New Orleans Update
 

the people of New Orleans do their best to keep their spirits high, but six months later they are still suffering

(video) New Orleans Six Months After Katrina

Dont worry Britney Spears is their helping out. She has brought along all her cleaners and they will tidy it up in no time at all!

good video. Sad to see it the way it still is.

I have to say I am pretty loathe to give them money after the mayor of theirs came out with the 'chocolate' shit.

Why? The mayor spoke the truth.

I think what makes me the most disappointed with the whole situation is that it seems that many people are just doing nothing, waiting for a hand out. I know there are areas that are very hard up, but geez, you would think people would at least show up and start piling the garbage in one place. Many of the houses and neighborhoods look like nobody has even gone into them at all.

What's the deal?

Alex

It's O.K. to make racist statements if you're black.

I understand the need to feel as if you belong, and after such devestation it is nice to see the smiles on faces, but don't you think they may have been much brighter if Fema would have come when they were supposed to. You think in such a great country as the states is that this would have been taken care of and cleaned up months ago, I think the tsunami survivors were a lot further along than New Orleans at this point.....

Very sad I say!!!

Perhaps the fact that they told many people not to touch shit?

New Orleans was just one place trashed by Katrina:2 cents:

likewise that guy is a giant pile of douche

Yeah that was real racist of him. :helpme

Most of the gulf states hit by the storm, even parts of Florida are still in shambles.

Basically I think it was such an overwhelming event, no one was prepared for, there's no way to handle all the work that needs to be done.

Main problem is cleaning up all the debris and putting it where? There's no plan and no place to put it all.

Then you have most of the population long gone. So who do you hire to do the work? There's no where to house that many workers and no business infrastructure to support the retailing logistics needed.

FEMA obvioulsy dropped the ball and still doesn't know which end is up. But you should never expect much from a bureaucratic agency anyways.

Now you have the levee issue. The Army Corp of Engineers says all they can do is try to get it back up to Cat 3 strength again. So what's the point of that? All it will take is one more strike and the whole place will be a disaster all over again.

And lastly who's picking up the tab? Feds don't want to it seems, State is low on cash, and the City is already teetering on bankruptcy. Even the charities are fucked up. Out of the $3 Billion donated the charities still are holding on to over $1 Billion that hasn't been disbursed.

Bottom line they're fucked.

Let's say this happened in Salt Lake City and the mayor declared he would rebuild a "snowflake city." He'd be fucking crucified. How is Nagin's statement any different?

Just because someone would be crucified for saying similar doesn't make either statement racist. It just means black people have a giant stick up their ass about such things.

No, I think they told them to be careful doing stuff... but there are huge areas where there are still rotting cars sitting in driveways, shit all over the place, and people go back and look around and do nothing.

It just looks like nobody cares to clean anything up.

Alex

Ok, first of all they don't even know if they are bulldozing certain areas so they told the residents not to touch shit. Why fix it if they might cover it with dirt.

Second, it will take much longer for the insurance companies to get estimates on everything. There are still insurance adjusters in from the lighter hurricane damage in Florida, the job in New Orleans and even other states is much larger and will take many more months. You can't touch anything before the insurance comes because they have to see the damage to give you the proper amount.

Insurance is just one of the many things that is hanging things up. Stuff like this takes years to clean up. You say pick up the trash but many of these people don't even have cars now. Not to mention it's not standard trash, it's wreckage from all over and on top of that the sludge that was stuck to it is nasty as hell from dead bodies and who knows what else in the water. I wouldn't touch it for money.

I live in a bicultural bilingual community and if the mayor ever publicly came out in favor of one race I'd be pissed and consider him a racist.

This giant stick is starting to hurt.:helpme

AHh, so the people in the areas that have removed the garbage and cleaned up were helped by elves, and they waved their magic wands and stuff went away?

No. They were out there working hard, stripping down their houses, piling up the garbage and getting on with the job of getting ready to rebuild.

It will take years to get it all rebuilt - if they ever really do. Someone is going to have to clean it all up and waiting another six months ain't gonna make it smell any nicer. You don't have to walk more than a donzen blocks away from the east end of bourbon street to find utter destruction, untouched and untreated. It is truly stunning.

