HumidCity

A Guest Post by John Doheny, visiting professor of music at Tulane University.

Here’s my friend marieoroumania checking in from Socal.

Everybody was happy and smiling and seemed thrilled to death to be sleeping on FEMA cots. Free food, free water, impromptu dance lessons, live bands volunteering, some of whom were evacuees themselves. I cannot believe how much of a party atmosphere there is there. Especially after the grimness of the Astrodome in 2005 and the governmental fuckups. What a difference some organization, some money, and some genuine giving a shit enough to plan for an awful disaster makes. Seriously. I didn’t want to leave. I saw one girl with her face painted, and asked her where she got it done, and she told me “oh, over in the arts and crafts section.” Arts and crafts section! At an evac site!

While I am of coure happy that human suffering seems be being kept to a minimum, I actually felt sick reading this. Because I know that, sure as shit, this situation is going to be used to beat us New Orleanians over the head with how much better republicans, in a rebublican state, with a republican governor, are at managing disasters. And, once again, how the fuckups in Katrina are entirely our fault for electing a democrat mayor and a democrat governor (note the subtle ‘republicanspeak’ of substituting ‘democrat’ for ‘democratic.’ In the south, when you want to insult someone, you ‘call them out of their name’).

The fact that this is apples and oranges will be glossed over. It’s not just that SOCAL has a lot more money and a lot fewer poor people. It’s that it still has large metropolitan areas that are completely unaffected. It’s that the stadium has power, and running water, and the sewers haven’t backed up and flooded the place with shit.

Are the happy Southern Californians being kept inside by armed guards? When they tried to walk away from the fires (well okay, this is socal. drive away from the fires) were shotguns fired over their heads to turn them back? And, last I heard, about 600 homes had actually burned. That’s a tragedy for 600 homeowners, but over 150,000 homes were destroyed in Orleans Parish alone.

I sympathize, I really do. And if you have time later on, check the comment strings on places like Huffington Post. The same ass-trolls clamboring for my town to be abandoned are yammering on about hollyweird liberals too stupid to run from fires. So, you know, welcome to the club.

But in the long run, especially in the MSM, this is going to get spun as a triumph for Bush and the republican governorship of california, and a further indictment of Louisiana. And that makes me almost as sad and angry as the disaster itself.

Ah yes, FEMA, those Federal Employees Mismanaging Again. The latest little note on their shenanigans comes from the LiveJournal New Orleans Community confirming the rumors I have heard of people getting a new round of nasty mail. For a period of about two months I have been hearing about people getting letters demanding reimbursement for the emergency funds they received from FEMA after the storm, this posting and the growing plethora of comments responding to it is the first verifiable proof of this.

New Orleans - WTF,FEMA???
Has anyone received a letter from FEMA stating that you need to return the funds that were disbursed to you? Apparently I just did.
I’m PISSED. I won’t see what it says until I get it from my mom (it was mailed to her house for some reason, even though my current address is on file with the IRS and SSA, government efficiency at its best, right?).
If anyone else has received a letter such as this, what course of action did you take? Was there a means of appeal? I mean, I have receipts for just about everything I’ve spent money on over the last year, and tattoos and booze are not among them. In fact, I’ve spent more money on rent over the last year than was alotted to me from FEMA in the first place.

Now I am actually glad that we have never gotten one red cent from the feds throughout this fiasco. Being out of work for two months, having to spend our savings and the money that was supposed to be for our honeymoon, having my job washed away, etc sucked. What would suck even more would have been if we had received funding during the emergency only to receive an unexpected bill for it while trying to rebuild our lives in Post K New Orleans.

I am beyond words here. The past year has been a parade of insults heaped upon the injury of Katrina. When are the people of this country going to demand accountability and job performance from those who supposedly are our leaders? I’m going to have to get back to this one later, it infuriates me to the point of barely being able to write.

I will be leaving the posting to my other contributors for the next several days as I am buried in work. Before I evaporate I would just like to share the following thought with all of my readers.

On Sept. 21, 1938, a hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming more than 600 lives. It would behoove people everywhere to watch what is happening here in New Orleans, especially if they live near any Army Corps of Engineers projects.

It can happen to you.

I have posted a collection of links to all the post conference posts I can find. From Liveblogging notes on the panels to expansions on the themes we tackled, it should all be there. The blog set up for the evnt seems like it may become a new group blog, check it and my links out on the Rising Tide Blog

The following Rising Tide Conference schedule is up at the conference website. Also available on the front page is a registration form, which I strongly suggest you fill out so we have an idea of seating and food requirements.8:00 - 9:00 Arrival & Registration

9:00 - 10:00 Keynote Address by Chris Cooper and Robert Block, authors of Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security

10:15 - 11:15 Panel Discussion: Personal Viewpoints moderated by Mark Moseley

• Ashley Morris
• Greg Peters (suspect device)
• Josh Britton (joshbritton.com)
• Lois Dunn (Scout Prime)

