Re: NOLA

No- trust me, I really didn't understand what had happened there or what 
it was like either until i went.  And, if I'd only stayed in the French 
Quarter and tourist-driven areas, I'd still have no clue.  Wandering 
around does have the benefit of learning new things : )
T.

Donna wrote:
> 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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