Storms 411

Local Bogger: Operation Eden

Operation Eden -- New Orleans blogger, Clayton Cubitt (aka Siege) has a very interesting blog about what is going on after Katrina.

About his life:

clayton james cubitt's mom was a teenage runaway, go-go dancing at a club on bourbon street in new orleans. his dad was a canadian national running pot over the border from mexico. they met, married, and moved to los angeles, conceiving him on the trip in the back of a vw bus at dinosaur national park in utah. now he takes pictures and lives in brooklyn. he grew up in new orleans and the gulf coast, where his family still lives. He is also known as siege, and all of these images originally appeared on his photo journal for Nerve.com

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Day 9 - 8/31/05, Grief Management in Four Easy Steps

As told by a New Orleans blogger at New Orleans Metroblogging

Shock: Complete change of life in twelve little hours? Yeah, that counts as shock in my book.

Denial: I've been studiously avoiding the newscasts today. I'm a firm believer that no news is good news, even if the only reason there's no news is because I've got the TV turned off and I'm not checking email and I can't get cell reception. Of course, when curiosity finally got the better of me at 7:00 this evening, the headlines were worse than dire: efforts to sandbag the 17th Street Canal have failed, water is rising, and there's a mandatory evacuation order for the whole city. It's stupid to even ask, of course, but the superstitious side of me has to wonder: if I hadn't picked up that remote, would things have turned out differently?

Anger: Tonight on Fox News (why it was on, I don't know), a bunch of clean-shaven crackers were discussing the whole disaster relief thing for New Orleans, and from the get-go, the tone was one of, "Why should we help these people out when they knew this could happen? Why should we help people who choose to live in dangerous places?" At which point I was screaming at the television (it felt good), "Where in the Jesus H. MacGillicuddy would you rather we live? Florida? More hurricanes. California? Earthquakes, wildfires. Kansas? Tornadoes. New York? Terrorism hot-spot, asshole." I mean, really, is there anyplace fun to live that's immune to disaster?

Acceptance: Yeah, right.... We'll talk in a couple of months.

Today's bonus event: Shopping at the Lafayette SuperTarget (who knew there was such a thing?), I spotted Frank Trapani, the owner of Frankie & Johnny's furniture store (the one with the Special Man) in line behind me. I wanted to ask if he'd pose for a photo, but Jonno thought it might be tacky, seeing as how we're essentially refugees at the moment--kinda like asking Molly Brown for an autograph as she's watching the Titanic go down. Still, I coudn't resist taking a pic on the sly with my crappy cameraphone...

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More Pictures - Katrina Does New Orleans

The Interdictor, a Livejournal blogger, has posted pictures from his downtown building. Katrina Does New Orleans

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New Orleans Blogger

Jon Donley of NOLA.com has been posting from his "Hurricane Bunker" on the third floor of the Times-Picayune building.

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New Orleans metblog

The New Orleans metblog is full of first-hand reports, including this account of the breach in the levee contributor Craig Giesecke:

Most everything from City Park Avenue up to Robert E. Lee (Lakeview) is underwater, due to a breach in the levee. Rescue efforts are being hampered by the lack of radio communication. Many had to flee to rooftops or patches of high ground, though some were able to snag rides on passing boats.

Uptown, water damage is much less. I'm reading/hearing Uptown suffered mainly from downed trees and other wind-related damage. HIgh water in the 9th Ward similar to Lakeview. I have seen little or nothing about the Mid-City area.

Structural damage to nearly every bridge over the lake, particularly the I-10 bridge to/from Slidell. That's still being assessed, and there's no word yet on when or how evacuated residents might get back in, depending on where they're coming from. I"ll get more detail on that later today.

Still, all in all, we're feeling pretty lucky. We're packing one bag with a large sense of humor and another with an extra supply of patience, since recovery is going to take a while. But we'[ve got some fine examples in watching all that happened in Florida last year, after folks there faced FOUR hurricanes in one season. They've pushed through it and we will too.

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