A Police Department Racked by Doubt and Accusations ~ New York Times Quotes Bryan

September 30, 2005
A Police Department Racked by Doubt and Accusations
By DAN BARRY and JERE LONGMAN
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 29 - They spend their shifts patrolling neighborhoods largely devoid of the people they have sworn to serve and protect. Then many of them collapse in tiny cabins on a cruise ship docked on the Mississippi River, their own homes unlivable, their own families elsewhere, their own reputations in question.

The 1,400-plus active city police officers left to protect this gutted metropolis now serve in a department at a low point in its already checkered history, at a time when rebuilding the police force is essential to rebuilding New Orleans. The department struggled to maintain order in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, its superintendent resigned this week, and Thursday its acting superintendent announced the suspension or reassignment of five officers suspected of looting or standing by as looting occurred.

Now, as orderliness returns gradually to the city, the adrenaline that kept many police officers going is morphing into weary doubt about their colleagues. An estimated 250 members of the Police Department - about one-sixth of its active members - abandoned their jobs during the hurricane and flooding, raising questions about their dedication and honesty.

The officers who remained are now wrestling with wisps of rumor and the pain of truth. Some of their colleagues deserted when they should have served, and perhaps even looted when they should have protected. Many who fled have returned to duty, but their presence today does not necessarily mean that yesterday is forgotten, no matter how legitimate their excuse for being absent.

"What do you do with the guys that left and came back?" Sgt. Bryan Lampard, of the department's vice and narcotics unit, asked Thursday. "Do you trust that guy? Who turned around when things got hot, and ran?"

And what to do about stories of officers who remained at their posts, only to steal?

Thursday afternoon, the acting police superintendent, Warren J. Riley, announced an "immediate internal investigation" of at least 12 officers during the postflooding free-for-all, including the four already suspended and one reassigned.

Superintendent Riley said he would also investigate the commandeering by some officers of more than two dozen Cadillacs from a local dealership, after the police lost the use of more than 270 of its own vehicles.

"There were some officers who actually patrolled in Cadillacs, I will tell you that," he said. "But it was done with the greatest intent."

Thursday's news conference about police looting was the latest example of a troubled department trying to find its balance. In previous decades, it had struggled with a garishly high murder rate and police officers caught in drug stings and convicted of murders. Now it is trying to right itself after a hurricane in which it lost communications, access to ammunition, and, some say, certain neighborhoods. Its response to the hurricane also led to this week's resignation of the police superintendent, Edwin P. Compass III.

If order has been restored, normality has not. Because police headquarters was damaged during the flooding of downtown, the department is temporarily based at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street, steps away from a selection of strip clubs.

To enter this new police headquarters, you dip your shoes in pans of bleach water - a modest effort to cleanse them of contamination - and walk into a marble lobby aglow with chandeliers. Turn left at the hotel's frozen-in-time marquee ("Today's Functions - August 28, 2005"), and walk past the hotel's jewelry and gift shops. "No media," a sign says.

It is from an overstuffed couch in this opulent lobby that Lt. David Benelli, the head of the department's sex crimes unit and president of the New Orleans Police Association, sought to put things in perspective. The desertion and looting by a minority of police officers, he said, have overshadowed the heroism of so many others.

He pointed to Capt. Brian Weiss and his officers, who helped to evacuate a hospital in the Bywater neighborhood; Officer Wayne Terry, who contracted an infection from the contaminated waters that nearly cost him a leg; and Capts. Tim Bayard and Robert Norton, who put together a boat rescue operation that saved many lives.

Lieutenant Benelli said that New Orleans police officers are among the lowest-paid metropolitan police officers in the country, with an average base salary of roughly $42,000. He used himself as an example: 31 years on the job, 16 years as a lieutenant, "and I make less than $50,000 base."

In addition, many officers relied on second jobs and security details at places like the Superdome to supplement their incomes. Those jobs are gone, along with homes and families. Police officials estimate that more than half the officers lost their homes.

Sergeant Lampard said that 35 of the 50 officers in the vice and narcotics unit had essentially lost everything. "They were told to bring three changes of clothes in a duffle bag," he said. "That's what most of them have."

Lieutenant Benelli emphasized that he was not suggesting that hardship and low pay justified acts of desertion and looting - acts that have undermined the trust among officers that is the glue of any police force.

"They can't trust them anymore," he said. "I don't know how welcome those officers who left because they were scared will be."

The power of rumor was evident in the makeshift headquarters. In the space of a half-hour today, reporters heard three versions of a story about dozens of police officers from one district fleeing the city and spending a night in Baton Rouge before returning.

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SIGH

OH Man. The part of town where our busines is/was is just a mess. We went in today with rubber gloves and hazmat masks. No running water, no power - phones though - ringing off the freaking hook. Customers wanting deposits back, or replacement flooring/furniture. Yea yea - get in line . . . it's gonna be a LONG haul . . .

Hot. Sweaty. STINKY and moldy. The mold burns. Made my tongue swell up, burns my lips - can't get that taste out of my mouth. Eyes red and swollen. Had no idea that mold could do that.

