Our Elected Officials

From Women of the Storm website
Here is a list of members of Congress who have visited the hurricane-affected parts of Louisiana. Please thank Members who are on this list – and encourage Members who are not on this list to visit, meet the people and see the devastation for themselves.
57 Senators

Sen. Ted Stevens - Alaska
Sen. Lisa Murkowski - Alaska
Sen. Richard Shelby - Alabama
Sen. Blanche Lincoln - Arkansas
Sen. Mark Pryor - Arkansas
Sen. John McCain - Arizona
Sen. Chris Dodd - Conneticut
Sen. Joe Lieberman - Conneticut
Sen. Joseph Biden - Delaware
Sen. Thomas Carper - Delaware
Sen. Bill Nelson - Florida
Sen. Daniel Akaka - Hawaii
Sen. Larry Craig - Idaho
Sen. Richard Durbin - Illinois
Sen. Barak Obama - Illinois
Sen. Evan Bayh - Indiana
Sen. Sam Brownback - Kansas
Sen. Mitch McConnell - Kentucky
Sen. David Vitter - Louisiana
Sen. Mary Landrieu - Louisiana
Sen. John Kerry - Massachusetts
Sen. Ted Kennedy - Massachusetts
Sen. Susan Collins - Maine
Sen. Olympia Snowe - Maine
Sen. Debbie Stabenow - Michigan
Sen. Mark Dayton - Minnesota
Sen. Norm Coleman - Minnesota
Sen. Thad Cochran - Mississippi
Sen. Trent Lott - Mississippi
Sen. Max Baucus - Montana
Sen. Richard Burr - North Carolina
Sen. Kent Conrad - North Dakota
Sen. Jeff Bingaman - New Mexico
Sen. Pete Domenici - New Mexico
Sen. Harry Reid - Nevada
Sen. John Ensign - Nevada
Sen. Hillary Clinton - New York
Sen. Charles Schumer - New York
Sen. James Inhofe - Oklahoma
Sen. Tom Coburn - Oklahoma
Sen. Ron Wyden - Oregon
Sen. Jack Reed - Rhode Island
Sen. Lincoln Chafee - Rhode Island
Sen. Jim DeMint - South Carolina
Sen. Lindsey Graham - South Carolina
Sen. Bill Frist - Tennessee
Sen. Lamar Alexander - Tennessee
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison - Texas
Sen. John Cornyn - Texas
Sen. Robert Bennett - Utah
Sen. George Allen - Virginia
Sen. John Warner - Virginia
Sen. Maria Cantwell - Washington
Sen. James Jeffords - Vermont
Sen. Russell Feingold - Wisconson
Sen. Michael Enzi - Wyoming
Sen. Craig Thomas - Wyoming

