Just to say it

I was really offended by New Orleans Mayor Nagin's speech for yesterday's Martin Luther King Day observances. It certainly warranted the apology he made today.

 

So far, I only saw the Orleans Parish damage in the Carrollton/Claiborne area (going to my brother's house for a Sunday lunch). (Yes, we ate outside; at least I did with my Dad and my other brother's teenagers, who told me about their high school adventures in Houston.)

On the way there, I had seen houses that were ramshackle to begin with now painted with water marks seven or so inches wide, a watery thatch of debris indicating where sea level really is in that part of town. One old wooden house, nearer to St. Charles Ave, had already been cranked up to allow heavy concrete posts to be poured. The house now rests on those posts, six or seven feet above the street. It is missing quite a few boards, and will take more than a little rebuilding, but when the work is done, that one house will have the coveted "high and dry" designation.

 

A house in Metairie, near St. Ann's Church, is being built on a slab that is at least two feet off the ground.(I am assuming the former house on the lot had been bought as a tear-down.) That area is prone to floods in normal seasons. St. Ann's rectory and school were flooded (and the rectory and parish office still have blue roofs), but the church was relatively unscathed--until someone drove a car through the plate-glass wall. "Guess he was mad at God," one of the priests commented calmly.

 

I've been helping in the book center since coming here; the sisters are extremely short-handed right now. In the afternoons, I help my parents. I found that the workmen had left all their major electronics, including a massive television set, in the house while they tore down and rebuilt walls. The computer keyboard looked like it had been dipped in damp powdered sugar, and the monitor was coated with dust so fine I was afraid even to let my parents try to reuse it for fear it would start smoldering. (Thanks be to God, someone had the insight to keep the CPU in the car! I mean, I guess it's safe enough. Heat would be the only risk there.)

 

Another note, and here I didn't even mean to go on like this! This is a great place, or will be, for out-of-work piano tuners. All the piano tuners in town have waiting lists. And if you can find a place to live, you can even make a decent wage at a fast food place. Wendy's is offering something like $9.00 an hour, with a weekly bonus of $150-200. Lots of job openings in retail and service. The only problem is housing. (Although... a new FEMA trailer appeared on my sister's block today.)