We heaved and hauled whatever we thought was salvageable to our warehouse. Some paperwork, I have my office computer here, just in case. Everything reeks.

The restaurant, Drago's, across the street has become the daily "soup kitchen" and God bless them for it. It was nice to have a hot meal in the middle of the day. We sat on the stoop of the strip mall across the way and talked to other owners about what they will do.

The boutique clothing store owner had pulled out ALL of her merchandise and was giving it all away to whoever wanted anything. Really expensive items -- with the warning that we should try to clean them first. After all, nothing was sellable. Her other location was heavily looted, and she has not been to her home yet I picked up a few things for Cat.

The luggage store owner greeted us - very high end stuff. All ruined. She says she is not sure if she can open within 6 months to a year. She warned us about how the insurance companies work out the "business interuption" claims -- and that if you sell a thing in the meanwhile, you can lose your settlement. So much for our plan to continue business, at least in recovery mode for our good customers. At least not until we speak with our agent.

Our policy will prorate our buildout, if we don't plan to rebuild (we do not) and will pay cash value (not replacement) for the items we will not replace. Some we will have to replace - it's already sold to customers . . . customers without houses to put it all in. Bless them all.

The salon next door does not plan to reopen either. The estimate is that we will lose 80-90% of our small businesses. It's one thing to hear that - another thing to see it on the faces of the business owners - still in shock and denial mostly - trudging on, trying to make the best of a horrible situation.

We met a guy in town to do roofing repair - who says they've already lined up two years worth of work. That with 80% of the city still uninhabitable.

Today was sobering. Sobering and depressing and uncertain.

But hey - mail service starts TOMORROW for us! Oh HAPPY day!

OH man. Can I sigh again? and again and again and again . . .

Top it all off with the GUILT that I should be feeling fortunate, since we have so much when so may have absolutely nothing.

I need a glass of wine to go with my whine

New York Times quotes Bryan

September 23, 2005Storm Raises Fears on Weak New Orleans Levees
By JERE LONGMAN and MICHAEL BRICK

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 22 - As the outer bands of Hurricane Rita raked past with gusty winds and showers, water began seeping into the shattered and empty Lower Ninth Ward through makeshift dike repairs on Thursday, and the Army Corps of Engineers expressed concern about just how reliably a weakened levee system could protect this devastated city against a tidal surge along Lake Pontchartrain.

Little more than 24 days after Hurricane Katrina killed at least 832 people in Louisiana, Hurricane Rita was expected to scour New Orleans with winds that could reach tropical force as it headed toward landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border.

At the least, two to four inches of floodwater are expected here in a city that sits largely below sea level, Mayor C. Ray Nagin said on Thursday, adding that he had been reassured by the corps that the city's mended levee system could withstand an expected storm surge of three to five feet.

"If it's any higher than that, then you can have water pushed into the city," Mayor Nagin said at a news conference. "Then the pumping capacity becomes really challenged."

Five thousand troops from the National Guard and the 82nd Airborne Division are preparing to secure New Orleans against another storm, and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has called for an additional 30,000 soldiers. Mayor Nagin said he was watching weather reports with a kind of paranoia now that Hurricane Rita had made a turn that could take it farther east than previously expected.

City employees, once upbeat about the rebuilding process in a city that still lacks drinking water and has only limited electricity, have grown anxious about the prospect of being hit by even the periphery of a second powerful storm, the mayor said.

"People are struggling with the fact, 'Why such powerful storms back to back?' " Mayor Nagin said. "We're talking to people and trying to get them to focus on the task at hand. Maybe we'll be spared this time."

In the Lower Ninth Ward, where two gaping breaches in the Industrial Canal levee submerged and splintered one of the poorest sections of the city, four to eight inches of water began seeping back into some abandoned and destroyed neighborhoods by noon on Thursday. Small waterfalls of leakage could be seen several feet below the top of the repaired levee as wind pushed rising water from Lake Pontchartrain through the Industrial Canal.

This was to be expected, said Chad Rachel, a civil engineer with the corps, after an inspection of the repaired breaches. There did not appear to be any erosion of the compacted clay base of the patched dike, he said, adding that he felt certain the large, interlocking stones atop the base would be able to withstand the expected storm surge.

"We don't expect any problem with a catastrophic breach," Mr. Rachel said.
By dusk, however, water had continued to rise, and Maj. Barry Guidry of the Army offered a direr assessment after examining the leaking at the Industrial Canal. "The levee's going to cave in," Major Guidry said. "In the middle of the night, this thing is going to be gone."

Even if heavy flooding did happen again in the Lower Ninth Ward, this might serve as a kind of safety valve that could prevent water from submerging more inhabitable parts of the city, police officials said.

"This is a graveyard already," said Sgt. Bryan Lampard of the New Orleans police, who was in the Lower Ninth Ward searching for bodies or the rare possibility of a survivor. "This area is not coming back anytime soon."

