Re: NOLA

That is quite interesting Theresa, thanks for setting me straight. I
guess I should have researched via the internet instead of just
listening to the passing sparatic news stories.

  
Donna

"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." 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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