122 Representatives
Rep. Don Young - Alaska
Rep. Jo Bonner - Alabama
Rep. Mike Rogers - Alabama
Rep. Spencer Bachus - Alabama
Rep. Marion Berry - Arkansas
Rep. Barbara Lee - California
Rep. Dorris O. Matsui - California
Rep. George Miller - California
Rep. Grace F. Napolitano - California
Rep. Hilda Solis - California
Rep. Lois Capps - California
Rep. Maxine Waters - California
Rep. Nancy Pelosi - California
Rep. Zoe Lofgren - California
Rep. Adam Schiff - California
Rep. Xavier Becerra - California
Rep. Ken Calvert - California
Rep. Diana DeGette - Colorado
Rep. Chris Murphy - Conneticut
Rep. John Larson - Conneticut
Rep. Christopher Shays - Conneticut
Del. Donna Christensen - Delegate-Virgin Islands
Rep. Mike Castle - Deleware
Rep. Corrine Brown - Florida
Rep. Kendrick B. Meek - Florida
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz - Florida
Rep. Cynthia McKinney - Georgia
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland - Georgia
Rep. Tom Price - Georgia
Rep. Neil Abercrombie - Hawaii
Rep. Steve King - Iowa
Rep. Mike Simpson - Idaho
Rep. Dennis Hastert - Illinois
Rep. Janice Schakowsky - Illinois
Rep. Jerry F. Costello - Illinois
Rep. Donald Manzullo - Illinois
Rep. Mark Souder - Indiana
Rep. Jerry Moran - Kansas
Rep. Ed Whitfield - Kentucky
Rep. Bobby Jindal - Louisiana
Rep. Charles W. Boustany - Louisiana
Rep. Charlie Melancon - Louisiana
Rep. Jim McCrery - Louisiana
Rep. Rodney Alexander - Louisiana
Rep. William J. Jefferson - Louisiana
Rep. Richard H. Baker - Louisiana
Rep. Barney Frank - Massachusetts
Rep. John Tierney - Massachusetts
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings - Maryland
Rep. Steny Hoyer - Maryland
Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest - Maryland
Rep. Tom Allen - Maine
Rep. John Conyers - Michigan
Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick - Michigan
Rep. Joe Knollenberg - Michigan
Rep. Bart Stupak - Michigan
Rep. Gil Gutknecht - Minnesota
Rep. Betty McCollum - Minnesota
Rep. James Oberstar - Minnesota
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver - Missouri
Rep. Roy Blunt - Missouri
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson - Missouri
Rep. Bennie Thompson - Mississippi
Rep. Chip Pickering - Mississippi
Rep. Gene Taylor - Mississippi
Rep. Roger Wicker - Mississippi
Rep. David Price - North Carolina
Rep. Bob Etheridge - North Carolina
Rep. G. K. Butterfield - North Carolina
Rep. Melvin Watt - North Carolina
Rep. Robin Hayes - North Carolina
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry - Nebraska
Rep. Mike Ferguson - New Jersey
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen - New Jersey
Rep. Rush D. Holt - New Jersey
Rep. Scott Garrett - New Jersey
Rep. Donald M. Payne - New Jersey
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy - New York
Rep. Gil Gutnecht - New York
Rep. Jerrold Nadler - New York
Rep. Peter King - New York
Rep. Nydia Velazquez - New York
Rep. Deborah Pryce - Ohio
Rep. John A. Boehner - Ohio
Rep. Dave Hobson - Ohio
Rep. Robert W. Ney - Ohio
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones - Ohio
Rep. Dan Boren - Oklahoma
Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. - Oklahoma
Rep. Frank D. Lucas - Oklahoma
Rep. Earl Blumenauer - Oregon
Rep. Peter DeFazio - Oregon
Rep. Darlene Hooley - Oregon
Rep. Allyson Schwartz - Pennsylvania
Rep. Bill Shuster - Pennsylvania
Rep. Curt Weldon - Pennsylvania
Rep. Henry E. Brown - South Carolina
Rep. James E. Clyburn - South Carolina
Rep. Joe Wilson - South Carolina
Rep. Stephanie Herseth - South Dakota
Rep. Jim Cooper - Tennessee
Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. - Tennessee
Rep. Marsha Blackburn - Tennessee
Rep. Zach Wamp - Tennessee
Rep. Kay Granger - Texas
Rep. Louie Gohmert - Texas
Rep. Ciro Rodriguez - Texas
Rep. Al Green - Texas
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson - Texas
Rep. Gene Green - Texas
Rep. Jeb Hensarling - Texas
Rep. Michael C. Burgess - Texas
Rep. Randy Neugebauer - Texas
Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee - Texas
Rep. Tom DeLay - Texas
Rep. Michael McCaul - Texas
Rep. Randy Forbes - Virginia
Rep. Bob Goodlatte - Virginia
Rep. James Moran - Virginia
Rep. Tom Davis - Virginia
Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott - Virginia
Rep. Jim McDermott - Washington
Rep. Paul Ryan - Wisconson
Rep. Nick Rahall - West Virginia

And Who Hasn't

10 Number of states from which NO U.S. SENATOR has visited New Orleans after the hurricanes.
COLORADO
IOWA
MISSOURI
NEBRASKA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
NEW JERSEY
OHIO
PENNSYLVANIA
SOUTH DAKOTA
WEST VIRGINIA

9 Number of states from which NO MEMBER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES has visited New Orleans after the hurricanes.
ARIZONA
MONTANA
NORTH DAKOTA
NEW MEXICO
NEVADA
RHODE ISLAND
UTAH
VERMONT
WYOMING

The East again

Moving Back to New Orleans East
From the Neighborhoods Partnership Network website, the story of
the slow process of recovery in New Orleans East Post Katrina.
With the help of the The Mennonite Disaster Relief Project
the Haynes are rebuilding their flood damaged home while living in a FEMA trailer across town.

" After a disaster as widespread as this, even the smallest signs of recapturing the old neighborhood bring joy. “When I first saw this gas station though, and red lights out here,” Beatrice recalls energetically, her voice rising in pitch and volume, “I must have screamed and hollered like I was at a football game…And my sister [on the phone], she’s like ‘Oh my god, calm down,’ and I was like ‘We’ve got a gas station open on Bullard! YES! YES! YES! And a red light! AHH!’”

"


Until you've been through the aftermath of something as destructive as
Katrina was, you can't understand how exciting regaining something as
innocuous as working traffic lights can be.

Katrina Cottages

Here's a tour of the Katrina Kernal Cottage 2
At 523 square feet it is a potential replacement for those nasty FEMA Trailers.

It was the same size as a FEMA emergency trailer, looks better and, while its initial cost was more than a small FEMA trailer, its advantages over the mid- and long-term were obvious given FEMA's track record of maintaining and disposing of their emergency trailers.
(A Kernel Cottage is a seed, or kernel, of the larger house it will grow into effortlessly through the Grow Zones. Thomas Jefferson built Monticello this way, living in one of the little cottages at the back of the house for several years as he built the larger main house. Much of America's traditional architecture is charming precisely because it has grown piece-by-piece over the years.)

Cottage Square in Ocean Springs, Miss., a development of 23
pre-manufactured cottages. Photo by Samantha Bearden.

