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January 8, 2006
Susan BatesI hope you all had a good Christmas. I spent the season in New Orleans with my son and what I saw there will stay with me the rest of my life.
Most of us watched in horror as Katrina made her relentless march toward land. But tv coverage doesn't begin to capture the magnitude of destruction that befell the Gulf Coast.
More than 4 months have passed at this writing, yet many neighborhoods are so devastated that people are only allowed in to access the damage, salvage what little they can and then must leave. Some areas still have no phone service or electricity.
Homes which were engulfed by brackish, putrid water are now full of mold. Many structures that were spared total destruction from the winds will fall victim to deadly mold spores. Everywhere you look, there are blue roofs - homes whose only protection from the weather now are blue FEMA tarps which were handed out along with bottled water and MRE's to storm weary residents.
Numbers are spray painted on homes that flooded indicating the number of dead inside. While I was there an elderly couple were discovered dead inside their home although a large 0 was sprayed on the outside. It was reported that homes with less than 5 feet of water weren't searched because it was presumed everyone in less than that amount could survive. At 4 foot 11 inches it made me wonder what short people, children and the disabled were supposed to do?
People are still missing. A man found his mother dead in the rubble of their home only a few days ago. Although teams of
searchers with dogs were sent out to recover victims, many areas were missed. Bodies lie awaiting identification in the morgue. The day I came home, Gary Cowsill, a member of the singing Cowsill Family, was finally identified by dental records as one of the dead.
Majestic Live Oaks lay sprawled on houses and cars. I've seen vehicles perched in trees along with every kind of debris one could imagine. Everywhere you look, debris covers the ground. Landfills are springing up like shopping centers.
Many front yards boast FEMA Trailers - small ugly campers where people are expected to live while they try to rebuild
their lives. I've seen FEMA Trailer Parks where the trailers are jammed in so tightly the people can barely open their doors to go in and out. Summer heat will surely turn these parks into tinder boxes. (By the way, these FEMA Trailers are costing the tax payers between $75,000 and $125,000 each.)
And I've heard tales of extraordinary heroism, selfless acts performed by everyday people, that saved individuals and whole communities. I've seen signs which read "Looters Will Be Shot" and I've seen sandbags behind which local people hunkered down with weapons to defend their homes from looters. These are things I never expected to see in this country.
Whole towns are gone. Many will never be rebuilt. Fishing boats, the main livlihood of thousands of families, are destroyed. With cheap foreign seafood imports being allowed in, the industry for our people may not recover. There are several Native
American Communities that number among them. These people have stayed together and lived the traditional way in the bayous for centuries, but now they, too, have scattered.
Thousands of cars, many of them new on dealer's lots, have been flooded and are now in the process of being cleaned up
and shipped north where unsuspecting Yankees can become the proud owner of a Kristina souvenir.
On the plus side, there is no shortage of jobs now. Every business is begging for workers and hefty sign - on bonuses are
being offered to entice people to come back. Many stores can't open because of lack of help. Others open only part of a day. Since so many people have left the area, everyone has to do extra work, and with a severe shortage of housing, the situation isn't like to improve quickly.
Native Peoples seldom built permanent settlements in risky areas. But when the white man came and changed the system, it became necessary to "own" land. As more and more people flock to the area, every available inch of land has been claimed by building dams and levees to make soggy land firm. But levees break and shorelines erode and water will seek it's own level.
It has been prophesied that the people who live in a bowl will one day be washed out of it. This has happened. Yet the talk is still about rebuilding... making the levees stronger, defying the Earth Changes that must come. And with the extraordinarily warm temperatures we've been experiencing here in the south, it is entirely possible that 2006 will be another banner year for hurricanes.
A warning has been given. Listen!<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
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