Hooray for New Orleans! :) Getting back and cleaning up

We can all let out a collective sigh of relief this morn as the damage was so much less than expected and looks like people will be able to return on Wednesday! This is very good news after such a scary situation.

They are beginning to let certain people back in the city (emergency personal, first responders). Checkpoints are up on all main arteries into greater N.O.

Many people are understandably impatient to get back and there have been some problems at the checkpoints. Officials are asking residents to please wait for the Wednesday ok.

We wish everyone a safe return.

Leave, Please Leave!!!

I hope and pray that everyone is out of NO. I realize some feel obligated to stay and help others etc. But you can't help if you're dead!!

It looks pretty bad and most everyone's saying the levee's will be overtopped.

Cat 4 storm now with possibility to downgrade to a 3 (when it hits the marshy, sediment filled coast) but that doesn't help much as the storm surge is the problem with a gigantic storm such as this.

Saying landfall will be Mon around 1pm (central time i believe)

We hope and wish the best of luck for you all-S

Watching Gustav

Today I continue to watch the forecast for hurricane Gustav. The situation is looking more bleak with major concerns as to the strength of the winds and related storm surge and whether the levees will hold.

The dangerous storm is expected to make landfall sometime after midnight tues.

Voluntary evacuations of Orleans Parish began at 8 am today.

Looks like manditory evacuation is in effect for Orleans Parish Sunday. Traffic is already congested on I -10 west to Baton Rouge. Tomorrow will be the first usage of contraflow. That is the use of inbound traffic lanes for outgoing traffic.

I feel really bad that this is happening and cannot imagine what it must be like for the people living there.

New Orleans has only begun to move from recovery to renewal, and the prospect of having much of that wiped away is so sad.

This is the day that many thought they had escaped the worst of Katrina only to find that the city was to drown in water after the levees failed.

An official with the army corp of engineers stated that the hurricane protection is only 20% complete but is the best in its history.

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) slated to be closed, is a site of major concern as there are predictions of a 17 foot rise in water as it rushes into the city if the hurricane is a category 3. National Geographic report

Looking at this from the outside, up here in Maine, I would be very scared and would want to get out as soon as possible. I send all my love and hope for the best to the people of New Orleans. May you be comforted, may you be protected, and may you be safe.

Show is hung and e-book is available

The third anniversary of Katrina is today. New Orleans acknowledges the day with bell ringing and candlelight vigils. See the link to the left.

The NOLA Project art show is up at the Bangor Public library as of today. It is a show of the work I did during and since my trip to New Orleans. I am happy with the overall look of the show. Hope to get some comments there and also here on the blog.

Accompanying the show is an online e-book for those who would like to see the work but are not in the Bangor area. Its pretty neat to be able to produce one of these and it feels like a nice addition to the paintings and photos.

NOLA e-book

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Democratic candidate Barack Obama took a swing at the administration during his acceptance speech in Denver Thursday evening, calling the Bush administration a government "that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes," referring to post-Katrina New Orleans.

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Still praying Gustav will miss New Orleans. To early to tell where or how much of a storm. As of Friday morning, New Orleans officials say that if it calls for an evacuation, it would come sometime on Saturday. Hopefully Gustav will spin itself out and not cause any further trouble.

Suzanne

Hurricane Gustav and the Cone of Uncertainty

Cone of uncertainty-I have never heard this term before.

Gustav is forecast to be a major Category 3 hurricane with top winds of 120 mph about 300 miles south of New Orleans on Sunday afternoon, according to the 4 p.m. forecast of the National Hurricane Center.

As Hurricane Gustav churns over Haiti and looks like it may touch Cuba, I worry about its possible path towards New Orleans. At this time it is way to early to say where it is going or what kind of strength it may have. Computer models put New Orleans in its cone of uncertainty.

from Wunder blog weather undergound
The final landfall location of Gustav depends on the strength and speed of a trough of low pressure forecast to move across the Midwest U.S. late this week. At present, there is no way to guess which location in the Gulf of Mexico is the most likely. Keep in mind that the cone of uncertainty is correct only about 2/3 of the time--1/3 of the time, we can expect the storm's position to be in error by more than what the cone of uncertainty suggests.

