New Orleans Lower 9th Ward

Here are two videos that are meant to be played at the same time. 

The first one is of the Lower 9th Ward as it looks today and the second is of the area 18 months ago.

The first 2 minutes of each video show the exact same areas. It is Tennessee Street just 2 blocks over from where the levee broke.

Most debris has been removed and many homes are now gone. Much of what remains are overgrown lots, practically fields that are dotted by foundation slabs, a few driveways and concrete porch steps. Further from the levee gutted homes remain as well. A few families have returned and are living  in their homes.  A few others are working on their homes. I believe one would need no more than a hand to count the number of FEMA trailers in this part of the Lower 9th Ward.

We saw an elderly gentleman mowing his yard...there was no home there anymore just an empty lot. But he was maintaining it. It struck us as an incredible display of HOPE.

Honestly I don't know if this area will ever be rebuilt. It certainly seems a long way off if so.

Last year Bush said this on the one year anniversary.....

“When it’s all said and done, the people down here know that I stood in Jackson Square [a year ago] and said, ‘We’re going to help you,’ and we delivered,” he said. “What matters is that we help the good people here rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, and we’re going to do that.

“You know, commitments in politics sometimes mean nothing,” Bush added. “I made a commitment that means something.”

As you will see it certainly doesn't look like it from here a year later......

Remember to watch both videos  simultaneously

The top video is the Lower 9th Ward Today and the bottom is 18 months ago...

The stats at the beginning of the second video are dated. The last count of those missing iin Louisiana is 135. The number who lost their lives due to the immediate direct result of Katrina is 1723. However a new study looked at the number of people who have died over the course of time yet related to "Katrina" and this would place the toll at 4081 people as of March 2007. More info on this and above figures is available at Robert Lindsay 's blog

Comments

[liptap]

I went through the Ninth Ward yesterday, mostly in the area around the levee breach, where the barge sat for ages. A sign was up in one yard, where the grass and the weeds were cleared away, clearly exposing the foundation that was all that was left...and a sign was up advertising the services of a caretaker for your yard, call the number below.

I say "yard" myself, not just because I saw it on the sign, but because I can't just see all those empty foundations as "lots" anymore, implying that they are commodities to be bought and sold. Someone lived there, dammit. It was their yard. The stories it could tell.

So happy to see you at RT II. I wish I'd gotten the chance to talk with you more...

[scout]

liprap...I say yard but I used word "lot" also to convey how the emptyness

[Daddy-O]

There's only one reason Alberto Gonzales is resigning this week, and this is it.

Bush will do anything to distract the nation from the SECOND-most-important anniversary in the history of his rule.

[Sophmom]

Goosebumps and tears. Great perspective, Scout. Really strong. Thanks for doing that. It was great seeing you again. As for Daddy-O's comment: good grief. That makes so much sense.

[Steve Balogh]

Why do the lyrics to "Nothing But Flowers" by the Talking Heads keep playing in my head as I watch the top video?

Once there were parking lots Now it's a peaceful oasis you got it, you got it

This was a Pizza Hut
Now it's all covered with daisies
you got it, you got it

I miss the honky tonks,
Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens
you got it, you got it

And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention

"Nobody paid much attention" is right.

[Duckman GR]

Well, there's some real progress being made. Like I say when a bunch of idiots do stupid driving tricks on the freeway ahead of me, but it's not here.

There was a piece on the NewsHour from Friday night talking about the failure of the government, despite Louisiana's notorious corruption, the incompetence of Landrieu and Nagin, I place this entirely on BushCo. They punished stupid LA Dems, and smart ones, took advantage of an overwhelmed Governor, lied to the people of this country, all to show us that government doesn't work.

But after two years it would appear that not government doesn't work either. John Edwards sounds like he knows that, at least he's talking about it. What is Congress doing about it, and why don't THEY talk about it more, the cock-up and their solutions?

[¡El Gato Negro!]

The comparison video ees depressing to the point of breenging up a frisson of "banality".

That such a beautiful, vibrant city could be reduced to thees level through shear criminal negligence, eet rips the heart right out of joo.

so.

[Alise Bamforth]

Last October I flew into New Orleans. It was the first time I had been home since the hurricane. I still have family there and they said 'don't come in'. I went anyway. I used my miles and flew first class. I noticed a bunch of middle aged white men with long tubes like they had maps or posters. All these guys were in first class and they all had additudes. As a matter of fact I remember giving one a name I cannot type here. They were awfully unfriendly even at the Hertz rent a car they were still nasty.
I suspected these guys worked for the federal government. My visit home was eventful, everyone survived but were still not in their homes, still living in trailers. There were still buildings boarded up, all of my old haunts closed boarded up. No more homemade hogs head cheese, or hot sausage, buinesses gone. The only place my childhood home exists now is in my dreams, which are more frequent. I remember Betsy and I really don't think that recovery took this long. I remember Camille and recovery did not take this long for either Mississippi or Louisiana.
Also there was none of this outcry from people who call themselves 'conservatives' that New Orleans should not be rebuilt because its in the 'wrong' place, or that the population is all black, stupid and on welfare... nor am I happy with the exact same solution to storm surges i.e. a four inch thick wall of concrete on a mound of common dirt.
I want a better solution. If we can piss away money in Iraq then we should have a sophisticated levee system much like the ones used in Europe, we should also shut up critics by telling them that the "Cheap becomes the Expensive", that if you DO NOT pay taxes then the bridge you depend on every day will collapse with your cheap ass on it, or the levee you depend on will collapse and everything you've ever had in your life will be gone all because you were TOO CHEAP to pay taxes. There is a lesson to be learned here, we should not ignore it.