Alex

In 6 months it start all over again

There's no use arguing over the subject but the fact is NO was a majority black community. The poor neighborhoods that were demolished in the storm were majority black by a longshot. Many of these people left the state because they have nothing left. While you're worried about the way something is said the mayor was talking to a majority black crowd in a majority black city who had concerns because so many of their neighbors were forced out of town. "New Orleans will be a chocolate city again" or whatever he said is hardly racist in that situation. I would say the same thing if a spanish community was destroyed and their mayor said "It will be fiesta time again". It's just silly to worry about such petty crap. :upsidedow

The people cleaning up aren't in the hardest hit areas. Most of those people haven't even seen their home yet because they haven't been back. You talked of rusting cars, what should you do dump it? The insurance company has to see it to give them a settlement, they have to have something to move it with, they have to be home to do it. Should their neighbors start tossing cars that sit around? You don't have the full grasp of how bad this stuff is at all. The people you see cleaning up for the most part are workers paid to do just that.

The world must go on and get over the Katrina tragedy and poor management of the situation. Life goes on, and N.O. has a historic and cultural value to our country and should be preserved. Mardi Gras is an important part of the culture. It should be enjoyed while being mindful to the losses of the region.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN: We as black people, it?s time, it?s time for us to come together. It?s time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans and I don?t care what people are saying uptown or wherever they are, this city will be chocolate at the end of the day


This is hardly the same as using the word "fiesta" in a sentence in a community where spanglish is spoken.

Chad, I have a little better idea than you think.

Insurance value of cars is pretty easily to establish. year model make thank you. The amount of "scam" compared to the costs of cheching each car isn't worth the effort.

Anyway, ever spent any time in NO? I am thinking you might not even find it on a map.

Alex

Visited for 2 days for Mardi Gras, loved it so much I went back for 2 weeks the next year. Went up and down the city walking through pretty much every poor neighborhood around. Nice people, fun times, has nothing to do with your ignorance of how shit works. :thumbsup

Chad, I ain't ignorant about "how things work"... Do you understand that the devasted areas are not 10 blocks from the quarter? Do you understand that the convention center just held it's first post hurricane convention, while at the same time people still can't get a trailer from FEMA?

I ain't talking about people coming in and rebuilding their houses, but every day people go back to thier homes, and instead of starting to work on stripping them out, they just walk around and ask "where is my federal aid money". I saw one on TV today, the woman dumped water out of a dirty glass from a cupboard in her flood damaged house, and then put the glass back on the mud covered shelf. Misery only goes on so long before it is time to pick your shit up and get started on making things better.

Alex

LOL what part of 100% destroyed are you missing? I saw that clip, her house was underwater to the top cabinets you think there is something there to salvage? For the 10th time, they are talking about bulldozing that entire area she is in and cleanup doesn't involve a few trash bags and elbow grease.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1662981&page=1

For anyone that cares to look deeper than a gfy thread.

You know .. in the past we have butted heads, but I agree with you 100%. If you lived in a place that was mostly Italian, and someone said "We'll make this Little Italy again, it would be no problem. NO is mostly black and the mayor, in my opionion, is just tying to get some positive energy flowing back into the city. I thought it was pretty funny when I heard it. I didn't get offended at all. Right now, there's no time for racism or negativity, just concentrate on the good.

Pay attention, oh cluess one. You are missing the point here.

There is a good chance that yes, they will bulldoze all of the buildings in that area... However, there is also a good chance that they don't do it, and instead have the people rebuild one after another. It isn't clear.

I will say this: The longer nobody takes responsibilty for it, the more likely they will bulldoze it all down.

Way too much sitting around, waiting for "the man" to come and fix things.

Alex

You need to take a trip because your grasp on the situation is nill. These people have nothing left. The home they are looking at is completely demolished and they have no chance of putting it back. It's a pile of trash that has to be bulldozed and dumped in the landfill. Most have no cars, no trucks, no food, no money. Let me guess, you'd be out there in front of the house you can't live in with your 3 kids and some trash bags picking up the 1% of shit you can actually move. Jesus dude get some perspective.

