Although we were not living in New Orleans at the time of the hurricane, I remember being sick to my stomach watching the coverage on TV. Seeing places in the city ripped to shreds, places that I came to love, people that I came to love, restaurants, streets, street cars, Mardi Gras, Bar-b-ques at the Church, jazz music, etc...
I remember calling my friend Kaycee and saying, "Oh no the levee's just broke! Have you heard from anyone?" Hours and hours of being completely clued to the TV. Thankful on one hand that we weren't still there and saddened because I knew that some of the members of our little Branch would be affected. In the end, several Church buildings had to be torn down due to all the damage.
One of the things I kept thinking to myself was, "That ?@*% Mayor Marc Morial. If he would've spent money on preparing the city, the levee's and the people for a major hurricane instead of spending money ensuring that his picture and name was on every single garbage can in the city OR the fact that some of the levee money (still don't know if that is true, but have heard it several times) went to support the local casino...maybe just maybe things wouldn't gotten so bad." Why did he not receive any of the blame? Has anyone ever investigated him? He is one of the most arrogant men I have EVER witnessed. I swear we got so sick of the local news by the time we moved because most of the coverage was about Mayor Morial. Anyway, that enough of my rant re: Morial. Mayor Nagan had been elected for a very short period of time before the hurricane. I must say he did a heck of a job with such a bad situation.
As a student (Mike), the general plan was to evacuate to the Super Dome (pretty much everyone knew that). It's always been frustrating to me that if that was the general plan, why no water, no back up generators, no food, no bathrooms, etc...who should've been responsible for that? Didn't Morial or other city officials plan for that? Why not? Oh yeah, they weren't concerned with the ninth ward...silly me!!
The next thing that bothered me was all the children sitting on I-10 with no water/food. Why couldn't they (the government) drop water and food? A slow response by the Federal government; however, I think most of the blame should still be placed on the local/state officials. I say that because I lived in the city for 3 1/2 years. I know how the local government works, and it was screwed up. When you have 82+ plus city workers convicted of taking bribes at inspection stations, and this occurred under Morial watch...what else were people getting away with. It was just the NOLA way. I think people were more concerned with the "pot-hole patrol" vs. managing the levees. And yes, the local news actually covered where the largest pot holes were located.
I love New Orleans. In fact, we are probably going to go back there in November. I haven't been back since Katrina, but the coverage I've watched just brings back some strong feelings, and I feel so bad for all the people I knew that survived that awful experience. Most of our branch members never returned.
New Orleans will never be the same. If you haven't see the National Geographic special, it is fascinating and heart-breaking all at the same time.
The people that stayed seem to have the old NOLA attitude of Joie de vivre (the joy of living).
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