Houses were shoved off their foundations and splintered in this ruined section of the city. Cars were turned upside-down. The damage resembled that on the Mississippi Coast more than it did many other parts of New Orleans. About the only thing salvageable from most of these houses was a hammer, said Eric Baum, a spokesman for a federal search-and-rescue team from Miami.

Rescuers left the area as the water continued to seep in but said they had nearly completed their search for bodies. Only about 20 were recovered in the Lower Ninth Ward, said Capt. Tim Bayard, who is in charge of the recovery effort for the New Orleans police. This suggested, Mayor Nagin said, that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina, once predicted to be in the thousands, now seemed to be "much lower than anyone imagined, which I'm thankful for."
At the breached 17th Street Canal, which flooded the Lakeview section of New Orleans, a crew from the Army Corps of Engineers finished shoring up sandbags and metal pilings that jutted above the side of the levee like rusty dominoes. The levee was no longer leaking, but a direct hit by even a greatly diminished Hurricane Rita, or storm surges of more than 10 or 12 feet from Lake Pontchartrain could wash out the makeshift plugs, said Robert Foret, a quality assurance officer with the corps.

"We have saturated levees right now, so this is all guesswork," Mr. Foret said.

The plugging of breaches in the 17th Street Canal and London Avenue Canal to protect against a storm surge has required a tradeoff, Mayor Nagin said. Water might be kept from coming into the city, he said, but it will be more difficult to force out from the midtown area because the improvised repairs have left three of the city's most powerful pumps unavailable, he said.
"Everybody's on pins and needles right now," Mr. Foret said.

Ten buses were available near the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to take residents out of the nearly empty east bank of New Orleans, but only one or two people decided to evacuate what is essentially a ghost town on Wednesday, Mayor Nagin said.

He cautioned that Hurricane Rita was a dangerous storm, and although New Orleans did not figure to bear the brunt of the hurricane, the city could not let its guard down.

If the storm made a significant turn eastward, Mayor Nagin said, "we have a whole other ballgame."

Well this sure is an interesting way to live! LOL!

Every day we get up and dressed and head out to find things -- today's item was propane that was less that $50 a bottle. Got it! HOORAY!

Then it's off to the National Guard distribution center to pick up our rations: MRE's, water, ice, canned goods, toilet paper. MRE's are surprisingly not half bad, and all of my neighbors gather round and share tips - like always squeeze your cheese spread into the entree, really makes it better - LOL! Then we stand in line at Winn Dixie, where guardsmen with automatic rifles allow only a certain number of people into the store - where there is really nothing to buy. Something to do anyway!

Meanwhile, the military presence is everywhere. Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters flying overhead, tent cities at every school and public building - surrounds by hundreds of deuce-and-a-half trucks, jeeps, humvees.

No mail yet, but I have been seeing UPS trucks for a couple of days now.

Today I am going to file for unemployment. We will not reopen the store. Very big sigh. It took us 9 months to do the initial build-out, and that was in good times when supplies were available. We have about a year and a half to the lease, which is most likely nullified at this point anyway. Our insurance ought to cover what we owe in payables, both long- and short-term, and we will probably work out of our warehouse (which sustained NO damage - a small bright ray there!) for a few months, helping any of our clients that we can to get their lives back on track.

Speaking of clients, we have already heard from a lot of our very good ones - but do you recall the man whose house burnded to the ground right after he had just completed redoing it? He had just gotten to the SAME point in his new construction -- in Eden Isles -- a neighborhood that Katrina completely levelled What rotten luck

Later I am taking an hour-trip to get somewhere that used to take me about 20 minutes. There is still flooding on the interstate, so I have to take an alternate route to bring the boys to meet MIL who will take them for a few days. And the checkpoints! PHEW! There are ID checkpoints surrounding our area, clogging traffic - that we must pass to get in.

I have to constantly keep the tv or radio tuned to information stations. That is kind of interesting too! All sorts of advisories - about how to not hurt yourself on your roof, or with your generator - blah blah blah. Numbers to call for food assistance, unemployment, finding lost loved ones or lost employees - job offers.

It's been a true adventure!

Hurricane versus the Levee System and some more important bits

To clear things up a little, I think it goes without saying that the breach of the levees is DIRECTLY related to the storms and the tidal surges. I keep hearing the same things over and over again - that New Orleans came away unscathed by the storm itself, but the levee breach is what really did the city in, and that was entirely the city's fault/responsibility.

A couple of points:

1. Much of the damage we sustained in my neighborhood, and in MOST neighborhoods was the result of high speed wind gusts, and high-speed sustained winds. There are photo galleries of entire high rises in our downtown area where all of the windows blew out. The destruction from the winds is indescribable. Interstate signs snapped off in the middle of their steel girders - one right after another. Trees twisted from their roots . . . entire forests of half-trees. These areas did not flood at all, rather the water damage was a direct result of the rains from the storm itself. You only need to see how almost every home is covered with a blue tarp to realize how damaging those winds were.

