COLTER KATRINA PICS

[dtel's wife]

I just wanted to remind you guys/gals that today is the 2 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

I would like to thank all of you that have contributed to the recovery of the victims of this hurricane. There is still an enormous amount of work to be done in the Gulf Coast Region, which includes Louisiana and Mississippi. The impact of this storm was so devastating it will probably take another ten to fifteen years for this region to fully recover.

There are numerous commemorative ceremonies being held today across the region. I would ask that all of you take a moment today to remember those of us whose lives are forever changed as a result of this hurricane, as well as the ones who lost thier lives.

Again, thanks to all of you that donated your time and/or resources to our recovery.

Christy

[oldbuckster]

Tragic event to say the least, every time you turn around, Americans are tested by tragedy....but, as a country, we still stand tall. Christy, it bothers me no end to see reports on the evening news about Casino's doing better down there now than they ever have. That is a SAD statement when you look at the whole picture. Think about the folks that lost everything, about the folks moved to other cities, and will probably never see their home again, why, because they are poor. Shame, shame on the people that made that happen..............

[dtel's wife]

OB,

It is a sad. I can tell you the Mississippi Gulf Coast has made remarkable strides in the recovery process, while Louisiana has been lagging at every turn.

Most of Mississippi Casino's revenue is from tourism. There are locals that do gamble, but the bulk of the Mississippi gambling revenue is tourist related. The Mississippi Gulf Coast has always been a favored vacation spot among southerners. It's a beautiful area.

The road to recovery has been a long slow process for everyone. The bright spot...it brought families a lot closer together. Dtel and I have had the good fortune to tell everyone, "We have nine people living in our home since Katrina". Most folks look at us like we are nuts...then we add, "For the most part everything has gone pretty good". I guess folks think we are lying when we say that.

Dtel's entire family lost everything they own. His mother, sister, niece and her husband all reside with us, as do my daughter, her husband and our grandson. I do consider it a blessing to have most of our family under one roof. His family lived in St. Bernard Parish which is about an hour from our home and we didn't get to see them very often. Dtel's mom is 73 years old, it's nice to be able to help her with her meals, give her morning shot of insulin (dtel's does this...not me) and tell her goodnight every night. Not many people today get that kind of opportunity.

Dtel's sister is building a home one and half miles from our house and his niece and her husband will reside in the Picayune area once they establish thier own household. They are the smart ones.

Another thing OB, although some folks will never see thier home again, because of poverty...I have to tell you that a lot of folks made the decision to never go back. The risk of an event like this has always existed for New Orleans in particular. It's below sea level and built upon cotton bales...no kidding. Canal Street was a canal before it became the main street through New Orleans. These people knew they were sitting on a time bomb. I feel sorry for the folks that did go back....this will happen again.

I really don't want this thread to turn political and I almost thought about not posting it all for that very reason.

[SilverSport]

It is nice to hear things are getting better there...my neighbor's sister and family moved here after losing just about everything in New Orleans...her sister just bought a condo and seems very happy now but I saw on her face a reflection of what occurred in the Gulf...Christy...as alsways you guys are doing a nice thing...God Bless you and yours.

Bill

[oldbuckster]

Why do you think my point is political ? Tragedy has no political party, it happens to every one. I just feel other things should take priority over getting the Casino's up, so people can lose their money, and the Casino's take in record profits. The people that can afford it least are the ones trying to strike it rich quick............. I feel that is wrong, and you really don't want to get into my political views, trust me on that. I won't comment anymore........

[dtel's wife]

OB,

I didn't think your comment was political at all. I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew this wasn't about politics. I tend to believe our political viewpoints would be closely aligned.

And please...your comments are most appreciated.

At least in Mississippi, the casinos are the MAJOR employers, with each casino employing hundreds of folks. Unfortunately, getting the casinos up and running was a must in order to bring the folks back home. They couldn't come home without jobs. My ex sister in law and her new husband, as well as several of her family members are all employed by casinos. Before casinos, they basically had no jobs.

[boom3]

Being from Biloxi and a former New Orleanian today is painful for me as well. I must speak up on one point-not all of N.O. is below sea level. The old natural levee and its surrounding neighborhoods on the East Bank, like the French Quarter, are 4-6 feet above sea level, as well as a few spots like the Metarie Ridge. They are, however, below the river due to the high levees that have forced the river to rise at that area. That's why it looks like ships are above street level at the riverfront-they are.