Forums are active with speculation and fear from those affected by a possible storm that seems certain to intensify over water and will most likely hit landfall somewhere in the gulf--let us all think positive thoughts that it won't be New Orleans and everyone will be safe and secure everywhere.



Let's take a Look at Strom Protection

The storm surge barrier protecting London

The storm surge barrier in the Netherlands

The hurricane barrier built by the U.S. government to protect Providence, R.I.

The flood protection provided by the U.S. government to New Orleans

These images are in thanks to John M. Barry

John M. Barry is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author whose books have won more than twenty awards. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, won the 1998 Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians for the year’s best book of American history.

New Orleans, you are in our thoughts.

Suzanne

Looking back at the storm

This is a video from UTube that breaks your heart all over again.


There is so much info and video out there. I would love to be able to put it all here on my blog but its easy to find for your self.

video

Video on the housing crisis in New Orleans

3rd Anniversary of Katrina

"I feel so bad for how wrong everything went with Katrina aftermath. It shows that when faced with disaster - no one knows what the hell to do or how to do it. Look at all that money that was wasted while there were (& still are) folks living underneath bridge overpasses. I read the food mags (gourmet, bon apetit) & they rave about how New Orleans is “back” & they’re eating all fancy & partying, I can’t help but think of those folks under that damn bridge!" edited blogger comment

"New Orleans has always been a city of extremes, but now the extreme low end has gotten even lower while the other end looks like nothing ever happened. This is something Dubya could make right before he leaves office." edited blogger comment

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I have been working on the new pieces, doing a bit of info collecting and writing for the show to be hung Aug 28th at Bangor Public Library in Maine. Its been a long time in coming but the timing couldn't be better with the 3rd anniversary of Katrina coinciding with the show. I am excited about the work and happy to be doing this. I hope many will see, remember, think and possibly do something to be involved in some way.

We hope to be working on an e-book to be available to anyone at any time online.
There will also be an online gallery set up for viewing the work for which I will post the link soon.

There is much to be done and the complex problem points out the many difficulties that continue to face this country, not just in the rebuilding and healing of racial inhumanities in New Orleans but the ecological devastation, deteriorating infrastructure and racial and economical injustices found across the entire country.

I hope you will visit the show either in person or online (link to be posted).

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Thank you,
Suzanne

Exciting news coverage in Lower 9th ward = increased awareness and renewed interest!!

There are many opportunities to keep New Orleans alive in your heart at Christmas time. Make it Right has just unveiled Project Pink. Covered by the Today Show (see video) this morning, Project Pink is an installation in the Lower 9th created to bring attention to Make it Right and the adopt a house fund raiser. Headed by Bran Pitt (star power never hurts), you can adopt a whole house for $150,000 or just a gallon of paint or a compact flourescent light bulb. Donations in any denomination are also accepted.

Project Pink consists of little pink monopoly type houses created to represent the future 150 homes. There will be viewing platforms for pedestrians while the project continues.

Be sure to check out the really neat web site!


Christmas Giving - New Orleans link for many of the active organizations in Lower 9th that could really use donations and hope you will support them at this time.


In case you missed it before here is the Wetlands video embedded into this blog

Last Day-Musicians Village and FEMA Trailors and more FEMA Trailors

Musicians Village -upper 9th ward.

Today is my last day here. Its been a good but difficult trip. I feel so lucky I have a nice home to return to. Brandon has been a wonderful guide and I have seen so many things that I would not have if not for her. I thank her for all her time, insight and information. Her old truck barely crossed the bridges over the Mississippi but we made it to all our destinations.

We made a trip over to Musicians Village today in the upper 9th.

