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No sure if this is the right place to post this but I'm sure the mods will shift if need be.
I've been out of town for work and am now, just recently back.
Now, I know, I know, I know that this issue has been, seemingly, beaten to death in some regards. I know that we’ve seen it on TV, on the news, in the papers.
I have to tell you though – I just came from about a week in New Orleans on a business trip and have come back overwhelmed and a little shell shocked.
One of the locals we were working with told me that if you can imagine all of Brooklyn and Queens, wiped out, that’s what the scope of this devastation is. Massive.
I took 2 days and drove all around the city with a few of the people that live there. Miles & miles & miles & miles after more miles of debris, ruined homes.
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Yes – I saw Spike Lee’s doc on HBO – albeit only a few small parts – but being in New Orleans, on the ground, makes everything you see in the news seem like a cartoon.
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In some of these pictures, you can see piles and piles, and piles – some, 50 feet tall, of debris. STILL sitting around. This is over a year after the storm and it’s all still here. The pictures I’m posting are the easy ones. If I post all of them, you wont sleep tonite so...
I’m typing this now wondering the purpose of posting these pictures at all – there’s really no camera, no lens wide enough to convey the swath of destruction. There were some times, I just didn’t take any pictures at all – it was just too disrespectful. Parking lots with people living in tent cities, for example. Some parts along the breach of the canals, there’s no pictures to take – the water came so hard it just washed the homes away – only cement slabs are left. In this pic, you see a guy in a white t shirt standing on a big pile of sand, or what looks like a sand dune.
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He’s actually standing in / atop someone’s back yard. Standing on top of a pile – some are 5, 6, 7 feet tall of mud and silt the was left after the water came in and left. Look at all the mud/silt that was left at the side door of this 2 story house!
Who knew the power of water. There’s one pix here where you can barely tell it’s a car.
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It’s a mound of what looks like just garbled stuff and a tire and wheel sticking out sitting in front of a yellow trash crate. There were tons of cars like this, just crumpled by the force of the water.
After a while I stopped taking snaps of cars. If you look, there’s some here of just rows and rows of cars, particularly under the freeway. Covered in caked mud. Landed wherever the water put them or wherever they ended up after the water receded. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, then hundreds more – cars. And guess what – many people, still have to be paying for them!
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Just like the too many, many people who are still paying the house note for a house they can’t live in.
I took a few pix of one of the spots where a canal wall broke – you can see where they’ve patched it up and it’s in the same azz b*tched up state that it was in when they did it LAST YEAR!!
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Bodies are still being found thru out many parts of the city. Some bodies will never be found because the water rushed in (in some places at almost 100mph) but it also rushed back out and swirled around and went this way and that and took bodies back out.
Some parts of the city still have no electricity, no stop lights, nothing. Sometimes I looked into houses and I’d just see people’s entire lives in front of me – mail, albums, furniture, dishes – you name it, it’s frozen in time.
Some people are trying to rebuild their homes – but it’s beyond rough. Even if they DO successfully rebuild, where do you buy your food, mail a letter, go to the doctor, get your nails done – THERE IS NOTHING LEFT IN SOME NEIGHBOORHOODS – nothing, no stores, not even the neighbors.
In talking with all the people I met while in New Orleans, to me, people there just feel forgotten, like no one cares about them, like they’re not important, low priority, a non-entity. My heart goes out to them – especially because I wonder if they’re right.
I know, I know – “life moves on, life’s not fair, everyone’s got their cross to bear”, etc, etc, but if this were ME, or YOU, it would take on a whole different meaning. What if this, or some such disaster, happened in Maryland, DC, or Croyden or Toronto, Boston or Cleveland Jeresy, or wherever YOUR home is? What would you do? Where would you turn? How would you feel? There but for the Grace of God go I – you … him … your boss … your babysitter … your sister … your barber, your cousin … your father …
I’m just so INFURIATED by what I saw and I can’t even exactly tell you WHY I’m so DEEPLY angry about the whole thing. There’s has GOT to be something wrong with me right?
Where is all the rebuilding that was pledged? How come no one’s being held accountable for their promised? I mean – this is a major metropolis here? A major American city … I’m not naive by any means but this is mind boggling beyond comprehension. Seems like everyone’s forgotten about it.
But my brain reverbs with the question – “what do we do?”
Jay Z has a new record coming out. He has a song on there that deals with social responsibility. There’s some lyrics that go:
“Sure I ponied up a mil/but I didn’t give my time/so in reality, I didn’t give a dime”
I wonder if it’s true? But what CAN we do – what can regular folk do? Nothing? Is that what the land grabbers are betting on? That we’ll do nothing? I guess they’ll win.
On a side note, this is why I always, always laugh at people when they rag on Oprah. No, she might not be the smartest person on the planet, the hippest celebrity out there … but I’ve seen with my own two eyes, the work she and her network have done along the storm ravaged coast. I’ve read about how much good she’s doing in Africa. She’s done a heck of a lot more than I know Fema or Bush & his cronies to have done. It shouldn’t matter one bit if she’s not “down enough” for you.
(ok - running to a meeting - be right back)
I've been out of town for work and am now, just recently back.