2. You can watch the footage of the flooding from Rita, and you will see a similar dumping/flooding of water due to the storm and it's tidal surge that is unrelated to any levee system or breach. Parts of the New Orleans Metro area were already devastated by flooding as a direct result of the storm. The area where our business is located is an example of just that. We got about 2 feet of water in our raised building - not at all due to levee breaching.

Now the levees did breach, and that caused further devastation, damage, death - and that is just horrific. But it was not an entirely separate event from the storm either. Funding is continually cut from the corps of engineers budget, with a massive scheduled cut for 2006. Criticism that our City didn't do enough for it's residents is too easy. There are so many dynamic issues at hand when it comes to such a thing, that it is overly simplistic to just state that it's just our own fault (or the politicians, etc.).

This is a very tough and complicated thing we have on our hands now. You can't imagine it. Sadly, several of my neighbors are not returning - including my nurse-neighbor, so disturbed by the horrors she witnessed at the hospital where she used to work, that she hopes to never come back . . .

The estimate is that only 250,000 of our over half a million will return over the next year. I've mentioned that virtually all home owners here are required by law to have flood insurance. But realize that rebuilding a home is only part of it. We've lost our schools, roads, stores, vast numbers of small businesses that cannot afford to come back (maybe us - sigh), our electric company has declared bankruptcy, our seafood fishermen cannot get back to business, our hotels are gone, many of our restaurant workers will not come back . . . tourism will be down - as will be convention business . . .

We are not getting mail, many banks cannot open - so there is no money (we are largely in barter and trade mode at the moment, which is kind of cool in a way ;~), we have no hospitals or emergency care (I keep telling the boys that if they get hurt I have to operate on them or we cut it off - LOL!), there are no doctor appointments, no place to get your hair cut . . . or to buy a pair of shoes.

It takes MUCH MUCH more than everyone's insurance paying through for their own damage. We need to rebuild infrastructure, and that is what the relief funds are supposed to go towards.

I am a very proud person. We are white, middle class, tax-paying two-wage earners - except that currently I am not earning, and DH is NOT getting paid for his time. I have never asked for a handout ~ not before this. And MAN was that ever humbling.

My eyes have been opened to many, many things.

Ways I've changed, things I've learned -- so far:

1. I realize some stuff just doesn't matter. And other things, that usually seem pretty crappy - like mowing the lawn . . . are near luxury. I mowed my lawn today, after all it's Saturday and it was almost, nearly sort of "normal" to do it.

2. I can really live with a lot less. Really. Most of my stuff is just stuff. I only need one pair of shoes, about 2-3 outfits, and a robe . . . you really NEED a robe! Getting dressed in the clothes you wore in, after a steamy shower SUCKS! LOL!

3. People are so incredibly kind and generous and giving - at the same time, others can be very judgmental, and jump to conclusions very quickly - without considering that there are other HUMAN BEINGS involved in a crisis.

4. I've learned that the media can't be trusted to get it right most of the time. I believe they try - really they do. But there is a wealth of misinformation that changes with the winds . . . and while they give it their best, they just miss so many of the finer points - and so does their viewing public. Sad in a way, but it's the best we have and for that I can be somewhat thankful!

5. Men are more gossipy than women! Seriously. There was a rumor floating around New Orleans that my DH had been shot. At the same time, there was a similar rumor that we, his immediate family, had all perished in the storm. Thank GOODNESS we knew otherwise . . . a couple of police officers, despondent over their losses, took their own lives. From what I now gather - these types of rumors were very common in those few days of almost no communication other than word of mouth . . . scary and very sad.

6. Tow-the-party-line politicos miss a lot, and get a LOT wrong. I was one of them. I was so wrong about so many things. I am not a born-again liberal, still - LOL! But drawing opinion along party-lines, and blaming based on nothing more than that - is simply wrong and innacurate.

7. People are basically GOOD and DECENT. There are some really bad guys out there . . . but all in all, people are loving and kind and giving.

What a new world I live in now. I only hope that I am better for it in some ways! I can already see where I've grown, and where I've failed and shriveled . . . but it's all a learning experience!

Builds character anyway - right?

MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) Menu NO. 13 ~ Cheese Tortellini (Vegetarian)

• Hot Beverage Bag
• Heater
• Peanut Butter
• Crackers
• Brown Spoon
• Tootsie Rolls
• Pumpkin Pound Cake
• Spiced Apples
• Cheese Tortellini in Tomato Sauce
• Toilet Paper
• Damp Resistant Matches
• Iodized Salt
• Mint Gum
• Spiced Cider
• Moist Towlette

We are HOME . . . or are we?

I swear there are so many trees down, and things looks just horrible - damage everywhere in sight . . . it hardly looks familiar.

My next door neighbors are here, and Bryan feels we are safe, and can get out quickly enough if we need to (this RITA looks SCARY!) -- so we defied the mandatory evac, and snuck back in . . .

