Katrina - Real News from Local People

[Guest guest]

This is a long collection of short notes and things I picked up over the last

couple of weeks. Bypass if you're not interested, by all means. But it's a

snapshot of real people talking about what matters to them and what happened to

them, so if you are interested in the environmental disaster that has happened,

you may still find it worth the read. I've been in touch with family members all

over the country these last couple of weeks. Many are still missing, those who

are alive are scattered as well, though a few have been able to return home.

We've never before agreed 100% on any particular subject (except good eating) -

until now.Thought I'd pass on some messages from them/us:

Not one of us can believe people are actually going back into the toxic dump

that is now New Orleans. Not one! It's not just the mold problem....read on.

Like any metropolitan area, most people lived in the 'burbs. The burbs didn't

fare much better.

Not one of us can believe they're actually pumping that mess into the Gulf and

thinking there will not be very longe range consequences for having done it.

[Consider ancient wisdom regarding not defecating where you eat. In this case,

it's literal, and it works both ways.]

Everyone there is just stunned at government's incompetence (except Gen. Honore.

We all LOVE that cat, and he can be governor or president if he wants!).

Everyone there is just stunned and amazed at regular folks' generosity and

caring coming from all over the country. It means a lot to them. They are very

touched and very grateful. (Note from me: this is lonnnng from being over, so

please don't stop anything you might be doing for them! Most still have no cash,

and what they do have are vouchers that won't buy many items they need.)

Everyone we know from there cries daily at what has been lost. It's impossible

not to. But all try to just do the next thing that needs doing. Some things will

just never be right again. It was a holocaust. Some things will be ok, but it'll

take time and effort.

All family on the beach in MS lost everything. (They are from Long Beach since

1810, but have spread out up an down the coast.) Most went inland before

landfall. Property damage extends more than 80 miles inland. They said they

couldn't believe they were apparent goners even in 100% historically safe places

miles and miles from the coast. It was that scary. Neary 100 miles inland, and

they still got 80-85 mile an hour winds.

Long Beach is basically gone. Flat. Waveland, flat. Pearlington, flat. Pass

Christian, almost the same. Diamond Head, partly. And that's just a few of them.

Those rare people who got through ok all talk about this kind of guilt they feel

for getting off so easy when so very many others didn't.

Nearly all in MS will come home and rebuild. The coastal terrain in MS is

different from that of LA, mainly because Lake Ponchartrain is really a huge

salt water bay without much tidal action. Most of Mississippi ends right on the

beaches. Those on the beach can't come back yet. The line of demarcation is

Railroad Street, which runs across most of the coastal area, a few blocks from

the beach. No one is allowed that close - they say it's mainly because of the

ongoing searches for bodies. It was confirmed that the family graveyard was only

damaged by old oak trees falling down. Others didn't fare so well. Good luck to

anyone having dead to bury any time soon, though. Rumors of caskets washed up on

the beach persist.

Those a bit further inland in MS took wind damage, but no water damage from the

tidal surge. They'll make repairs as soon as they get through being %^ & *^%^ by

the insurance companies. They know this was wind-driven damage, not a simple

flood. But not all water damage is from the ocean. When a house gets knocked

down, the water pipes break as well, so the water damage didn't stop when the

water ran back out to sea.

In LA, Slidell was 80% levelled. This is a very large suburb of NO. People are

still wandering the streets there. They were getting no help with that, have

nearly no communications. If you call anyone there, the phone company will just

say there is no service, and might not be any for a really long time. No cell

service, either. Cells were knocked out.

Metairie, LA another large suburb, same thing. Harahan - partially submerged.

Both are very dangerous in terms of toxins and mold, but people keep wanting to

go back in. I have one story from a man in Metarie who waited on his roof for 4

days. No one came for him. Then he saw a boat float past and swam to it. He got

covered in rashes and boils from touching the water. He's ok now, but think

about it. All he did was touch that water for a few minutes...

St. Bernard Parish and the towns in it are pretty much gone for good. It's under

water and toxic sludge from the oil tanks that were broken and submerged. These

parishes in the wetlands are very low, and have no real barrier against the Gulf

waters, so there is no place to pump anything anyway. St. Bernard was home to

many Spanish people from the Canaries who came there in 1790. They were supposed

to take over the place for the King of Spain. But then they became part of the

landscape themselves. These also are large, old extended families. They, like

mine and others, got hit all at once. Any other home they ever knew is just

words in a history book and lore you got from the old people.

From social services workers in Washington state - most low-income people who

got shifted out to other states will most likely not come back - especially

renters. They have nothing now, and can't afford to go back, even if there was

something to go back to.

Happily so far, most I talked to are far more mold-savvy than you would have

thought! They've seen it, they've smelled it, they're staying the heck out of

the water-logged areas altogether. They don't even need to know all the gritty

scientific details to know it's bad. Their eyes and their noses and the rashes

and boils on the people who touched the water are telling them. Like us, they

worry about a lot of people thinking they can just dry it out and move back in.

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Commentary:

Unfortunately, Katrina hit a lot of people who aren't that aware, or in some

cases, even capable of becoming that aware. Each person who " gets it " is a

neighbor or friend or family member of someone else who doesn't. Anyone who can,

is listening to the news because communications are still so bad. Even if you

have electricity, good luck on getting cable TV or using that dish that blew

away who knows where. Hurricanes don't move over for local stations, either. I

will ask people in the area, since I can't hear the broadcasts myself, but I'm

thinking public service announcements on radio stations would best help get the

word out.

