Futurama
A new study by UNO deals with how residents are feeling about their own futures and that of the metro area in general, and I hope they find a way to contact more folks.
Just looking at our own Irish Channel neighborhood (which remained dry and comparatively out of harm’s way), conditions over the last nine months have, directly or indirectly, led to the permanent or long-term temporary departure of about a third of the pre-Katrina residents. While some plan to come back and some new residents have moved in, none of us are as confident about what we’ll be doing and where we’ll be doing it in the next five years. The weather and the levees are only part of the equation. It’s not that we’re reluctant to put down roots anymore — it’s just that we’re seeing on a daily basis how mobile we might have to be on short notice. While this shared feeling and experience has brought us personally closer, it has also hardened our look on reality.
As we get closer to the one-year anniversary of The Thing (as Chris Rose calls it), I’ll be interested to see researchers asking more questions. Do you feel more independent? Are you more self-confident in the wake of the disaster? Are you less confident in the ability of any government agency to actually help you? Are you more willing to resist attempts by authorities to enforce rules?
We’re planning a neighborhood gathering in the coming few weeks to discuss these very issues. The food will be good and the beer will be cold, but it will have a serious purpose. We’ll be discussing who we can depend on for what — independent of the Red Cross and FEMA and other agencies. We will each get everyone else’s e-mails and phone numbers. We will discuss evacuation criteria and who is going where and who is more prone to stay. We will learn who has generators, who has extra gas cans, who has outdoor cooking appliances, who can store extra water, who has portable communications gear, who has weapons, etc. In other words, we want to know if and how, as a neighborhood, we can circle the wagons if need be. Who has space to take pets or other people with them? Who needs extra help getting out? That kind of thing.
If we can’t be confident in what our city or our personal circumstances will be in five years’ time, at least we’ll be able to know what we’re doing as a two-block-square neighborhood in the coming five months. It’s at least something.
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This gives me hope that New Orleans can and will survive. It’s so nice to hear that people are planning, with their neighbors, how to help each other should another disaster strike. If you don’t look out for each other then who will?
Hi, Craig. I live in Houston but grew up in NOLA. I’ve been following several NOLA blogs for a short while now. My college roommate, who originally hails from Fort Worth, lives in the Irish Channel. Katrina was her first ever hurricane; first one the worst one. How’s that? I’m going to send her your blog entry in hopes that she can attend your block party and get hooked up into the Channel Brigade. That will be good for her.
I read on nola.com today about people stealing parts of flooded houses. Stealing doors, shutters, wrought iron fences, etc. That is pathetic. So, so, so wrong. In Texas, you could legally shoot to kill someone for that — so long as you are home and fear for your life. You got that law? NOLA needs it!
Don’t give up the ghost. NOLA is a city like no other in this country. She needs to be protected, preserved and polished up. Folks on the ground are best for that.
I’ll be in the Crescent City this weekend, helping the recovery effort through my dollars spent and by visiting and supporting my friends who live there.
Can some one send me a link that can get me directly into
Chris Roses atricles the Thing still won’t let me in?
Please.
Laurie
Craig - My friend in Houston forwarded this to me since I am fairly new to the hurricane scene and live in the Irish Channel. If you organize a meeting, please send me information. I only know my immediate neighbors and landlord, so would be great to meet more people in the area. Thanks, Kelli
here ya go laurie
this is todays article
http://www.nola.com/rose/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1149573605298360.xml&coll=1
and here’s the archives
http://www.nola.com/rose/
Hey Craig & TBK, once again, it was great meeting you on Sat. and the cheese was yummy! ;)
I thought you would find this interesting. I spent today cleaning my dad’s yard in Lakeview. What a mess. My dad died as a result of Fucking-K (I took it upon myself to rename the storm) anyway, it took 3 huge dump trucks. uck. His street is very nice but threw the years, folks have come and gone. They really don’t know each other.. how sad, eh? Well, today I took a break at noon and walked around knocking on doors. Everyone was so nice and they all informed me that things had changed (meetings and such) for them. Everyone has phone numbers, info. of everyone on the street, they have a plan. I was thrilled. And to top it off everyone, except my sweet daddy is moving back or living on their second floor. This is very good news.
How does one live in the Irish channel unless they are a mermen?
I am now trying to get the image of a big female
hurricane f@cking a man out of my head.
Thanks for the links it still won’t let me get past the survey.
Laurie