We stopped at the store. It's gone -- well, it's there, but it looks to have had about 2 feet of water INside, and the mold is already halfway up the wall - thick, black, hairy . . . all over the furniture, files, accessories, samples . . . there is no telling what we might do now. I already have two clients lined up for new floors too . . . which I could do out of the back of my car if I had to . . . but a shop sure would be nice . . . doesn't look very likely.

I took some pictures along our journey. I have to admit that it is totally different seeing it in person. Overwhelming even. Steel supported interstate signs all snapped off, one after the other . . . thick trees broken in half as if they were twigs . . . roofs covered in blue tarps . . . piles upon piles of tree limbs, garbage, household items that are damaged, water-logged, ruined . . . power lines littering the roads . . .

I had to get a new radiator fan motor this morning, and the mechanic told me about how they had to chop down telephone poles just to make the lines passable . . . (great timing for car repair, eh?)

Bryan is doing recovery now . . . this is his mission: NOLA.com

There aren't any open stores - but many points for aid in the form of MRE's (meals ready to eat, really not half bad), bottled water, toilet paper - and HEY! There are PORT-a-LETS on EVERY corner of our neighborhood! How NEAT! LMAO!

It looks like a third world country here . . . but I read that Owen's school will try to reopen on the 3rd -- and I fully intend to put up our Halloween decorations tomorrow.

More good news, BOTH of my classes will be available online from UNO this semester.

Praying for all in Rita's path.

Dear America ~ From columnist Chris Rose, Times Picayune

Dear America,

I suppose we should introduce ourselves: We're South Louisiana.

We have arrived on your doorstep on short notice and we apologize for that, but we never were much for waiting around for invitations. We're not much on formalities like that.

And we might be staying around your town for a while, enrolling in your schools and looking for jobs, so we wanted to tell you a few things about us. We know you didn't ask for this and neither did we, so we're just going to have to make the best of it.

First of all, we thank you. For your money, your water, your food, your prayers, your boats and buses and the men and women of your National Guards, fire departments, hospitals and everyone else who has come to our rescue.

We're a fiercely proud and independent people, and we don't cotton much to outside interference, but we're not ashamed to accept help when we need it. And right now, we need it.

Just don't get carried away. For instance, once we get around to fishing again, don't try to tell us what kind of lures work best in your waters.

We're not going to listen. We're stubborn that way.

You probably already know that we talk funny and listen to strange music and eat things you'd probably hire an exterminator to get out of your yard.

We dance even if there's no radio. We drink at funerals. We talk too much and laugh too loud and live too large and, frankly, we're suspicious of others who don't.

But we'll try not to judge you while we're in your town.

Everybody loves their home, we know that. But we love South Louisiana with a ferocity that borders on the pathological. Sometimes we bury our dead in LSU sweatshirts.

Often we don't make sense. You may wonder why, for instance - if we could only carry one small bag of belongings with us on our journey to your state - why in God's name did we bring a pair of shrimp boots?

We can't really explain that. It is what it is.

You've probably heard that many of us stayed behind. As bad as it is, many of us cannot fathom a life outside of our border, out in that place we call Elsewhere.

The only way you could understand that is if you have been there, and so many of you have. So you realize that when you strip away all the craziness and bars and parades and music and architecture and all that hooey, really, the best thing about where we come from is us.

We are what made this place a national treasure. We're good people. And don't be afraid to ask us how to pronounce our names. It happens all the time.

When you meet us now and you look into our eyes, you will see the saddest story ever told. Our hearts are broken into a thousand pieces.

But don't pity us. We're gonna make it. We're resilient. After all, we've been rooting for the Saints for 35 years. That's got to count for something.

OK, maybe something else you should know is that we make jokes at inappropriate times. But what the hell.

And one more thing: In our part of the country, we're used to having visitors. It's our way of life.

So when all this is over and we move back home, we will repay to you the hospitality and generosity of spirit you offer to us in this season of our despair.

That is our promise. That is our faith.

We spent the day at the Red Cross, yesterday

We're all registered, ID's taken (Hayden's looks miserable - LOL) and it was kind of nice to connect with other fellow Orleanians.

I took Hayden to the daycare they had set up for evacuees (so that I could fill out forms) and he ATE so much that they kept encouraging me: "Ms. Lampard - there is a cafeteria set up where you can get him a hot meal" probably thinking he was starved or something.

There were so many adorable children in the daycare, and all of the little girls immediately picked up (dry) paintbrushes and started making up my face - I must have looked gRRRRRRRReat! LOL! At any rate, we gave and received many, many hugs.

Some of the children looked so frightened, and the social workers kept wrapping their arms around them. One particular group was wondering about where they'd live, and the social worker told them how wonderful it was going to be to spend some time in a hotel. "There's even a POOL," she told them, "Did you bring your bathing suit?" "No - but we have life jackets."

Tomorrow we will drive Bryan up to Charlotte (to meet hurricane Ophelia? - HOPE NOT!) where he'll spend the night before leaving for New Orleans early on Friday.