I think folks down there will be friendly to any real help offered, if it isn't

preachy or high-handed. There's a long, long, not nearly forgotten history of

people from up north using that word " reconstruction " (it's all over the

news)and telling them what to do " for their own good " , and taking advantage of

hard times like it was a bargain basement sale. The very fact that anyone would

even use that particular word tells us they don't know anything about us. People

down there won't take kindly to any whiff of that, and trust me - they can smell

it just like a Moldie can smell mold. Imagine the level of distrust for that

sort of nifty government program right about now, given what is still happening

to them. So. Word. We need to consider that.

My previous rant on media whores and government lackeys was pretty mild,

compared to some of what I have heard from local people over the past few days.

Ma Bell would seriously blush. Angry? Oh hell yeah! But also, hurt. That they

were ignored. That politicians give speeches while searchers are still looking

for bodies of friends and loved ones. That rebuilding is talked about as if many

of them could even do so. But they all know that there's so much to do right now

that yelling and screaming about it would be no help. ALL expect a future

reckoning, though.

Did I mention these folks have a real long memory? Yeah. They do. Most are not

transient people. They tend to stay put. They know their own history. Whatever

happens there becomes the stuff the blues are made from, the long yarns

grandfathers tell, the touchstone hurricane event by which all other events are

later recalled and dated by longstanding tradition. You remember older women

teaching how to build a good roux, using words and terms that are never used

anywhere else on earth, sometimes ingredients that don't grow anywhere else on

earth (maybe nowhere on earth, now), and can't help but remember that the old

houses where that happened aren't anyplace on earth any more.

The desire to touch home again, even if only to grab some heirloom or keepsake,

is just overwhelming to these people. Try to remember that most of them left

thinking they'd be back in a day or less. They didn't know they'd be leaving

forever, so they took very little with them. Many are still completely in shock.

It's different to them. When you see a view from a news camera, the destruction

is amazing. But when you know what is NOT being shown, and the camera never pans

over a few feet to your friends' house or your school, it's indescribable. Your

mind and your memory are filled with things and places that have simply vanished

from existence.

I have stories of people digging up internet footage and pictures to try to help

evacuees get some sense of reality on this. They hear constantly about going

back, and of course they want to go! I know of one case where urns containing

the ashes of parents were in the house, waiting to be handled according to the

deceased one's last wishes. They'd give up everything else willingly, but can't

rest because of this. I understand. We all understand. The ashes are of our

family members that we all grew up with.

I have stories of family members outside the area sleeping in shifts with

someone posted at the television for days on end, hoping to spot someone still

missing, or their home, or almost anything that might help find them again.

I jumped into the missing persons searches myself. We are still missing at least

9 family members. So I started offering to help others search. This week, I

began getting cancellations of the request as the bodies are beginning to be

identified.

See - I know, better than 99.9% of the people who were there, what the mold will

do. I know that I stand about zero chance of withstanding the toxic junk all

over the place around Lake Ponchartrain. I wasn't even living there, and I STILL

have to talk myself out of getting in the car about a dozen times a day. Of

course that would be insane. But the urge is there, big time. This is something

very primal - it's not like you just say, " Oh! Mold. Dangerous. Well, let's stay

home then " . It's in your gut. Whenever you thought about what in life might

worth putting your life on the line for, this was it and they were it. It's not

something you can intellectualize.

So, try to imagine what that is like for those who were living there. Anyway,

don't call them stupid. Don't wish for them to be sick so everyone can see what

we go through. They aren't stupid. They're hurt and acting out of pure instinct

to try to protect what they lived for, the same way you have to hold a mother

back from running back into a burning house. It's just like that. Only there's

thousands of them, all at once. Telling them to " RUN! " because of the mold is

simply not going to work.

Actually, that last is neither a rant nor a ramble. I'm not even overdramatizing

it for effect - quite the opposite. It's just me trying to explain the

" tee-ninciest " little bit why some people will try go back no matter what, and

some people will try to stay no matter what. I want to make them real for you,

so they don't continue to get treated like nothing but numbers. They've had

enough of that already. In some cases, it's perfectly reasonable to stay. In

others, not even close. Some took the risk to search for the survivors. Some

don't get it...yet. Some actually are just plain stupid in everyday life, and

all the legislation in history has never solved that problem.

It's good that we're seeing these press releases on mold, even though there are

so many inaccuracies. It won't stop all the illnesses that are about to happen

(are already in progress), but it may just tip the scales here and there with

people who might have thought they could just wash up. Ironically, the heinous

behavior of the insurance companies will both make some people ill who shouldn't

be, and will save some because they will have to give up and not try to stay.

It took me a week to write this. Mold moves a helluva lot faster than I do these

days. The illness stays a helluva lot longer than the mold does. In my own mind,

the issue is still going to be outreach to those who will become chronically ill

and will be told it is stress and not get diagnosed or treated properly. We

aren't going to be able to stop this thing. It's already too late for that. But

in the near future, and they will be needing to know we're here and how to find

us. Please add a link to this site when you blog elsewhere or write letters!

Serena

www.freeboards.net/index.php?mforum=sickgovernmentb

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