No I woudn't and don't be a condesending junior high debate member. I ain't suggesting for a fucking second that they would be out with garbage bags picking up paper in the yard, don't be so fucking obtuse.

These people have cars in their yards, and stuff lying around that might have some value... 6 months later... how the heck can they still have accomplished nothing?

Alex

When we were waiting for the first debris pickup the piles were so high I couldn't see most of my neighbors down the road, and that was at houses that are still standing. A couple blocks south of me where the houses came down the debris traveled blocks. Along the streets closest to the beach much of it was sucked into the gulf and replaced with other debris. We literally ran out of space to put debris until some of it was removed.

You can't take the stuff to a landfill. There is no place for an individual homeowner to take stuff even if they have the capability to do so. Even if someone has plenty of money after all the costs they have incurred post-Katrina and wanted to contract private debris removal they will find themselves on an astromomical waiting list. Some homeowners cannot remove the debris from their property until a nighboring property is cleared that is blocking access. Most are at the mercy of whether their local officials secure the funds and resources to truck the stuff out.

I fortunately am sandwiched between a main part of my area's business sector and the historic beachfront homes many local "bigwigs" live(d) so my immediate area has been cleared "quickly" (although major demolition has only started the past month or so)... but I don't have to drive too far where that is not the case. It's like that in the entire Katrina affected area, some pockets of cleanup, other areas of red tape and beaurocracy. I've traveled approximately 100 miles of the coast recently and until you do that the magnitude of it just doesn't quite come through on TV news reports. What's most mindboggling is that in the good bit I've traveled the amount of stuff I have seen personally is probably not more than 1% of it (which reminds me, I have some Biloxi pics to sort through and share with you guys).

We are talking an estimated half-million buildings that have to be either partially or completely removed on top of all of the other stuff Katrina destroyed, which in some areas was everything. If where it is to go is held up in red tape you can't send it off, and that is why you see pictures 6 months later where nothing has been done.

You know the old law of supply and demand? The more of something there is the less it is worth? Well, that's the case with cars here that were trashed in Katrina. By a fluke some guy my mom knows passed by one day when she was here and we were outside and he offered to haul mine off, most people are having to pay to have them removed and many still sit where they landed. There certainly isn't anyone buying them.

Everything that was in my house and yard had to be hauled off. Storm surge ruins everything. You can't give it away, let alone sell it:Oh crap

The other problem that was mentioned in this thread is insurance. Granted most of the houses they show in poor sections like the 9th ward on TV reports had no insurance but people that did have insurance are finding themselves little better off as the insurance companies try to avoid paying. My home though still standing was unlivable due to damage that should have been covered but Allstate cut me a joke of a check for $157.40 My mom and neighbor were told by Allstate they aren't covering anything.

I have been quite fortunate, but I encounter people every day who have not been and see first-hand what obstacles are blocking their recovery.

Just wanted to bump the thread with a little insight from someone in the middle of it...

I have been watching MTV recently (dont ask why). And they have that new shit where instead of having a spring break they are getting college kids to spend a week cleaning up in N.O

I would like tos ee how the improvment goes after that week.

mardigras: Home owners insurance and flood insurance are quite possibly two of the most slippery businesses in the world. They would stick anybody with anything.

Yet, I looked at CNN this morning, and front and center was a picture of someone cleaning out a mostly destroyed home (not totalled, it didn't look like) piling up garbage, dead furniture, and other destroyed stuff in a pile by the street, probably hoping that one day the city or state or someone might actually come get the shit. At least they are trying.

My question in the end always comes down to trying. Everything that WAS i your house is probably in a large pile somewhere because you are at least making some passible effort. You have only a very small amount of hope, but still you try.

I salute you for getting up every day and making an effort, not just standing around waiting for "the man" to clean it up for you.

Alex

actually, the people in New Orleans didnt mind his comments at all. The news media ran away with that comment and made a big deal about it.

There were lots of t-shirts with Nagen dressed as Willy Wonka.

Chocolate city was a term you heard alot ion the local news, but it wasnt portrayed in the light the national news media put it out there as. The locals actually seem to like the term.