It looks like the City might open up to our area on Monday! If the EPA tests come back, saying its safe, we might start heading back - but we'll break our trip up over 2-3 days instead of taking a long drive again.

They are hoping to have some schools open up first part of October, including Owen's - and the university might offer some online courses to replace some of the semester at least. That is promising!

I miss my HOME!

Bryan seems like he's gotten some rest, though he seems a little worried about his next assignment. Sigh. Some of the stories he has told just take your breath away. Stories like how they rescued an 11 y/o boy from an attice where'd he'd been for days with his mother's dead body - and when I asked him how on earth HE survived and she did not, he replied that she probably gave all the food and water they might have had to him, "like any mother would." There was the story about the 8 month-old Hayden (see why I remember that one?) who's parents had to slide him down the roof in a rubbermaid storage box - to the rescue boats below. Thank God they caught him!

I think it's going to take a long time for "normal" again - but we'll make it! The love and outpouring of generosity and support are just awesome. Totally AWESOME! TOTALLY!

I wonder if we'll have internet by the time we reach our home? LOL!

PALP's Generous Donations

Bryan and I took the two large boxes of supplies, and underwear, and diapers, and coloring books, and crayons and so much more - down to "The State" dropoff location this morning. "The State" is Columbia's local newspaper. I considered several other options, but many shelter needs were quite specific. The items that "The State" collects, however, will be sorted and distributed to appropriate locations. Here is the note I inserted into both boxes:

"These items were sent to me by a small internet community, with a lot of heart (PALP ~ Parenting After a Loss Playgroup, Network54). They took up a collection ~ and even raffled a handmade quilt to raise the money to purchase these school supplies and other items. I hope they bring a smile and hope to those in need! I know they did for me – as I am also a citizen of New Orleans, and a hurricane evacuee."

Thank you PALP!

I am so incredibly humbled by your generosity - thank you all so much

I believe it was Shelia who asked what we had taken with us when we evacuated. I didn't answer then - but I will now to show you how many needs you have filled.

Sunday morning, I picked up the boys school backpacks and literally tossed whatever was on my dryer into them. So we arrived in Baton Rouge, and subsequently South Carolina with about three outfits each. Aside from my Rubbermaid box of wedding/baby pictures, a few pieces of jewlery, some irreplaceable computer software/data (work stuff- LOL) that's about it. I had two pairs of underwear for Owen, only shorts and flip flops for shoes for all three of us - I've been sleeping in my clothes. I told Heather that I was afraid I had not even packed a single BRA for myself (not like I have any to put in one! Turns out I somehow managed to pack 2 ). We only had shorts and short-sleeved shirts. That some smartly-chosen clothing arrived - pants, a couple of jackets, t-shirts -- gosh. Truly needed as the weather grows a little cooler. The PJ's (much nicer than I'd ever buy myself) and robe for me are just so pretty, and so needed - I am so grateful.

The boys are loving the toys - and can't wait to watch Men In Black tonight! Owen says "How do they know JUST what I like?"

There are several possibilities for the items that you all sent for us to donate. We just had a new group of evacuees arrive, and I can't wait to bring the boys along to give to those who are in such incredible need. I plan to take some pictures and tell the story of how you have all showered us with so much love.

Bryan, who has had zero media contact since the storm, had no idea how much the tragedy of the the storm touched the entire country and world - or that the entire planet has wrapped it's arms around our Gulf States. He is so greatly moved by what you all have done - and tells me to say it over and over to all of you.

He is good. He is really tired and kinda shell-shocked. He nearly missed his flight because he fell asleep at the airport -- but he was so happy to see us there! It's a 3-hour drive each way to Atlanta - so that meant about 6 hours on the road for me (and Hayden who slept most of it) - but we were all so pumped to see him. He departs from Charlotte - so that will be an easier trip. He has a rash on his legs, that looks like a chemical burn - and he has been on Cipro. He's had some additional vaccinations - like Hep A & B and a tetanus booster. His spirits and morale are so very high though! He really seems to getting a lot of self-worth from helping in this capacity.

Right now he's doing what he loves ~ making gumbo.

He reports that 60% of his men entirely lost their homes, and everything that they had. I've told him that if any of them or their families want to stay in our home - they are more than welcome. The search and rescue has involved swimming under the water and into homes that way (I am WAY to claustrophobic to survive that myself!) to rescue people trapped in their attics or rafters. One of his men swallowed a LOT of that toxic water - and suffered a fever of 105 for several days. He's okay now thank goodness!

No pay for them yet - and it is unknown when that might show up. My current employment status doesn't bode well either at the moment - but my gosh, Ladies! I can panic a lot less all of a sudden - and enjoy my kids, and try to live this adventure up as much as we can.

I tell Owen that this is a life-changing event that we will all remember for the rest of our lives - but that it is not so much the storm, but the kindness and generosity of everyone around us.

You guys just ROCK! I can't say it enough!

"Daddy will be here TONIGHT? COOOOOOL" says Owen!