One aspect of Katrina has not been well publicized. Many people in the 9th ward and St. Bernard owned their homes outright and some had inheirted the house from parents going back many generations. These folks had no mortagages but also no real equity, either. So when the house was gone they had no resources to rebuild. Same is true for people who have lived in trailers for years. Especially older peoiple on fixed incomes have no resources to rebuild. NPR said the other day that 90,000 people have left New Orleans and many will never return. For some, the good schools and effcient communities they moved to make the idea of going back absurd.

I love New Orleans and I return frequently, but the notion of living there again (unless I hit the lottery in a big way, yeah right) is pretty much out the window. The city is imperiled not just from storms, but subsidence and rising sea levels, which also threatens the coastal communities of the whole world.

[dtel's wife]

I think your assessment of the situation with folks returning is "right on". Yes, there are a few places above sea level, however most of "residential" New Orleans remains well below sea level. In the event of a hurricane strike just to the west of New Orleans the entire city, including those areas five to six feet above sea level, would likely be inundated with flooding. Katrina struck to the east of New Orleans and was a CAT 3 storm. Adequate levee protection will prove to be a lengthy and costly endeavor.

The New Orleans Public School System has been in a state of disrepair fiscally and structurally for years. Katrina only worsened the situation. The schools that did reopen are struggling with overcrowding.

For a lot folks, the good schools and efficient communities they moved to do make the idea of going back absurd. A lot of people won't even consider returning because the risks are so great. A substantial number of families from St. Bernard/New Orleans have relocated here, to Picayune. Most say they will never move back. There are some wonderful success stories of folks who relocated all across the country.

We also love New Orleans and visit frequently, however if we hit the lottery in a big way (yeah right) we won't be moving to New Orleans.[]

[just_like_dtel]

I know this is sooo not appropriate here, but good morning mom! Love you and miss you! Hope we get to come down soon!

[dtel's wife]

I love you too! I was wondering when you were going to "check in"![]

I was very surprised to see your post![]

[just_like_dtel]

Been checking in often...just haven't posted. I'm at work ( [:'(] ) and this DSL is not up to par. The service is rather slow and it takes two year almost to make one post so I try to save it for special occasions []

[TheEvan]

Another local checking in. Though we no longer have our "posse" living with us (they've returned to New Orleans, lemmings that they are...) the fond memories remain. My sister-in-law's middle class neighborhood (Lakeview) remains a war zone. To date, less than 20% of the houses are occupied. A roughly equal number are in some form of reconstruction.

People who have not seen it all first hand and been involved cannot possibly imagine the extent. I go back and forth to Biloxi often enough and their recovery has ben much more aggressive. It hurts me to see what has happened to New Orleans...

To echo Mrs dtel, thanks to all who helped in one way or another.

[dtel's wife]

TheEvan said: "People who have not seen it all first hand and been involved cannot possibly imagine the extent"

That is probably the truest statement I have ever heard regarding this tragedy.

The devastation that was and still is is unfathomable!

I just don't know if I could live in those neighborhoods that were so drastically affected. The crime rate in some of those areas is alarmingly high!

[dtel's wife]

Here is a link provided to me courtesy of Dflip. This link shows aerial views of the devastation. You can move the views to pan in/out/around. These are probably some of the best pictures I have seen of the devastation. It may load slow because the graphics are very detailed, but it is worth the trip!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/panorama/2005/10/03/PA2005100301671.html

I encourage you guys/gals to take a few minutes and look through some of the views.

Colter also took some pics when he was down here in December 2006, maybe he will choose a few to post in this thread.

[greg928gts]

My wife and I have visited NO many times over the years. After Katrina, we wanted to do something to help out. Our way was to simply go on another trip there and spend some money. So just a few months after Katrina, we took a week long trip to NO. We were able to find a room in our usual timeshare spot right in the French Quarter.

All the businesses that we went to thanked us for coming down and told us that this is exactly what they needed. Having tourists made them feel better about things, even though they were far from normal. Most businesses had shortened hours, not because of lack of business (which there was), but because of lack of employees.

We witnessed incredible government waste. I won't go into details here, but there was plenty of whatever anybody needed available right there in the French Quarter. Way too many government employees with nothing to do. They were there because they had to be there, but we didn't see that they were doing anything at all. We don't blame the government for this, we blame the people who think the government should be the answer to every problem. Everyone we talked to said that the local government was to blame for holding up any rebuilding efforts.

