The Battle of New Orleans

mercymom · February 12, 2007, 11:04am

In further response to JazzDrumMum’s post (and I really do not intend this as a put down to a concerned parent - I just happen to have a lot of relatives who live in New Orleans), but 5 weeks post Katrina? It was maybe 6 weeks before we were allowed by the National Guard to reenter the city with my mom to check on her house, and not only did it look like a nuclear bomb went off, but there were no restaurants to speak of that were open, not just in Orleans Parish but also in nearby Jefferson where one of my cousins lives (the other one also lives in Orleans like my mom). And the amount of money “allocated” to New Orleans includes about $20 billion of flood insurance proceeds to which they are entitled, so I don’t consider that to be money the federal gov’t is giving them, but rather owes them.

We also took a disaster tour, but not until this past Christmas. It took us two hours to drive through the 9th ward, St. Bernard, Gentilly, NO east, and Lakeview. 2hours of nonstop destruction and very little repair. It is pretty obvious to me that there is not nearly enough money “allocated” to repair this city and bring back some semblance of normality to it. And the effort is now estimated that it will take 10 to 20 years to complete. The water system for example is riddled with underground leaks and loses millions of gallons daily. My mom just got her land line phone back last month! She has been living on a cell phone all this time.

Conyat, you will have to take over for me awhile; I need to stop before I say something I regret.

mercymom · February 12, 2007, 11:19am

I can’t help it. One last thing. This money that was “allocated” to “new orleans” is actually money the fed. gov’t has allocated the entire gulf coast region and includes money for the Rita damage. So it is not all going to New Orleans, although the bulk of it might be. Also, let us not forget that due to the oil and gas refineries (ie, not just the nola area proper), Louisiana provides almost 50% of the processed energy to the rest of the country; when W had to take oil out of the strategic petroleum reserves post Katrina, the stuff he took out to avert an energy disaster ALL went to the Exxon refinery in Baton Rouge, which was about 24 hours away from a complete shutdown due to their being about to completely run out of stuff in their processing machines (sorry I’m not an engineer, but I was told this by a friend who is one), which if allowed to run dry take a certain amount of time to be able to start up again. (I think my friend said if they run dry it is like if your car ran out completely of engine oil - you’d burn up your engine). It was a real near miss disaster in November 2005, and a tremendous amount of this processed oil goes to the east coast.

xiggi · February 12, 2007, 1:08pm

What is your definition of “processed energy?” Does it include electricity generation, coal processing, ethanol production? Or is that figure restricted to the processing of crude oil aka oil refining?

For your information, the US refining capacity stands at about 17,500,000 barrels per day from which Louisiana accounts for less than 3,000,000 or about 15% of the US capacity. As a point of reference, Texas has a capacity of close to 5,000,000 and California about 2,000,000.

The reality is that Louisiana AND Texas account 50% of the refining. However, as long as Texas comprises Port Arthur, Texas City, Beaumont, and Baytown, the bulk of this production would come from the Lone Star State.

While the Picayune might have different numbers to report to its loyal readers, unbiased readers can find the real data at <a href=“http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/rankings/refineries.htm[/url]”>http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/rankings/refineries.htm</a>

JazzDrumMum · February 12, 2007, 1:45pm

mercymom

Thanks for your information. Remember, I don’t live in NO and can only report my personal experience. I’m sure you are more well-informed on oil/gas, canals, insurance money, water service etc. You and your family are living the horror of the aftermath. We are not.

A few clarifications…

We were told to evacuate Friday night by Loyola; no one from the city told us. As a tourist, we had to rely on the airlines and they were out of there lickity split. My son’s roommate’s flight to LA was cancelled Friday with no other flights available. He was bussed to Baton Rouge by Loyola and spent three days in a Red Cross shelter. My son’s flight was also cancelled on Saturday. We decided at that point that he was coming with us ANYWHERE! We were very fortunate to have a rental car that we drove to BR.

When I spoke with Loyola personnel in October, they laughed at my question on whether they received their evacuation advice from the city. They said they never waited for the city, was I joking?

Re: contraflow. My understanding is that this means that incoming highway lanes to a city are changed to outbound lanes to double the number of lanes exiting the city. Well, Blanco got it half right. The incoming lanes were closed and the exits toward the city on I-10 were blocked by police. However, NO cars were driving on the open lanes! It was ridiculous sitting in the traffic with wide-open lanes beside us. And you are correct…evacuating that many citizens was a great accomplishment.

Re: my visit. I pulled out my old calendar and the visit was actually 6.5 weeks after Katrina. Remember, I spent most of my time in Uptown. I ate at restaurants everyday and they were packed with people. Yes, it certainly looked like a bomb had gone off in many parts of Uptown as well but I did not have access to the areas you mentioned. Uptown had trees and trash everywhere and, of course, all those refrigerators. Loyola had minimal damage while Tulane, right next door, was removing water 24/7.