After much begging and pleading, and checking various routes and partner airlines and reactivating a frequent flyer account that's been inactive . . . and getting a PIN for said account - and booking a partner airline to be told that flight was CANCELLED overnight . . . or renumbered, or reassigned - or not going at all - and then BACK to its available but e-ticketing is NOT . . . at some point I lost my PHONE connection . . .

I GOT A FLIGHT AND WE WILL SEE HIM TONIGHT!

Owen is already making "Welcome Daddy" signs, and Bryan has requested a hotel room for one night so he can cram some sleep -- and he wants to make a big pot of Gumbo for us - my man who loves to chop veggies and cook to relieve stress (has the OPPOSITE effect on ME! )

In DEFENSE of our MAYOR and CITY LEADERS and CITIZENS

Because I am getting SICK AND TIRED of some of the CRAP I've been reading . . .

Cut and pasted from a post I made elsewhere. I urge you to PLEASE consider these things and so much more before you criticize our Mayor, or our citizens.

Have compassion for the poorest of the poor who COULD NOT EVACUATE - it was not a choice. COMPASSION please. I am starting to consider that the attitude that our community is "scum" is part of why relief efforts have been so delayed. For crying out LOUD the National Guard had a post at every corner of Charleston the DAY AFTER HUGO hit . . . New Orleans waited 4 DAYS???!!!

New Orleans' nickname is "The City that Care Forgot" - I am afraid these people, that still remain there are "The People that Care Forgot" - they are still human beings

Without further ado (and PLEASE - educate whoever you talk to when they spout off misjudgments and inaccuracies) my post:

"FIRST and foremost, I am a Republican, who voted for Ray Nagin in the last election.

This is a very highly educated man, who was a successful business leader and entrepreneur. This is a man who came to lead a city that had the finances available to continue to run its governement for TWO DAYS following his innauguration. TWO DAYS worth of funding - a city RAPED by its former mayor (watch for those headlines - Morial will be indicted, mark my word). This is a man who began his term by assessing the damage done, and addressing problems IMMEDIATELY.

This is a VERY GOOD AND DECENT person and he is very well liked in the City by Republicans and Democrats alike.

At the moment he is very angry, very saddened, and very frustrated on a level that NONE OF YOU could possibly understand. People are still trapped in their attics standing in NECK-DEEP water - pleading for help - saying they don't know how much longer they can hold up. There are THOUSANDS of dead bodies floating in the flooded areas - we've been hearing about them since TUESDAY even though the media never blinked a word of it (and don't get me started at how wildly INACCURATE some of the coverage has been - or how there are many, many things they simply will NOT say at the risk of spreading panic above what already exists) - there are BABIES dying in their mother's arms of dehydration, there are women GIVING BIRTH on the airport runway . . . in the streets . . . there are elderly people and critical care patients simply triaged to DIE.

Here are some things you NEED to know before you criticize this man any further.

On Saturday evening, the Mayor held a press conference in which he stated that had it not been ILLEGAL to declare a MANDATORY EVACUATION of the City of New Orleans, he would have done so at that time. That is the moment we decided we had better haul ass . . .

Now WHY it was illegal to issue that notice? I don't know -- but it had something to do with hospitals, service personnel, the size of the city - and the fact that there are very few routes OUT of the city due to its geographics and it was DOUBTFUL if the city could EVER be evacuated in such a fashion. THIS HAS BEEN COMMON KNOWLEDGE TO MOST OLREANIANS for a very long time . . . in fact - I was QUITE surprised that he spent the entire night with the city and state attorney trying to jump through the legal snafus to be able to make such a declaration.

Here's more of note -- there is a very complex evacuation strategy that involves several phases of evacuation, including recommended routes for different areas of the state. So if you live in Plaquemines (no long there from what I gather) you are to leave during Phase I evacuation and take a particular route out of the affected area. So to say that an evacuation plan didn't exist is bull****. What doesn't work so well is the sheer volume of evacuees moving along an area that is so small, where there are few ways to get from here to there.

So - we have "contra-flow" ~ a concept developed when masses of people attempted to evacuate prior to Hurricane Ivan coming ashore. The contra-flow concept is to make all interstates heading out of the city ONE-WAY streets -- and it proved to be VERY effective ~ much more effective than the previous evacuation. This helped us immensely!

As for shelters - there are none. The Red Cross determined several years ago that there are NO SAFE HAVENS in the New Orleans area, and that to provide one would give a false sense of security to folks who, by any means possible - ought to evacuate. The Superdome was opened up as a SHELTER OF LAST RESORT and it was WIDELY reported that there was no way of knowing if it could withstand a category 4 or 5 hurricane. THERE WERE NO GUARANTEES!

TWO days prior to landfall the regional transit authority began using public busses to aid in the evacuation. 100,000 people in the New Orleans area have NO TRANSPORTATION. Many CHOSE NOT TO LEAVE. Many could not afford to leave. But we are a very generous community and many gave rides to neighbors and the infirmed along the way.