Now, I know, I know, I know that this issue has been, seemingly, beaten to death in some regards. I know that we’ve seen it on TV, on the news, in the papers.
I have to tell you though – I just came from about a week in New Orleans on a business trip and have come back overwhelmed and a little shell shocked.
One of the locals we were working with told me that if you can imagine all of Brooklyn and Queens, wiped out, that’s what the scope of this devastation is. Massive.
I took 2 days and drove all around the city with a few of the people that live there. Miles & miles & miles & miles after more miles of debris, ruined homes.
[image]
[/image] [image]
[/image] Yes – I saw Spike Lee’s doc on HBO – albeit only a few small parts – but being in New Orleans, on the ground, makes everything you see in the news seem like a cartoon.
[image]
[/image] [image]
[/image] [image]
[/image] [image]
[/image] In some of these pictures, you can see piles and piles, and piles – some, 50 feet tall, of debris. STILL sitting around. This is over a year after the storm and it’s all still here. The pictures I’m posting are the easy ones. If I post all of them, you wont sleep tonite so...
I’m typing this now wondering the purpose of posting these pictures at all – there’s really no camera, no lens wide enough to convey the swath of destruction. There were some times, I just didn’t take any pictures at all – it was just too disrespectful. Parking lots with people living in tent cities, for example. Some parts along the breach of the canals, there’s no pictures to take – the water came so hard it just washed the homes away – only cement slabs are left. In this pic, you see a guy in a white t shirt standing on a big pile of sand, or what looks like a sand dune.
[image]
[/image] [image]
[/image] He’s actually standing in / atop someone’s back yard. Standing on top of a pile – some are 5, 6, 7 feet tall of mud and silt the was left after the water came in and left. Look at all the mud/silt that was left at the side door of this 2 story house!
Who knew the power of water. There’s one pix here where you can barely tell it’s a car.
[image]
[/image] It’s a mound of what looks like just garbled stuff and a tire and wheel sticking out sitting in front of a yellow trash crate. There were tons of cars like this, just crumpled by the force of the water.
After a while I stopped taking snaps of cars. If you look, there’s some here of just rows and rows of cars, particularly under the freeway. Covered in caked mud. Landed wherever the water put them or wherever they ended up after the water receded. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, then hundreds more – cars. And guess what – many people, still have to be paying for them!
[image]
[/image] Just like the too many, many people who are still paying the house note for a house they can’t live in.
I took a few pix of one of the spots where a canal wall broke – you can see where they’ve patched it up and it’s in the same azz b*tched up state that it was in when they did it LAST YEAR!!
[image]
[/image] [image]
[/image] Bodies are still being found thru out many parts of the city. Some bodies will never be found because the water rushed in (in some places at almost 100mph) but it also rushed back out and swirled around and went this way and that and took bodies back out.
Some parts of the city still have no electricity, no stop lights, nothing. Sometimes I looked into houses and I’d just see people’s entire lives in front of me – mail, albums, furniture, dishes – you name it, it’s frozen in time.
Some people are trying to rebuild their homes – but it’s beyond rough. Even if they DO successfully rebuild, where do you buy your food, mail a letter, go to the doctor, get your nails done – THERE IS NOTHING LEFT IN SOME NEIGHBOORHOODS – nothing, no stores, not even the neighbors.
In talking with all the people I met while in New Orleans, to me, people there just feel forgotten, like no one cares about them, like they’re not important, low priority, a non-entity. My heart goes out to them – especially because I wonder if they’re right.
I know, I know – “life moves on, life’s not fair, everyone’s got their cross to bear”, etc, etc, but if this were ME, or YOU, it would take on a whole different meaning. What if this, or some such disaster, happened in Maryland, DC, or Croyden or Toronto, Boston or Cleveland Jeresy, or wherever YOUR home is? What would you do? Where would you turn? How would you feel? There but for the Grace of God go I – you … him … your boss … your babysitter … your sister … your barber, your cousin … your father …
I’m just so INFURIATED by what I saw and I can’t even exactly tell you WHY I’m so DEEPLY angry about the whole thing. There’s has GOT to be something wrong with me right?
Where is all the rebuilding that was pledged? How come no one’s being held accountable for their promised? I mean – this is a major metropolis here? A major American city … I’m not naive by any means but this is mind boggling beyond comprehension. Seems like everyone’s forgotten about it.
But my brain reverbs with the question – “what do we do?”
Jay Z has a new record coming out. He has a song on there that deals with social responsibility. There’s some lyrics that go:
“Sure I ponied up a mil/but I didn’t give my time/so in reality, I didn’t give a dime”
I wonder if it’s true? But what CAN we do – what can regular folk do? Nothing? Is that what the land grabbers are betting on? That we’ll do nothing? I guess they’ll win.
On a side note, this is why I always, always laugh at people when they rag on Oprah. No, she might not be the smartest person on the planet, the hippest celebrity out there … but I’ve seen with my own two eyes, the work she and her network have done along the storm ravaged coast. I’ve read about how much good she’s doing in Africa. She’s done a heck of a lot more than I know Fema or Bush & his cronies to have done. It shouldn’t matter one bit if she’s not “down enough” for you.
(ok - running to a meeting - be right back)
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