I stand by my assessment of the local government. Saturday night before the storm my husband and I ate at a CBD restaurant that was filled with revelers, gambled at Harrah’s, and spoke with several people who had not yet decided if they were leaving. The only reason we were still there was that we were planning on taking our Sunday AM flight (that never materialized). Even the hotel management said it was a good idea for us to leave Sunday but did not tell us we HAD to leave.

We feel very fortunate that my son’s post-Katrina experience has gradually improved. New Orleans needs tourist money and positive press to recover. We went to Jazzfest last April and will attend this May. Over 749 restaurants have reopened (via your food critic, Tom Fitzmorris). Two cruise lines are once again docking in the port. From the outside looking in, the media must cover this positive part of the recovery or the rest of the country is just going to think NOLA is broken forever and not worth the trip.

I wish the best to you and your family members.

cangel · February 12, 2007, 2:02pm

Re: Contraflow.

The reason that you didn’t see outbound traffic on the inbound lanes could have been because the police had never practiced it, or just a complication of the on-ramps and off-ramps of I-10, not to mention the location of Charity Hospital.
After one of our big evacuation scares, I can’t remember which one, but before Ivan I think, where there was a tremendous traffic jam, the state of Alabama developed a contraflow plan for I-65 heading north - this is the main route north from just east of Biloxi almost to Destin. Even though the plan only involves interstate, no city streets, it is evidently quite complicated, and had to be practiced a couple of times before it was pronounced ready. The plan worked very well during Katrina.

I can only imagine that re-routing traffic in downtown NOLA would be a real undertaking, plus you have had to keep the route to Charity open at the same time.

mini · February 12, 2007, 2:34pm

Xavier New Orleans seems to be in full rebuilding mode. They had been the college with the largest percentage of premeds entering med school of any college in the country, and provided a large plurality of Black medical professionals (doctors/pharmacists, etc.) throughout the southeast.

They were hit very, very hard by Katrina.

<a href=“http://www.xula.edu/institutional-advancement/tmax.htm#class[/url]”>http://www.xula.edu/institutional-advancement/tmax.htm#class</a>

JazzDrumMum · February 12, 2007, 2:53pm

This is the problem I mentioned re: Tulane and Loyola also. I love the Xavier president’s terminology:

"Still, the Admissions dean is cautious with his optimism about Xavier

JazzDrumMum · February 12, 2007, 2:58pm

next freshman class. “…we still have to overcome what we call the Momma factor. That’s the term coined by longtime president Norman C. Francis referring to parental reluctance about sending their students to college in a rebuuilding city like New Orleans. Like their counterparts at other local universities, the Xavier recruiters have had to reassure parents in far away states that their midtown campus has long since been cleaned up, repaired and restored”

mercymom · February 12, 2007, 3:03pm

Xiggi -

Thanks for the reference to the oil refinery stats; and also earlier to the Scientific American article. I think I got the 50% figure in my head from some article I read (who knows, it might have been the TP online) that probably combined figures like the refinery capacity, La producing 20% of the nation’s oil and 25% of the natural gas, and somehow combining all that into the 50% figure. I’m pretty sure most of those offshore oil leases are in Louisiana waters, but I don’t have the source info in hand. (Actually, I keep trying to tear myself away from this issue but it’s hard when your entire family is in the thick of it.)

JazzDrumMum -

I am so sorry about your evacuation situation. Why Nagin waited until Sunday morning to put out an order, I’ll never know, but it was the first time in the city’s history that there was ever a mandatory evacuation. They didn’t even do one for Betsy, which I lived there for, and our neighborhood (and Lakeview, etc) survived pretty much unscathed. Hurricanes are so tricky and can turn on a dime, maybe Nagin and his people didn’t want to clog up the highway with paniced people and then the thing turned and the people who really needed to get out wouldn’t be able to. Who knows, I certainly don’t, and I am no fan of the mayors.

Earlier that summer we had to evacuate Gulf Shores (and the hotel lady told me to “get the hll out of dodge”) for a much lesser storm. We heard it was coming while on a dolphin cruise. Went back to the hotel, packed and cleared out. Because I grew up in nola, I don’t mess with hurricanes. That said, my cousins didn’t leave until Sunday, mostly 'cause they come from the school of thought that they’d never done it before why now? My mom is more the “get the hll out” type.

I really admire your fortitude in sticking with the city even in spite of all that you report. It is a delicate balance we tread, with the news reporting and all. It’s impt to remain optimistic, but I do get those family emails, and for those who are living through it, well, the recovery is taking its toll on their psyches. And they all thought they’d have a new mayor.