Now - in KQ's original post from "Jeffers" (you know I love you KQ!) there is a line or several about how NO CITY or community could POSSIBLY have the resources available to them to support such an effort. SO WHY the criticism NOW? On TUESDAY Mayor Ray Nagin BEGGED for several specific things from our federal government and it has taken DAYS for them to make arrangements. And NO - he was not merely sitting on his laurels asking someone else to help - he has been doing everything in his ability including directly aiding the dying and other victims. 20% of our local police force has simply given up -- turning in their badges. PEOPLE CONTINUE TO DIE at an alarming rate. NO COMMUNITY IS EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH THIS! In fact, given that we HAD an evacuation plan and routes probably made us BETTER EQUIPPED than MOST.

I am not trying to debate a thing here - only to present MY SIDE of it as a resident of the city that I love, and that I have lost.

I am not trying to make a political statement - I am only sharing some of my grief and frustration. I am a diehard Republican - many of you are aware of that. But the system has failed New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The governement at ALL levels could do better and SHOULD do better.

But pointing fingers at our LOCAL or STATE governments, while defending the feds across party lines - is NOT HELPFUL AT ALL.

Just think about those things. Think about how you really can't possibly know what it feels like to be there NOW - starving and thirsting to death. How it feels to helplessly watch your community beg for its life - and to feel like MORE aid should be there, faster.

It is already too late for so many.

Please forgive typos and grammatical errors - I am not going to proof before I submit - LOL!"

They will take Owen ~ was that ever humbling

I rehearsed what I was going to say over and over in my head . . . so I asked to speak with the principle and started with, "I have a first-grader, Owen, he's a very good student at St. Andrew School in New Orleans . . . "

Then I completely lost it. So shaking and crying I explained our situation, and how much it would mean to us to have some semblance of routine for Owen.

They were very kind, very compassionate - gave me a tour of the school and asked that I NOT advertise at all . . . I met the teacher and her assistant, and all of the children that will be in his temporary class. I met the art teacher, the computer lab teacher - and several of the administrators who expressed so much compassion.

I very gently explained how Daddy is still in New Orleans, and that Owen may be very reserved, quite and sensitive to being in a new place with all that is going on around us, and all that has happened in the past week.

They are putting together a supply bag for him and will let him be the "Birthday" boy on Tuesday - so they will sing to him, and treat him very specially.

I spent the time mostly teary, so very grateful - and hugged the lovely principle on the way out.
How wonderful for Owen! I am so very grateful indeed!

I talked to BRYAN!

He called me this morning on my sister's phone line - so that means he's received the text mesages I've sent him.

He sounded good, but tired. He reports that they are in a state of urban warfare and chaos - shootouts are common between the police officers and criminals. He says many have turned in their badges, but he refuses to quit and let our city be taken over by thugs.
He says the loss of life is immense.

It was just so good to HEAR his voice, and hear that he has hope for what is becoming a more and more desperate situation by the hour.

And YOU GUYS (@PALP) are making me just totally swell with emotion!

I'm on my way to the little school around the block, to try to see if they can take Owen for a little while. Wish me luck!

Good Golly

The TERRIFIC MOST AWESOME NEWS is that my brother was able to get close to our house and it looks to be in good shape. He got to my parents home too, and their chimney blew off, there is roof damage and substantial leaking. They will have to replace wallboard and carpet and some belongings - but compared to the losses of so many others - that is minimal! We are so very blessed.

We are all in FINANCIAL mode today - calling mortgage companies, creditors, insurance people. Registering with FEMA and the Red Cross . . . though we have no needs at the moment, being online with them is probably prudent. My mortgager is allowing for complete suspension of payments with no effects to credit, and stoppage of all late fees. I have put a freeze on our business bank account, since the checks are still floating around somewhere and looting is rampant.

I am contacting the PRAXIS folks to get refunds on my test ($162) and the book ($50) and they had better budge - LOL! No word from UNO yet on the semester -- but I am certain it is cancelled. Reminds me - have to call the bank on the loan for Owen's school too . . .

I am going to take a look at school options for Owen. I figure, it will do him well even for a short time, even if he has to repeat in the summer (as I imagine is the currnet plan for Orleans schools). I'd like him to start next week if we can get him on the "displaced" status for sheltered children.

We are in good shape! We even have a near-full tank of gas from yesterday (thank GOODNESS since there are shortages here now and the rates are enormous).

We are in comparitively excellent shape! So many others need your support and prayers -- so you can put us on hold, okay? PRAY and offer any positive energy you have to those in dire need - they need it so badly!

Please continue to think of the poor people still in New Orleans! There is a lot of death and destruction and the news media has yet to really report the vast numbers of deaths. There are bodies floating everywhere and one account that I read this morning was that you could hear people frantically banging on their ceilings and screaming - then silence as waves of water came in. One woman reports having seen the bodies of babies, children, women, and men, the elderly . . .

Think of the refugees who have run out of resources and have no where to go . . .

We still have many people headed this way, and we are warning them of the gas crisis -- and how desperate many folks have become.

Please continue to think of the rescue workers.