Dear friends and family,
The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that 160,000 homes in New Orleans are damaged “beyond repair”. A truly staggering figure. When you read a statistic like that and you are intensely familiar with the grief involved in just one of those 160,000, the misery maths is overwhelming.
The Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area, which stretches from St Bernard on the east to Jefferson Parish in the west, has a population of around 1.3 million. I guess that works out to around 600,000 houses or so. So almost one quarter of the city’s homes will be demolished. I’m still trying to imagine that.
It’s already been stated that almost every single one of the 27, 600 houses in St Bernard will be bulldozed. I think our area of Lakeview will likely lose most of its houses. I worry that the rebuilding will be done in haste rather than taste and we’ll end up with the double-storey brick monstrosities so favoured in Metairie, the suburb just to our west. In St Bernard, a much poorer district, who knows what will be erected.
What do you do with the rubbish left over after you bulldoze 160,000 houses and their contents, all imbued with toxic waters? Where do you put it?
I’m worried they’ll do what they did after Hurricane Betsy: dump all of it in a landfill, cover it with topsoil and then build a neighbourhood for the poor. The Betsy waste, along with decades of earlier garbage, lies underneath the Agriculture Street Landfill Community in eastern New Orleans, a community which is 97% African American.
I get anxious when I see residents rushing to return to New Orleans. I’d much rather things were done slowly, carefully and equitably than in a hasty, desperate charge. Still, even with the pressure to return and rebuild, they say many of us won’t have housing in New Orleans until 2010.
Well, Lillie and I will be getting into our temporary Houston home today. It’s a six-hour drive from here and we want to leave early to avoid traffic out of Baton Rouge and the traffic nightmare which is Houston.
Because our apartment is unfurnished and we have almost nothing, we’re going to stay with some people nearby while we set things up. Originally, Helen Prejean contacted some friends in Houston, Karen and Guy Clifton, to have us stay with them. But they are already housing their third set of refugees and the latest lot are yet to move into their new place. So Karen arranged for us to stay with friends of hers, Marcia and Kirk Blackard, who were out of the country when Katrina hit and who are very keen to help in any way possible. So I’m glad we can oblige them!
We've also heard that the owners and many of the staff from the wonderful Fairgrinds coffeehouse (www.fairgrinds.com) have ended up in Houston and they've organised regular weekly gatherings for refugees and friends at the Orange Show (www.orangeshow.org) there. Fairgrinds was a real community hub in the Faubourg St. John ('Faubourg' means neighbourhood) where Helen lived and our Death Penalty Discourse Center offices were located. As well as great, fair trade coffee and friendly staff, it had meeting rooms, noticeboards, free wireless Internet, water bowls and treats for doggie visitors (outside), fair trade coffee and local artwork.
People here in Baton Rouge, in Houston and all over the place are being exceedingly generous and supportive. Everyone from my friends and family to my online community of fellow activists at Omidyar.net, work colleagues, friends of friends of friends, shopkeepers and even credit card companies. People working in the rushed, overstretched Baton Rouge stores are particularly gentle with the droves of New Orleanians.
One amusing contrast between the refugees and their Baton Rouge hosts was noticeable the weekend immediately after Katrina. New Orleans has a very laissez-faire attitude (“Laissez les bon temps roulez” is an unofficial city motto) while Baton Rouge is firmly entrenched in the Bible Belt culture that crosses the South. The weekend following Katrina bemused refugees looking for a little liquid solace stood gazing at signs in supermarkets stating things like “No hard liquor sales on the weekend”, “No wine sales on Sundays” and “Beer sold only between hours of 12pm and 2pm on Sundays”. It made it particularly easy to spot fellow refugees. There were many mumblings of “You’d think they’d make an exception this weekend.”
So, Houston today. I’m not sure when I’ll write again. My hosts have an Internet connection available, so it may be tonight. Then again, I was up before 4am this morning, so I may just collapse on arrival. Everyone’s sleeping habits are awry.
Much love,
Rose
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