The Musicians' Village, conceived by Harry Connick and Winton Marsalis, will consist of 70 single-family, Habitat for Humanity-constructed homes for displaced New Orleans musicians and other qualifying families. On January 9, 2006 NOAHH acquired eight acres of land in the Upper 9th Ward where the core area of the Musicians' Village will be located.

In addition to the homes in this tract, plans call for building at least 150 other homes in the surrounding Upper 9th Ward neighborhood. Construction began in March 2006 and the first ten homeowners moved into their new homes in August 2006. As of this date there have been 36 new Habitat homes constructed in the area. As you probably know, Habitat for Humanity helps families break out of the cycle of low-quality properties with high rent payments and into the world of reasonable payments toward home ownership.

Along the Gulf Coast, Habitat is currently undergoing construction on more than 57 homes per month in a region where Habitat affiliates had built 57 per year. Additionally, Habitat’s three goals for the effort are being met. The goals, set immediately after the hurricanes struck, included helping Habitat affiliates restore service in affected areas, partnering with other organizations to address the complex housing need and building simple, decent homes in partnership with low-income, hurricane-affected families.


More Habitat for Humanity homes in upper 9th

This is a fantastic organization from what I have seen here and if you want to be involved or donate this looks like a really great group. They are still looking for volunteers and you can work just one day if that is all you the time you have.










FEMA trailors

FEMA trailors are everywhere. Its hard to imagine whole families living in these tiny tin boxes. Those who were lucky enough to have a yard to place the trailor in seem to be a bit better off than those who live in the FEMA trailor parks. Row after row of trailers on asphalt. About 3,000 people live in more than 20 large communities of trailers.



FEMA trailers behind fence.



video

Well, that's it for now. Thanks to everyone who has been reading along. I hope the writing wasn't too awful! Volunteer, donate, march, tell people, do whatever you can and hopefully someone's life will be better.

Love, Suzanne

no blog today

boys in the neighborhood



Mer-boy and spartina



We used to play here.

Sorry today was a bit of a bust as I had to help Brandon take care of some parking tickets in Algeirs. It involved finding the old court house in a sort of out of the way area (court had to be moved after the hurricane). We took a car ferry back over the Mississippi which was a lot eaiser and faster.

The tickets were a bit expensive and could have probably been contested and dismissed. At the time she received them she was given confusing and conflicting information and it was too late at this point to contest. Like everything here it is not easy to get the correct information.

Worked on some photos earlier today

Wetland Restoration-Foundation of Everything

Bayou Bienvenue Cypress Triangle-a completely destroyed wetland.



Lock on the Industrial Canal



Industrial Canal-Lower 9th side.



The Levee at Bayou Bienvenue Cypress Triangle.

So much of what needs to happen here depends on healthy wetlands. Without that foundation none of it will work in the long term. All politics aside, this is probably the most important problem to fix.



Spartina awaiting wetland planting
in the nursery at Common Ground.

Today I visited The Bayou Bienvenue Cypress Triangle. This is located on the line between Orleans and St. Bernard parish -north of L9. This was a thriving Cypress forest less than 20 years ago.

See video

The situation is this. in the late 60’s a canal called The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal (also known as MRGO, MR-GO or “Mr. Go”) was built for a shorter shipping route into New Orleans rather than take the Mississippi River which twists and turns. The problem is that the Gulf flows into it and brings salt water into inland fresh water. The wetlands make the transition between salt and non salt water. Inland plants don’t tolerate salt. Cypress trees are salt tolerant but not enough to withstand the salt that is coming in now. The lower 9th was once a cypress swamp.

Long-time Lower Nine residents remember a time before the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet flooded the bayou with saltwater and killed the native cypress trees and swamp just north of the Lower Nine. They remember when there was more dry land than wet.

There was a lot of fishing and social activity on the bayou. When the steel levee went up around the bayou after Hurricane Betsy it separated the bayou from the community.

