One Year Since Katrina

my reflections on where i am now vs where i was before katrina...


one year ago from today (counting today as sunday) i evacuated from new orleans. on tuesday, it'll be one year since i lost my home, my guitar, my records, my bed, my desk, my kitchen table, my microwave, my practice amp, my foot pedals, my wires, my recording gear, my microphones, my favorite jacket, my only and favorite trenchcoat, my less than jake t-shirt, my home made shirts, my favorite shoes, my setlist from one of hallway karate's gigs, my posters, my nintendo, my sega, my intellevision, all the games that i had with each system, my television, my dvd/vcr combo, and most importantly....since i lost my home where all my friends are and where many good times and memories were built. if it were a weekend, i'd get blazed out of my mind stoned or puking drunk...probably a little of both. i have a better job now than i did then and it pays more and i get more hours...but i liked the other job more...my co-workers and i pretty much ran the place and it was a great, easy job renting movies and keeping a store straight. don't get me wrong...i love testing games and all....but there wasn't the kind of weight in the job like there is now in terms of stress and worrying about if i'm gonna lose my job or not and how secure i am. i live on my own now which is both nice because i dont have to deal with living with other people but i also pay a lot more for rent than i would otherwise. if i was living with someone else, i could have rent more around the $400 or $500 range as opposed to the $730 i'm paying now. also, my cable bill would cut down and i'd be paying just $50. energy would be about the same...but the money saved from the other cuts would obviously make that a breeze. just paid my power bill, speaking of. not too bad....only about $120. i pay more for cable and internet. i dunno...i'd take the pay cut to go back to new orleans....i think. i dunno...i always realize the grass is greener on the other side...but in new orleans, it wasn't that the grass is greener in another city or another state or 3 states down. am i better off now than i was in new orleans? depends on who you ask. if i do make another return back home...i'm not leaving again. i promise that.

Living in the Uk we do not have the devastating weather that you have in the US, I cannot pretend to fully feel what you've been through.
The weather in the Uk is changing too, all the seasons are occuring 10 days earlier than usual - we've had Tornadoes in Torbay ( 30 miles up the road ) and in Cornwall (just across the river ), these were unheard of when I was a child.
All across the British isles wind farms are being erected and we're starting to harness Wave power - it has to be a better way.
I heard on a news report that the hole in the ozone layer has got smaller - so we are making some difference.
I think katrina was a lesson to the whole world.

Yeah, the Canadian Prairies aren't exactly known for extreme weather either, but lately we've been getting quite a lot of tornadoes, which is very unusual.

Sorry about all that stuff you lost, platypus. Katrina sucked.

Originally Posted by: GramboI think katrina was a lesson to the whole world.

It should have been, but I'm afraid it's been totally (and tragically) missed.


Louisiana government -- from the State to the Municipal level -- is rotten with corruption.

THAT'S what went wrong.

Originally Posted by: RaskolnikovIt should have been, but I'm afraid it's been totally (and tragically) missed.


Louisiana government -- from the State to the Municipal level -- is rotten with corruption.

THAT'S what went wrong.

part of what went wrong.


the other parts were an education system that didn't live up to its end of the bargain and produced mostly functionless people and a welfare system that created spoiled brats without the aesthetic of being rich...just the mentality of being owed everything and the mentality that they should always be taken care of. but then again, some of it is just stubbornness that comes with too much time in the city and too fading of a memory, if any, of hurricane betsy...or maybe they went through betsy and figured they could go through another harsh storm...

so my question on the first two is how does one go about fixing these problems....they're well set in motion and obviously the government has no intent on solving the problem.


oh yeah...another thing i missed....the area i live in has clubs. like...preppy gangsta raver cokehead clubs. new orleans had more jazz clubs, dive bars, and coffeehouses. still trying to find a good coffee house out here...especially if there's one open very late.

Originally Posted by: tehplatypusthe other parts were an education system that didn't live up to its end of the bargain and produced mostly functionless people and a welfare system that created spoiled brats without the aesthetic of being rich...

All products of political corruption.

The Democratic Party in Louisiana DEPENDS on that welfare dependent, uneducated [mostly black] underclass to keep the Republicans and third parties out so they have no incentive to fix the schools or move people off of welfare.

Originally Posted by: RaskolnikovAll products of political corruption.

The Democratic Party in Louisiana DEPENDS on that welfare dependent, uneducated [mostly black] underclass to keep the Republicans and third parties out so they have no incentive to fix the schools or move people off of welfare.

but the thing is that the republicans would just kick all the welfare dependent people to the curb and not look to fix the problem....just look to get rid of the poor rather than making functional people.

Originally Posted by: AkiraYup, we're definetly getting more extreme weather here in the U.K.