11:30 - 12:30 Think New Orleans by Alan Gutierrez

1:30 - 2:30 Panel Discussion: New Orleans Politics moderated by Peter Athas

Local politicians Michael Duplantier, Shane Landry and Peggy Wilson

2:45 - 3:45 Panel Discussion: Influence of Journalists and Bloggers moderated by Maitri Venkat-Ramani and Mark Folse

• Jon Donley (founding editor of NOLA.com, Dawnsinger)
• Daisy Pignetti (Doctor Daisy)
• Troy Gilbert (GulfSails)
• Christopher Cooper

4:00 - 5:00 Panel Discussion: Bloggers & Neighborhood Associations moderated by Morwen Madrigal and Peter Athas

Bloggers and neighborhood activists representing the Gentilly, MidCity, Northwest Carrollton, Broadmoor, Irish Channel and Bouligny Riverside neighborhoods

5:00 - 6:00 Mixer & Cash Bar

—

Exhibitors

• Michael Mizell-Nelson, Hurricane Digital Memory Bank Project
• George “Loki” Williams IV, New Orleans Oral History Project
• Arabi Wrecking Krewe
• Blake Haney, Dirty Coast t-shirts and posters
• Logan Babin, Logan Babin Katrina movies (?)
• Troy Gilbert, Chefs in Exile

A dispatch only just now received…

Aug. 31, 2005

This is a dispatch from New Orleans from Dr. Greg Henderson, a pathologist
who recently moved from Wilmington:

Thanks to all of you who have sent your notes of concern and your prayers.
I am writing this note on Tuesday at 2 p.m.. I wanted to update all of you
as to the situation here. I don’t know how much information you are getting
but I am certain it is more than we are getting. Be advised that almost
everything I am telling you is from direct observation or rumor from
reasonable sources. They are allowing limited internet access, so I hope to
send this dispatch today.

Personally, my family and I are fine. My family is safe in Jackson, Miss.,
and I am now a temporary resident of the Ritz Carleton Hotel in New Orleans.
I figured if it was my time to go, I wanted to go in a place with a good
wine list. In addition, this hotel is in a very old building on Canal Street
that could and did sustain little damage. Many of the other hotels sustained
significant loss of windows, and we expect that many of the guests may be
evacuated here.

Things were obviously bad yesterday, but they are much worse today.
Overnight the water arrived. Now Canal Street (true to its origins) is
indeed a canal. The first floor of all downtown buildings is underwater. I
have heard that Charity Hospital and Tulane are limited in their ability to
care for patients because of water. Ochsner is the only hospital that
remains fully functional. However, I spoke with them today and they too are
on generator and losing food and water fast. The city now has no clean
water, no sewerage system, no electricity, and no real communications.
Bodies are still being recovered floating in the floods. We are worried
about a cholera epidemic. Even the police are without effective
communications. We have a group of armed police here with us at the hotel
that is admirably trying to exert some local law enforcement. This is tough
because looting is now rampant. Most of it is not malicious looting. These
are poor and desperate people with no housing and no medical care and no
food or water trying to take care of themselves and their families.
Unfortunately, the people are armed and dangerous. We hear gunshots
frequently. Most of Canal street is occupied by armed looters who have a low
threshold for discharging their weapons. We hear gunshots frequently. The
looters are using makeshift boats made of pieces of styrofoam to access. We
are still waiting for a significant national guard presence.

The health care situation here has dramatically worsened overnight. Many
people in the hotel are elderly and small children. Many other guests have
unusual diseases. There are (Infectious Disease) physicians in at this
hotel attending an HIV confection. We have commandeered the world famous
French Quarter Bar to turn into an makeshift clinic. There is a team of
about seven doctors and PAs and pharmacists. We anticipate that this will be
the major medical facility in the central business district and French
Quarter.

Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police
escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped the
entire drug sets into garbage bags and removed them. All under police
escort. The looters had to be held back at gunpoint. After a dose of
prophylactic Cipro I hope to be fine. In all we are faring well. We have
set up a hospital in the French Quarter bar in the hotel, and will start
admitting patients today. Many will be from the hotel, but many will not. We
are anticipating dealing with multiple medical problems, medications and
acute injuries. Infection and perhaps even cholera are anticipated major
problems. Food and water shortages are imminent.

The biggest question to all of us is where is the National Guard. We hear
jet fighters and helicopters, but no real armed presence, and hence the
rampant looting. There is no Red Cross and no Salvation Army.

In a sort of cliché way, this is an edifying experience. One is rapidly
focused away from the transient and material to the bare necessities of
life. It has been challenging to me to learn how to be a primary care
physician. We are under martial law so return to our homes is impossible. I
don’t know how long it will be and this is my greatest fear. Despite it all,
this is a soul-edifying experience. The greatest pain is to think about the
loss. And how long the rebuild will take. And the horror of so many dead
people.

PLEASE SEND THIS DISPATCH TO ALL YOU THINK MAY BE INTERESTED IN A DISPATCH
from the front. I will send more according to your interest. Hopefully their
collective prayers will be answered. By the way, suture packs, sterile
gloves and stethoscopes will be needed as the Ritz turns into a M.A.S.H.

Greg Henderson