Re: NOLA

Theresa, when I went to see my folks for their 50th anniversary, 3 years ago
- there were still some people living in trailers from the Agnes flood in
'72 (Wyoming Valley, PA).  I looked at my father when he told me that and
said - you must be joking.  We went down to the city later for something or
another, and he took me by one of the parks where they were and showed me.
I was flabbergasted to say the least.   That was 33 years after the flood.
Unbelievable.  I hope NOLA recovers more quickly.



On 8/1/08, Theresa G. <macycat3@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Hi Donna-
> I, of course, only took pictures of the nice things in New Orleans.
> Hurricanes are not like tornadoes and there is an awful lot that still
> looks like a disaster area.
> Contrary to your hypothesis below, in Katrina's case there was a small
> area preserved (the "sliver by the river") that included the french
> quarter- which did not flood.  Yes, there was wind damage and
> looting/vandalism, but that is much faster and easier to repair.  The
> Mississippi river is not what flooded, it was Lake Ponchatrain which has
> an opening into the Gulf and also channels that are supposed to take
> excess water AWAY from the city and dump the excess into the Lake and
> ultimately flow into the Gulf.   Well the storm surge from the hurricane
> reversed that process in a big way.  The surge overflooded the lake,
> forced massive quantities of water into the channels and broke through
> the levees along the channels (e.g into the 9th Ward).  So actually a
> very wide area outside of the main downtown area of New Orleans was
> severely flooded.  (I learned all of this on the tour I took- it was
> really interesting/sad).
>
> The plants are in the New Orleans Botanical garden contained within City
> Park.  Read about their Katrina damage here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_Botanical_Garden
> It is evident that not all plants/trees were lost despite being under a
> couple of feet of water, as there were a number of very large oaks etc
> present.  I'm sure all of the smaller plants were gonners though.  The
> garden itself if fairly small, but very nice. The sign at the garden
> indicated that over 1000 trees were lost in the whole of City Park.
> http://neworleanscitypark.com/katrina/2year.pdf
>
> Some of the sculptures were in the botanical gardens, and others were in
> the Sculpture garden (again in City Park, near the Art Museum).
> Although I cannot find specific info on Katrina damage to the sculpture
> garden, it is my impression that is was largely spared.
>
> None of this area was devastated like New Orleans East, which is much
> closer to the channels and levees.  It still looks like a bomb went off
> there in many places.  The mall is just a pile of rubble, house that are
> just missing, others half ripped apart, the search symbols still on the
> front of some homes long abandoned that indicates if bodies were found
> there or not....  Incredibly sad and really disgraceful that our
> government still hasn't done something to fix the problems.  Every time
> I hear that FEMA wants people out of the "temporary" trailers I now
> understand that people do not have another option in many cases.  Where
> exactly are they supposed to go- they lost everything and then some.  It
> is pretty clear that money and efforts at rebuilding have been focused
> on tourist and affluent areas- but that average working person is just
> out of luck.  Some areas have been bought up and super bargain prices by
> developers.  So there are tracks of huge expensive homes along some
> waterways.  The developers have made a fortune off of other peoples
> misery in those cases.
>
> As we drove by the Superdome I kept thinking they should rename it and
> paint it a new color, or something so that is doesn't look like it did
> when so many people were stranded there.  The building alone probably
> causes PTSD flashbacks for residents still living in NOLA.  There is
> construction of some kind going on pretty much everywhere around New
> Orleans.  ALOT is volunteer and charity efforts.  It just can't possible
> meet the need however- but I guess every little bit helps.  Maybe in 30
> years it will be finished....but I bet alot of people continue to lose
> their property because they can't fix it, can't pay the taxes while
> living somewhere else, etc.
>
> Sorry to burst your idea that NOLA is OK- it very definitely is not.
>
> Theresa
>
>
> Donna wrote:
> > Although that is true due to the levi's breaking, I would have thought
> > there was some wind damage as well. Another interesting thought is even
> > the short plants, catus, and trees in the display gardens (where were
> > all those pics of statues/plants taken?) would have been under water too
> > long to survive.
> >
> >
> > As someone from the midwest with only the news stories to see what
> > happened, your pictures show a different side..like only a smaller
> > central area was really damaged. More like our tornados where only a few
> > blocks are totally destroyed and the neighbors are fine with no/limited
> > damage...I just didn't think hurricanes were like that.
> >
> >
> >   Donna
> >
> >
> > "Theresa G." <macycat3@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >   Yet- the wind wasn't the worst of it in NOLA- it was the flooding.
> >
> > Donna wrote:
> >
> >> You got that right Pam..... tame or not, they can be dangerous.
> >>
> >> I think it is interesting how tall everything is in the pictures. I was
> >> in the western Caribbean a year after a hurricane. Nothing was over 6 ft
> >> tall and most of the vegetation of all types was shredded.
> >>
> >
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-- 
Pam Evans
Kemp TX
zone 8A

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