We rented a car and drove all over the city and we saw incredible destruction in vast areas. Then there were other areas that didn't look too bad at all. We barely saw a broken window in the French Quarter. The downtown area was pretty much normal looking except for having more than the usual amount of construction going on. No construction or rebuilding in the residential areas.

There's some politically incorrect things having to do with the condition of neighborhoods pre-Katrina that should be said here, but I'll leave them out.

For those that didn't go there to see the destruction first hand, you would have to believe from the news reports that NO got the worst of the storm and damage. I"m here to tell you that our drive up the Southern coast of Mississippi opened our eyes to where the real damage occurred, and further affirmed that the news media in this country is agenda driven to the point of concocting and manipulating stories as they see fit.

The devastation that occurred in the residential neighborhoods in NO is not to be minimized, but what we saw on our trip up the coast of MS, words cannot describe. Thousands of homes and their contents were in millions of tiny pieces pushed a half mile back into the woods. The entire coastline and everything built on or near it was completely gone or destroyed completely. We will never forget it. It was a sobering trip and I'm glad we got a chance to see it first hand and we take the time to pass this information along to people every chance we get.

Greg

[Dflip]

Christy, after your comments I was on Google Earth and ran across this photo of Slidell after Katrina. The blue dot iin Google Earth is on Eden Isle, Moonraker Island, just north of Lake Pontchartrain which shows the photo. I think it said it all.

Don

[Dflip]

One of the difficulties in rebuilding New Orleans is the current rents that are being charged, they are up 30% than before Katrina. The old supply and demand equation. The downside, people who are actually working can't afford to pay rent because they are running deficit financing. Rent costs more than they make, a real problem when you need people to do the jobs that are required for the city to function.

On CNN, one-tenth of the money that Habitat for Humanities got after Katrina went to New Orleans. There are other areas also in need and they got equal amounts of money. Building below the flood plain does not make sense because this will happen again. Maybe it makes sense to rebuild the city ten miles inland where it will not be flooded out?

[el jopez]

I work with the Boy Scouts of America as a volunteer and through contract from time to time.

At a Southwestern Division training conference that I had attended this past spring, a slide show was presented of the council scout camps that were devastated by the hurricane. Damages were surreal, similar to the image posted above. The tragedy lies not in the storms aftermath but in procuring funding for repairs. Due to modern attitudes and politics scouts have had a tough time keeping donors and consequently these councils may not reopen some of these historic camps for a long time. Money is tough to come by these days for the program, unfortunately.

My prayers go out to those forum members still working through this awful tragedy.

[dtel]

Christy, after your comments I was on Google Earth and ran across this photo of Slidell after Katrina. The blue dot iin Google Earth is on Eden Isle, Moonraker Island, just north of Lake Pontchartrain which shows the photo. I think it said it all.

Don

Slidell is about 30 miles south of where we live and is above sea level, that is where Christy grew up.

The damage done in that pic is more from the storm surge than wind, we have done many jobs in the area pictured, homes in that area started around 200K. I drove past this site many times when it looked like that after the storm to get to my 73 year old aunt's house to help clean it up. That pic is a road that is a short cut from the interstate to the other side of Slidell, kind of.

There were no homes where that house is sitting its just a levee, that house is from about a half a mile to the back in that pic. That small levee in the pic is about 15' tall and the water was well above that.

To give you an idea, a few hundred feet from that pic to the right is a stop sign, if you were to turn right you would be heading north away from the lake, left/south its about 4 miles to the lake. If you were to turn right/north and go 5 or 6 miles the water would have still been about 8 feet deep in the street !

[dtel's wife]

Dflip,

As dtel said we saw that very scene almost everyday. The first time I saw that particular scene I was in the car by myself. I broke down....I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was trying to find a hardware store to purchase a push broom to take to dtel's aunt's house. I don't know what I was thinking because I knew I was heading towards the lake...it was like an out of body experience. I had seen a lot of Katrina damage, but that "said it all".

About 2/3 of Slidell was destroyed/damaged, there are still relief agencies in the are dispensing water and household items.

Along that same levee pictured above were boats, large recreational boats thrown about. There is a canal about sixty feet to the right. With all the debris you couldn't tell where the land ended and the canal began.