Work done by Hassam Mahriqui in a computer simulation at Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Center of MR-GO during Katrina found that it had raised the storm surge. Three months before Katrina, Mashriqui, a storm surge expert, called MR-GO a “critical and fundamental flaw” in the Corps’ hurricane defenses, a “Trojan Horse” that could amplify storm surges 20 to 40 percent. Following the storm, an engineering investigation and computer modelling showed that the outlet intensified the initial surge by 20 percent, raised the height of the wall of water about three feet, and increased the velocity of the surge from 3 feet per second (0.9 m/s) to 8 feet per second (2.4 m/s) in the funnel. Mashriqui believes this contributed to the scouring that undermined the levees and flood walls along the outlet and Industrial Canal. “Without MRGO, the flooding would have been much less,” he said. “The levees might have overtopped, but they wouldn’t have been washed away.”

St. Bernard Parish insists that only total closure can restore the wetlands destroyed by the MRGO. The plan proposed by the State of Louisiana also calls for the complete closure of the MRGO.





Barges in the Industrial Canal



Alligator in some really dirty garbage filled water in
some sort of catchment system from the Industrial Canal.

MISCELLANEOUS NEW ORLEANS SCENES



New modular shotgun for sale in L9





There is so so so much of this...and worse



Something was on fire here. It is not unusual to see a lot of burnt out buildings.



Here is a shot of the memorial built on the meridian of Claiborne which is the main road through the Lower 9th. It was built hastily before a Bush visit. Who would ever go here? Its really awful and it is the only place the city mows in L9-everything else is mowed by volunteers or residents.



yep

See ya tomorrow...S

Glass Half Full

The city of New Orleans sits to the right in this picture.
The view all around is of water.

The reason I have named this post Glass Half Full is because someone said that to me today. A white man in the French quarter tourist info booth. He told me that was how most New Orleans people viewed the situation. I don’t know if that is really true or not--it might just be a bit of positive spin for the tourists.

New Orleans is surrounded by water.
That is a fact.

Mayor Nagan has come out saying he supports self-determination in what will happen in the various neighborhoods.




Grass plugs planted by volunteers to try to save the wetlands

The preservation of New Orleans Depends on Healthy Wetlands

We visited Bayou Sauvage-possibly the largest national wildlife refuge within a city, located in the east of New Orleans. The Hydrology (movement of water due to seasonal changes) is artificially managed because the levees have interrupted the natural hydrology. Gates to control the water levels mimic the seasonal changes.



Brandon explains some wetland facts



Dry cracked mud and garbage =unhealthy wetland.

We stopped at the point where a barge broke through and destroyed the wetland. Volunteers have replaced a lot of the grasses called Spatina Acturnal flora. You can see there is still a need for more.



HUGE oil refinery (one of many) that sits just outside New Orleans.

New Orleans refines and ships through its port a lot of the country’s oil. This process has had a detrimental effect on the wetlands.

Thats it for tonight.

Best, suzanne

St Bernard Housing Project and Community Garden

Massive St. Bernard housing project, Lower 9th

Day two in New Orleans was gorgeous, in the lower 80’s, with brilliant sun. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out on me so sadly I don’t have as many pictures from the day’s travels as I would have liked.

The community housing project at St. Bernard in the Lower 9th looks like nowhere anyone would want to live. A waste land. Big old buildings resemble a prison more than a place to raise children. But for many people this was home.

The buildings sustained minimal damage from the hurricane and the residents have been trying to get the city to reopen the project. In 2006 after their request to reopen the project went unheeded, the residents constructed what was known as Survivors Village, a tent city on the meridian of the highway. There they lived. Rallies were held to try to get the project reopened. Over the past year Survivors Village has disbanded and some of its inhabitants can be found wherever the homeless try to survive and get by without being bothered by the police.

The St Bernard housing project sits abandoned.

The size is overwhelming. Building after building. There are over 1,000 units here. The whole thing is enclosed in a barb wire toped fencing. Brandon and I spent a bit of time wondering why the gates were open. Perhaps the lock had been cut? There were no trespassing and restricted access signs all over. The area was quiet, no one was around. It was an erie place.