And I agree with Katrina being kind of forgotten about by the rest of the world. I saw some report on ABC news about the progress that has been made in the past year; it seems like minimal progress has been made so far. And the reporting on the after effects of Katrina, it seems, has all but stopped apart from the "a year later" report, which is a shame as I think more attention needs to be paid to that.

i think more attention should be paid to every part of the failure. and drill it into the ground....and not just look to get one side of the story though...not the neoconservative side or the liberal side...but the actual truth. the history, the ones responsible...and actually showing what it is...not what they think it was.

Originally Posted by: tehplatypusbut the thing is that the republicans would just kick all the welfare dependent people to the curb and not look to fix the problem....just look to get rid of the poor rather than making functional people.

Not a fan of painting with fine strokes, eh?


My point is a one party system is a recipe for corruption. When two or more parties are in play (and you have a somewhat-informed electorate), they have to compete to win votes rather than just doing whatever they want.

Originally Posted by: RaskolnikovNot a fan of painting with fine strokes, eh?


My point is a one party system is a recipe for corruption. When two or more parties are in play (and you have a somewhat-informed electorate), they have to compete to win votes rather than just doing whatever they want.

well put, and thats from a Rusky, so he should know (well....just look at his name ;) )

Originally Posted by: RaskolnikovNot a fan of painting with fine strokes, eh?


My point is a one party system is a recipe for corruption. When two or more parties are in play (and you have a somewhat-informed electorate), they have to compete to win votes rather than just doing whatever they want.

this is true, but to have an informed electorate...you need education.....quite the catch 22 when it comes down to it.

that and politicians are spending more money now on emotional ads that have as much informative content as a michael moore movie...and are about as honest too.

I watched a 4 hour special on HBO last night called When the Levees Broke: Requim I teared up a few times. I really couldn't belive what I was seeing.

I just "picked-up" a student today. He is originally from New Orleans. He was a "victim" of the hurricane.

His family was one of the fortunate ones who did not have to rely on FEMA etc. and they had the means to re-locate. The real kicker is that that his mother developed cancer after Katrina and this is why they have moved to the Houston area to be closer to MD Anderson for treatments.

She is doing well (funny how you can gather this information through something as common as music). I will be giving him his first "Texas" lesson this Monday.

He has ben playing for about 1 year and has been without instruction for the past 3 months since moving to Houston. It was a referral from one of my students who is his neighbor.

Whats the point?

God does work in mysterious ways. I feel honored, fortunate, and blesed to have the opportunity to help a fellow musician and the support his mother (whom I talked with today) strongly wants and urges her son to continue with his Guitar. Direct quote -- " He loves the guitar and I just want him to find someone else to help him foster and grow his abilities."

I find it inspiring that even though they have gone through losing everything, relocating, finding out about a terminal illness, moving to be closer to great treatment... that the parents have pushed this behind them and are more focused on the development and well being of their children.

For the parents in this forum... I am one of them .... it opened my eyes that this is what I should aspire to be. Putting myself last for the sake of my children.

I just wanted to share this with you becuase it touched me in a way that makes happy that I am able to pass along knowledge and help a fellow musician in some small way and helped me take a closer look into myself.

Since they were in one way affected by Katrina I felt this would be the proper place to post this.

my room and old bed.

the stuff you see all over the place is insulation from the attic...the ceiling had collapsed after the water receded.

History repeats...

Much of the same issues arose here way back then too, as far as procrastination of a protection system and perhaps an arrogance that we could prepare and build to withstand, or that the bay would provide protection. They were horribly wrong. All able-bodied men were required to help afterwards, or else they weren't fed. They estimate that 6-7000 people died on the Island alone, with a few thousand more on the mainland. To be quite gruesome, there were so many bodies they had to force men under the point of bayonet and under the influence of whiskey to undertake the task. They loaded them onto barges to bury them at sea, as individual graves were impractical. Yet within a few days, they washed back on the beach. So they had to burn them. The fires lasted over a month. The raising of the city, reconstruction, and the seawall required enormous capital and patient laborious effort, but it was done with nearly all local support. An area of about 500 city blocks (buildings, utilities and all) was raised an average 13 feet. While commercially they tried to recover immediately, much took the next decade to accomplish. They were tested in 1915 with another hurricane, but only 3 died and only minor wind damage. The grade raising and seawall worked. This is all still taught here in school in History class, in part so as not to take lightly the threat of hurricanes, and not to repeat some of the mistakes.

Yet even more gargantuan effort is necessary in New Orlean's case...in both the physical rebuilding and in the ineffectiveness of civil governments. It requires a unified vision and the political will to impose it. Afterwards in 1900, they immediately abandoned the city charter and previous corrupt leaders, and adopted a committee government boarded by local business leaders, who knew how to get things done, and had the connections to do it.