h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Port Sulfur, Louisiana – December 8, 2006

It's crisp and clear here where we are camped on the Tchefuncie River in St. Tammany Parish, which flows into Lake Pontchatrain. Big cypress trees line the banks and grow out in the river shallows. The big lake has a 25 mile long arrow-straight causeway leading south to New Orleans, where the levees broke.

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move
- Led Zeppelin

Katrina rolled over the Louisiana bayous 100 miles southeast of New Orleans on the way to smash the Mississippi coast. There wasn’t much on the news about this area and I wanted to see and document what happened.

We drive though New Orleans, past the convention center, and 80 miles down the peninsula toward the Gulf. There appear to be very few repairable structures. Large shrimp boats ended up in fields. FEMA trailers are everywhere. Katrina came though this area at full strength. The refineries and heliports that carry workers to the rigs are about the only things that are repaired.

At the very end of the peninsula a sad collection of broken music boxes, a porcelain Santa, and various small figures are placed on a seawall. A boy’s bicycle and an upside-down SUV are in the rubbish near the seawall.

We drive back to New Orleans and have dinner in the French Quarter. This is Friday night so we want to try the mango daiquiris. The businesses in the quarter are back, but the tourists don’t yet know that the city is open for business. We were the only diners in the restaurant we chose.

Pictures of the bayous:
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=556300888

I'm glad the French Quarter is in normal condition. My first thought is that it would be wonderful to visit there without the huge crowds. But I understand why they need to get back into full swing.

I'm still ing over the mango daiquiris. Do you, perchance, know how to make them?

A poignant witness to the events of last year. How are you feeling yourself at the moment?

I'm feeling very sad and shaken about all the abandoned and broken ornaments on the seawall that were a mute testament to an imterupted lives, perhaps even ended lives...

I wish I had work to do...I wish I could help...I've been researching FEMA trailers this morning...they are intended to provide emergency housing for 18 months...however the growth of mold requires damaged flooring and drywall to be completely replaced..the mold grew while the city was evacuated because of lack of water and electricity...materials are scarce...

I remember eating a hamburger on Sunday before landfall in my young neighbors backyard...they asked me if there was such a thing as a class VI hurricane...I told them Katrina would be a $50 billion dolar event...It's a shame our director of homeland security wasn't there to have a burger...there are 60,000 FEMA trailers in New Orleans alone...time is up and the requested trailers have not yet all been delivered...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/23/katrina/main2035772.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/11/02/State/FEMA_trailer_deadline.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMA_Trailer

Time to move on...there is a young couple living in a temt next door...

Yeah, that's quite an evocative picture [#41]...what was that white girl holding in her hands when the surge hit?

And a personal irony there, too...here's Lulu Bell, selecting The Tree....