make my funk the p-funk September 25, 2008
Last night, I had a long, involved, epic dream wherein I was out on a fantabulous date with Bootsy Collins. I TOLD you I was sick.
power trip September 5, 2008
We left Atlanta on a different route than we took coming in, taking I-85 and I-65 through Alabama, hooking up with I-10 in Mobile. Immediately, there was a traffic jam on I-10, so we got onto Highway 90 and took it all the way in to New Orleans East.
At Pascagoula, we were able to pick up WWL radio. We kept hearing that parts of the city had power and parts did not, but no one said which parts. I called Don and learned that he never lost power in the Bywater. He had heard on the neighborhood list serve that my neighborhood had power starting Wednesday night. Basically, the only way to find out if you had power was to get someone to check out your house, or to get in touch with a neighbor who had returned. For those who still have land lines ( I don’t), you could call your machine and see if it picked up.
Our trip along the Mississippi Gulf Coast was completely free of traffic jams. It was my first trip there since before Katrina and I was belatedly shocked at everything that Katrina wiped away. There was some new construction, but it looked Floridian and beachy rather than the old manses that I remember. There were a couple of beached boats, but no sign of fresh damage from Gustav.
As we got closer to New Orleans, more damage became apparent. There were large boats and even a fishing camp sitting where they should not have been. There was one very large boat, The Not-A-Fantasea, sitting in the middle of the east-bound lane. There were a few cars completely embalmed in mud and debris.
We encountered no problems on Highway 90, all bridges were open and there were very few cars. We saw about a half-dozen bucket trucks with guys repairing the power lines. We got on I-10 at Bullard because we started encountering traffic lights that were out.
My house had power, but no cable or internet until this morning. There was no damage, but, oddly, there was a pile of dirt on the floor beneath the attic fan in the hallway. I guess I need to start thinking about making a plan to make a plan to get up there and clean the attic.
B left me and went to his apartment Uptown. He found his canoe full of water, the front porch a mess, and no electricity for blocks. He said Uptown looked kind of battered. On his way back, he came across the Palmetto overpass. We had noticed before we left that people had parked their cars on the overpass to keep them out of water in case it flooded. Post-storm, he found that the cars parked at the crest of the overpass had their windows smashed and one vehicle looked like it had been beaten up by high-flying debris. Nota bene: don’t park your car at the top, that’s where the wind is.
My street had some limbs down with a path carved through them. My pristine gutter is full of leaves again. My garbage can was, once again, right on the carport where I left it, full of stuff from my refrigerator. I put it out last night, but it hasn’t been picked up. I’ll be heading out there later to clean up the latest debris. Neighbors are returning, birds are chirping, and everything is coming back to life.
there’s no weather underground
D’ja ever notice how the French Quarter almost never loses power in storms? How, after Katrina, the French Quarter got power back in less than a week? Ever notice how you never see Mardi Gras beads hanging from the power lines in the French Quarter? That’s because there are no power lines in the French Quarter. They are all underground, where they can’t mar the tout ensemble of the Quarter and where they can’t be blown down in the highest of winds.
The biggest issue for the city after the near-miss of Hurricane Gustav is power. The lines have taken a beating from winds and debris. No one knows if they have power until they get back home or get a message from someone who is already back. With the levees holding, lack of power is the only thing stopping some residents from returning and keeping some businesses from resuming operations with haste. Repairing all these power lines is dangerous to workers and expensive for Entergy, and, shortly, for us. Meanwhile, every day more food spoils and the pace of life is interrupted further.
Just imagine how quickly this city would have come back to life after this storm had we buried our power lines all over town, as was done in the French Quarter. I don’t see why we can’t begin a discussion about burying our power lines in other parts of the city, especially Uptown (where I don’t live, but which seems an entirely sensible place to begin).
I realize this is a radical thought. It would take big investment and big people thinking big ideas. It might even require that someone pick up the phone and cut a deal between Entergy, Cox Cable, the phone company and the Sewerage and Water Board. I don’t know how the cost would compare to periodically hauling every lineman in the United States to New Orleans to re-string overhead power lines. With each big gust of wind, however, I believe the cost would diminish.
There are a number of cities with underground power lines. It’s technically complex. In New Orleans, many areas flood. But, by golly, if we can put a man on the moon, surely we can invent some super-goop that keeps the icky water from corroding the lines over time. I’ve heard tell of a phone line that crosses beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Let’s get the phone company working on the water-proofing angle.
The ancient sewerage system in New Orleans is in disrepair and, thanks to the efforts of William Jefferson, we are supposed to be receiving federal funds to repair it. Well, if they are going to be digging all those holes anyway, why not drop the power, cable and phone lines into the trench at the same time? While they are at it, they could fix some of these dilapidated streets.
Of course, if we get a big hurricane, we’ll flood again and it will be game over for a while, no matter what. For these near-misses, however, underground power lines would save us a lot of trouble. We could come home immediately without the tier system or roadblocks confusing things after an evacuation. We could quickly get our lives back in order and turn our attention to helping our neighbors who really got hammered instead of us this time. We would not have to watch our levees come through a hurricane standing tall, only to see our city grind to a halt because of a little high wind.
evacuation notes September 3, 2008
Georgina thinks this is the best evacuation ever. She has been running around with her friends Chester (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) and Sea Biscuit (Dachsund) and having a blast. Jumpy is jumpy. I’m ready to go home, but we are waiting another day for the insanity of the mismanaged re-entry to blow over. I am seriously afraid that if I spend a whole day in the car only to be hassled at a checkpoint, I’ll mouth off and get either shot by the army or summarily hauled off to Angola.
Twitters and blog posts are the only information we have about what is really going on. People are furious about the way the re-entry is being handled. This is going to make people refuse to evacuate next time. For some, this is costing money that they don’t have.
Here in Atlanta, we are not getting much news about New Orleans from the mainstream media. As soon as the storm passed through, they moved on to other stories like Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter.
Ray Nagin is a smart-ass and a jerk. “In my humble opinion?” You are the mayor, asshole. Your opinion is not humble. We are all hanging on your every ill-considered, poorly thought-through statement. Worst mayor EVER. First you threw people into a complete panic on Saturday. Now you seem to have no concept of the difficulty your population faces as we try to make our way home. You are simply not up to the job. Resign now so that we can be free of your foolish statements and confused policies.
Apparently there is a “tier” system for letting people back into the city. No one heard of this before the storm. People are supposed to have obtained placards identifying their tier prior to evacuating. Who knew? Can these people do anything right?
I had better not hear any public officials taking credit for the massive evacuation of New Orleans. As always, we were on our own. Now we are all freelancing our way back home. I wouldn’t be surprised if some enterprising private citizen splices a few wires together and gets the power grid back up.
I heard on Twitter that there was a scathing editorial by James O’Byrne on nola.com. It has apparently been removed, as the many links do not work. I want to read what O’Byrne said, put it back!
exile in georgia September 2, 2008
Still in Atlanta getting mixed messages about when we can return. Stories of people being kept out of St. Tammany parish. Horror stories from Baton Rouge. Major issues with electricity. We are very grateful for this nice place to stay. People who are paying for hotel rooms must be very stressed out right now.
Question from B: If all of us is a “diaspora,” is one of us a “diasporum?”
Atlanta is a city where everything works, imagine that. Tonight we are meeting Sophmom for Mexican food. There is no indigenous cuisine here from what I have been told.