The huge brick buildings sit empty, some with windows open, curtains blowing in the breeze. Anything made of metal is rusted out and ancient looking.

COMMUNITY GARDEN
Next we were off to the more peaceful Meg Perry Community Garden, (managed by Parkway partners). Also know as Sun Done Garden, the soil is in excellent shape with no contaminates possibly because the garden has always been organic since it was started in the 70's. The garden is rumored to have been started by the Black Panthers in order to provide a food source for the lower 9. The space contains a greenhouse, several large vegetable plots, and water catchment. There are grapefruit trees, okra, and eggplant to name a few of the very healthy plants thriving there. While we were there Brandon harvested basil from a plant the size of a small tree. Everything grows big here.

One interesting plant that was thriving in a small basin of water was a Water Hyacinth. Brandon told me the plant is very invasive, choking waterways and bayous. The interesting thing about the Water Hyacinth is that it is very fiberous and would make an excellent alternative to corn in the production of ethanol.

Many of the houses around the garden seem to have been repaired and in comparison to other areas the progress is apparent, but there are still an awful lot of FEMA trailers here.

I will try to post todays work tonight--last night there was no internet connection, hence this post was delayed.

till then...Suzanne

New Orleans ~ its a complicated place

Today, my first in New Orleans, was a very busy and intense day. I came away from the day with a lot of confusion. This is an incredibly complicated situation down here that didn't start with the hurricane--the hurricane added another layer.

Many here, volunteers and residents, feel the city used the hurricane to evict an undesirable population.




what's been left behind remind me of grave sites




stairs and paths that lead nowhere anymore.



Common Ground Relief in L9



Zeraph (aka Brandon) my escort and wetlands
project coordinator at Common Ground.

On visiting the Lower Ninth Ward one can only stare and wonder what is going on here. Vast flat fields resembling long neglected graveyards, driveways that go nowhere and slabs of cement with steps for no one. There is a strange beauty. The large trees that have survived dominate the landscape.

A wildwest quality vibrates in the energy there. One can feel a tension and law-less-ness and an anything could happen feeling. This has attracted scores of mostly young people to volunteer in the lower 9th for what appears to be a loosely organized agency called Common Ground Relief. I got to hang with a couple of the volunteers today while working on a water collection system. Of the group I met, all have been on and off, long term, volunteers and were not into living any kind of mainstream lifestyle.

The Common Ground area in the Lower 9th is comprised of about 7 or so buildings that are leased by the agency and house the volunteers, as well as a dining area, a donated clothing area, a small tree farm and plant nursery. There are numerous projects going on at any given time.

One of the wierd-er things is seeing the tour buses go through the area. Some stop, people get off and briefly look around while others just roll slowly through.




Volunteers at Common Ground getting
ready to assemble a rainwater collection system







Three completely destroyed houses that are inexplicably
left standing while perfectly good homes have been demolished.

Its hard to describe all the destruction here. In the Holy Cross neighborhood which is also a part of the lower 9th, there are more houses still left standing whereas on the other side of the lower 9th there are very very few.

Holy cross is also the site of the Global Green Housing development. We stopped by and had a visit with one of the workers who was a friend of Brandon's. I was under the impression that this was a great project but now I am not so certain. He pointed out that while it sounded good, the up keep on the house was so beyond what anyone from that area would be able to keep afford. He also pointed out this is a million dollar home going up in the most dangerous area of any place in the US. It started to seem like less of a good idea to me. I will try to follow-up on this latter.



Finishing construction on the Global Green House
in the Holy Cross neighborhood .

WETLANDS PRESENTATION



School children listen to a wetlands presentation

Today we also visited the John Dibert school in mid-city. Brandon assisted while Colleen made a presentation to groups of 2nd, 3rd and 4 th graders on what a wetlands is and the importance of the wetlands. The kids LOVED IT! It was so fun and I loved it too! The kids were really funny. Its so important that the wetlands are preserved.



Thats all for now folks.

I will try to have some stuff posted here tomorrow from paintings sites.

Best always, Suzanne