Dear friends and family,
I received several emails and calls from friends who’d heard that the White House has finally declared it’s providing funding for rebuilding the levees. Bush announced a package that would cost $US3.1 billion and I know many people thought this would be good news and a relief for us here in New Orleans.
Unfortunately, it’s all a piece of political legerdemain. Neither Lillie nor I could drum up any excitement when we heard this news, despite the fanfare and the cries of welcome from local politicians.
Firstly, the $3.1 billion is a pittance when compared to the money needed to build stronger levees. Half that amount will go to rebuilding the levees to pre-Katrina standards, and we all know what a comfort that is. The other half is intended to “armour” the levees by adding gravel and concrete to the existing structures. This won’t undo the fundamental flaws in the system, just bolster the existing shoddy job. The best news is that they will close three of the canals leading from the lake. These canals are largely unused, so closing them will eliminate long tracks of suspect canal systems from the flood protection system and focus protection at three small entry points on the lakefront. The $3.1 billion also includes several million to study a stronger system for the levees. My gut feeling is this is a sop to keep us quiet, until public interest in helping New Orleans has evaporated.
Secondly, the $3.1 billion is part of money already allocated for Katrina relief. It’s not new money at all, just money in the emergency budget so far unspent. This levee money will thus take money away from other needs, such as public housing, transport, electricity vouchers for the poor during winter, and so on.
And finally, we had little hope that Congress would actually pass the bill allowing this money to flow to New Orleans. The levee money was bundled with other Katrina relief money (once again, unspent pre-allocated relief money) and then attached to a “must-pass” defence spending bill. These bills commonly attract all sorts of add-ons which people try to pass together with the bulk of the bill’s spending, and it seemed highly likely that that’s exactly what would happen with this. And that’s what has happened: the Republican senator from Alaska has attached a “green light for drilling in the Arctic” provision to the bill. This is something he’s been trying to push through for years and which would be such an environmental disaster it has been voted down even by the Republican Congress. So, he went ahead and attached it again and the Democrats filibustered to stop its passage and succeeded, thus stopping the passage of the Katrina funding, too. I have no doubt that strategists in the White House new that this is exactly the scenario that would unfold; so Bush gets to look like he’s finally doing something for New Orleans while secure in the knowledge it’s unlikely to get through Congress.
So while I do expect that money will eventually flow to levee repair, I’m sure we’ll see much more political chicanery designed to cloud the issue, so the public gets to the point of saying “What, more money for Louisiana? Didn’t we already give them a bundle?”
Someone who has at least received something from FEMA is our friend Martin, whom I wrote about earlier. He finally has a FEMA trailer which he has installed on a small piece of land at Pass Christian, 70 feet above sea level. Unfortunately, he won’t get a cent towards the contents of the trailer he lost, so he has no way to replace his possessions, and the food stamps he uses to buy groceries are about to plunge from the dizzy $69-per-month post-Katrina level down to the usual $29-per-month level. On a fixed $600/month income life’s pretty hard. He’s just qualified for Medicare, which will pay for all his medications. And he’s started a garden on his plot of land, and planted veggies and daffodils, so he can have food and beauty (he describes the garden as “English with a cowboy gay twist”).
On the money front for us, we’re heading into a battle with our flood insurance company. They sent us a “final” check for the building structure that was such a pittance it was an insult. If we accepted it, we wouldn’t even be able to pay off the balance of the mortgage, let alone repair the house. It might be enough to repair three rooms. We don’t know why they’ve offered us so little, when others on our block are being given their policy limits, but it means we have to fight them. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.
Lillie’s been very depressed. In fact, we live in a city of depressed people. It’s a very strange experience and something you have to keep in mind when doing things like shopping or driving. Almost no-one has the usual resilience you expect to find in at least some of the people you deal with on a daily basis, and so you have to take particular care and allow people their prickliness or whatever else they need to feel. In queues (we have Russian-style queues for everything!), the usual question is not “How are you today?” but “How did you fare?”. I’m astounded how frequently the response is “I lost everything”. I keep on expecting to run into the people who did okay, but they’re fairly scarce on the ground.
To cheer ourselves up, we’re off to Ginger Berrigan’s “Holiday Cheer in Chambers” this evening. Ginger is the chief judge of the Federal District Court in New Orleans, a Clinton appointee (and so one of the few Democrats on the court) and a good friend. She holds a highly idiosyncratic and over-the-top party in her chambers each year, to which an extraordinary assortment of people come: civil rights lawyers who were practicing in the ’60s; the janitorial and catering staff from the Federal Courts building; newspaper columnists, clerks of court, many judges, death penalty defence attorneys, poets, the occasional nun or two (that’s where Lillie and I first met Helen Prejean), and a generally fascinating and motley crew.
Love to you all,
Rose
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