I found out recently that we are going to be here for a while - my contract with work now extends for another two years and may become tenured. We could very well end up being here for several years. This is great. Its good to have a job. I love this city. We have friends here. We are happy living here.So I'm curious about what exactly has been done for the protection of this magnificent place should (or when) a hurricane should roll through again. I know that it was the levee failure that flooded the city and that Katrina didn't hit New Orleans head on. So a chancing blow from a hurricane was enough to overpower the levees and flood the city.
I was talking to a friend the other night and he said that he thought what New Orleans needs to feel more secure and to show the world that it is more secure, is for another hurricane to come through and for the city not to flood. I have to agree this would indeed show that this city is on the path of regeneration. (don't get me wrong here - I'd rather a hurricane never came this way again ever - but I know I'm asking the impossible)
My friend was telling me that they have done "so" much to the levees that he thinks this may be a real possibility. So I'm curious if this is indeed true. I've been reading a lot about the failure of levee pumps on da po blog and on blogging new orleans.
So I'm wondering if I can find out more. Now that it looks like we are going to be calling this wonderful place home for the future I really need to know (I was interested before - don't get me wrong - but its just that now the need for knowledge feels more urgent).
I'm hoping that some of the wonderful N'awlins bloggers might drop by and point me in some useful directions. Until then I'm going to keep my ears pricked for any news on securing our home.
Gentilly Girl has a brilliant and succinct post on the subject!!
2 comments:
Thanks for your work in New Orleans. Maybe you cover the conference below for your blog.
Inspired by the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution and moved by the ongoing human rights crisis in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, grassroots organizers in the Katrina Self-Determination and Bolivarian Movements throughout the country have agreed to host the Mutual Aid and International Solidarity Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana at Dillard University, one of the country's oldest black educational institutions on May 24th – 27th, 2007. Presenters & attendees will share organizing experiences, explore opportunities for mutual aid and stand in solidarity for human rights and self-determination.
The conference calls on all progressive forces in the U.S. to join at the to build the Katrina Self-Determination and Bolivarian Solidarity Movements. This conference is designed to network person-to-person and grassroots links between the peoples of Venezuela and the United States.
For more info go to MutualAidSolidarity.org or PeoplesHurricane.org
You might want to check out Tim's Nameless Blog, NOLA-dishu, and Matt McBride's Fix The Pumps (all linked on my blog!). Peruse their archives for some flood protection-related posts.
Good stuff to read as well: Christopher Hallowell's "Holding Back The Sea", and Mike Tidwell's "Bayou Farewell". Pick up those books sometime. I think the wetlands disappearance and restoration efforts are covered in greater detail in those books - plus, they are good reading!
Check 'em out sometime.
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