shoe66 · February 12, 2007, 3:48pm

What people around the country don’t realize is that while 80% of Orleans Parish flooded, a heavy proportion of those homeowners fled to neighboring St. Tammany Parish, to the River Parishes and to Baton Rouge. Many are still traveling to the city itself (Orleans Parish, technically) to work each day.
The national image of New Orleans being a ghost town is ridiculous.
That said, there are thousands of Orleanians waiting to go home. They need contractors and workers, but there’s no place for temporary laborers to live, because rental property is at 100% occupancy. Many residents are also waiting for the insurance companies to pay what they are legally and morally bound to pay – they’re fighting flood victims for every nickel.
Mostly, though, New Orleanians are waiting for leadership. Somebody to take charge and tell them what the city’s (or federal government’s) future plans are for the Ninth Ward, for N.O. East, Gentilly and Mid-City.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers report made it abundantly clear – they screwed up the levees. So where is the federal government to take responsibility? We’re spending more money to rebuild Iraq than New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

For those of you who tsk-tsk the Katrina problems and complain that New Orleans was somehow “asking for it” by being below sea level, please remember that the city is almost 300 years old.
Why build any cities on any coasts (Miami, for example), any cities in so-called “Tornado Alley” (Dallas, Oklahoma City), any cities in earthquake areas (San Francisco, Los Angeles) or any cities in the desert (Las Vegas, Phoenix)?
We’d have an awfully dull nation, indeed.
People need to turn off the Spike Lee movie and set aside the images of the mostly poor New Orleanians who didn’t evacuate and were stuck at the convention center and Superdome. The real story today is the thousands of people who want to return to New Orleans, but can’t because the federal government won’t take responsibility for the mistakes of the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

mercymom · February 12, 2007, 4:17pm

Here’s an insurance question for those of you who are in California. How does it work for those houses who are in those wildfire/mudslide situations? One thing hampering recovery in nola, besides insurance flat not paying, is their premiums are going way up (like from say $2,000/yr to $7,000/yr) and also insurance companies refusing to write new policies, which makes it pretty hard to sell your house or continue to do business.

Every year I see tv shots of the wildfires and the mudslides. And yet those people rebuild, only to get burned up or slide away yet again. How do they get insurance?

mercymom · February 12, 2007, 4:21pm

As for Miami, a friend who lives there tells me they are starting to lose companies who are moving their offices further inland to Orlando and the like, because the constant business interruptions from the evacuating is becoming intolerable. Florida is having major insurance issue too and a big fight is brewing in their legislature between the state and the insurance companies as we type.

xiggi · February 12, 2007, 4:23pm

Sadly enough, the above post (Shoe66’s) goes to the core of the problem, as it sheds some light on the difference of opinions about the responsibility of the federal government between local interested parties and … the rest of the country. In at least three different sentences, it appears that the “government” should “take responsibility” and show leadership. Yes, somebody ELSE should do this or that!

The federal government is not responsible for the decisions made by its citizens to live behind levees that cannot protect them from the wrath of Nature. Indeed the city is more than 300 years old, but it also true that the government has spent billions in mitigating the impact of its INEXORABLE sinking. It is far from being the SOLE responsibility of the federal government! Notris it its responsibility to protect people who want to live in areas where insurance is NOT available because of the imminent dangers. Is this a cost that should be covered by ALL taxpayers?

While billions will be spent on “rebuilding” New Orleans, should we not ask ourselves if we are REALLY helping the devastated communities by sending them back to the same areas? Will they be safe? Can the Corps of Engineers truly ensure the safety of New Orleans by building higher levees? IMHO, very little of the money will address the deeply rooted problems of New Orleans. The corruption, the ineptitude of elected officials, the failing school system, the lack of jobs outside a small core of services,or the crime rates will not disappear.

More money than ever will flow to the region. It remains to be seen how the locals will manage the windfall. Let’s hope that history does not repeat itself!

mini · February 12, 2007, 4:34pm

" We’re spending more money to rebuild Iraq than New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast."

Yeah, and just look how effective that is. What I would like to see is for the DEMOCRATS to step up to the place and fund a massive increase in low-income housing in communities to which New Orleans residents have been displaced. Nary a peep from them.

barrons · February 12, 2007, 5:31pm

My guess is the impacted cities would be more supportive of a program of one-way bus tickets back to NOLA.

mini · February 12, 2007, 5:34pm

My guess is the same, though the real estate and property management companies seem to like it just fine.

barrons · February 12, 2007, 6:53pm

Sometimes the money is not worth the problems that come with it. I think many of the PMs would agree–if not the owners who actually get the $$$.

mini · February 12, 2007, 6:55pm

Oh, no, it is isn’t the rentals to the Katrina refugees, but the increased revenues that come from pushing up rental prices among those who are already settled. That’s where the big money is!

(I’m surprised at you! ;))

conyat · February 12, 2007, 7:08pm

Had the levees been built to standard engineering practice at the time, they would have held up during Katrina. The floodwalls fell long before the water reached the top because they weren’t properly supported. Had they simply been overtopped, there would have been only minor street flooding.

The money that the feds have spent on our hurricane defenses, the rebuilding, and coastal restoration is far less what an equitable share of our oil revenues all these years would have given us.

mom60 · February 12, 2007, 7:09pm

mercymom- I don’t know about the mudslide insurance but the earthquake insurance premiums are out of control. A company I work with just had rates quoted to go up next year 300%.

The Battle of New Orleans

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