conditioning.

Hmmmm... searching on-line for Tulane tickets and I guess I was wrong! The first home game is against Mississippi State and there are no individual tickets available for the game. I remember when I was at FSU my roommate sold her ticket for the U of Miami game one year for $50. Cha-ching. I went to the game. It was good and FSU won . If they had lost I would have been kicking myself for not selling my ticket too.