What began as a conceptual drawing for emergency housing by New York designer Marianne Cusato has grown into a series of designs that make affordability beautiful.
The many variations and possible uses for the flexible Katrina Cottages are getting noticed, says Cusato, who has fielded calls from Kansas City, Kan., (officials there want to use them as homeless shelters) to as far away as Ghana. A separate series of Katrina Cottages are being developed for the private-sector market.

From The Town Paper website Here's more on Katrina Cottages:
Deriving the simple definition of 'Katrina Cottage,' we have a unit that may be manufactured, modularized, panelized, or site-built, and is 1,600 square feet or under, says Steve Mouzon of The New Urban Guild, which is currently collecting plans for possible manufacturing and publication in upcoming plan books in the following Katrina categories:

• Katrina Tiny Cottage: 500 square feet or under for one story, or 700 square feet or under for two stories
• Katrina Thin Cottage: Similar to the Katrina Tiny Cottage, except longer
• Katrina Double Cottage: Similar to the Double-Barrel Shotgun
• Katrina Duplex Cottage: Indiscernible from the Katrina Double Cottage from the outside, except Katrina Double Cottages have only one front door; the Katrina Duplex Cottage is actually two units
• Katrina Loft Cottage: Usually appears to be a one-story unit from the exterior, but contains a loft
• Katrina Tall Cottage: Two stories (or taller)
• Katrina Courtyard Cottage: Made up of two or more modules that wrap around a courtyard
• Katrina Live/Work: Just what the name implies; live/work units that can be modules
• Katrina Commercial: Retail or office only; contains open space plus a bath, probably a kitchenette, and possibly an office or storage

The New Urban Guild is also working on a series of sub-types, which can be made from one or more of the principal types above. These sub-types include:

• Katrina Corner Cottage: Able to turn either the end or the side (or both, in the case of a corner lot) to the street
• Katrina Carriage Cottage: Technique for raising a Katrina Cottage an entire floor so as to park one car beneath
• Katrina Kernel Cottage: Cottage capable of expanding directly from the unit itself, not just by connecting porches and the like

For Cusato, the Katrina Cottage is part of a larger vision to "take back the word 'affordable,' and remove the taboo associated with it. We shouldn't think less of anyone because of where they live, and they shouldn't think less of themselves. I think it's fully within our ability to change that."

Gary Delise, a resident of Arabi in New Orleans' St. Bernard Parish whose family lost their house and is now living in a FEMA trailer, says a Katrina Cottage would "beat a trailer by a long shot." He told Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Joe Gyan, "I think it would be a nice replacement. Not only a nice replacement, but a start to another house. If I could rebuild, that's what I would do. I'd like to have the house demolished and put this on it."

The history of the Katrina Cottage.

Here's a slideshow showing the construction of a typical Katrina Cottage.

More On "The East"

In an article in todays NYT, "Aching for Lost Friends, but Rebuilding With Hope"
Susan Saulny, a former resident of "The East", tells of the difficult task of bringing it back after Katrina's devastation:

Hurricane Katrina left most of New Orleans East in a shambles....although as a whole, it received less attention than needier black areas or equivalent white neighborhoods. In terms of size — both geographically and in population — it dwarfs the Lower Ninth Ward and Lakeview. It had close to 100,000 residents. As of May, about 30 percent of them were back.
…..Katrina still managed to shred the fabric of the black upper middle class living there, at a time when New Orleans desperately needs its black professionals to have a voice in the recovery process.

Jefferson Parish

Jefferson Parish has decided that it does not want to allow taco trucks in their jurisdiction

While I am all for cleanliness and safety of a food service business, a look at the TP slideshow shows me that the taco trucks appear much cleaner than some Burger Kings I've been in recently.

It appears that these Spanish Meals-on-Wheels are not unique to the Post-Katrina NOLA area. Here are some examples


Seattle, Washington


Another one in Seattle


San Francisco, California


Denver, Colorado


Austin, Texas


NYC


Yuma Arizona


Houston, Texas

Salinas California
is having an issue similar to Jeff Parish, in that it's trying to ban them in their area.

Discrimination? I don't know.
But if these vendors are Americans, they deserve the opportunity to start a new business, regardless of their ethnicity.

Twin Spans

A look into the future for travellers of the I-10 Twinspans.

The TP has put together a neat graphic which compares the future Twinspans to the current bridge that crosses Lake Pontchartrain.

Katrina destroyed the east bound lane of the Twinspans, as well as causing some damage on the westbound lanes, rendering the bridge useless for months. Ask dot com gives the history : The damage to the Twin Spans and to U.S. Route 90 to the east left only one route into New Orleans from the east, the U.S. Route 11 bridge just west of the Twin Spans.
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The Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development (DOTD) accepted a bid of $30.9 million from Boh Brothers Construction Company on September 9, 2005 to reconstruct the bridges, starting with the less damaged westbound span. Phase 1 of the project was to reestablish two-way traffic on the eastbound span within 45 days. Scavenged bridge segments from the westbound span were used to fill in the gaps in the eastbound span. On October 14, 2005, the east span was reopened to traffic with one lane in each direction. Phase 2 of the project was occurring concurrently to Phase 1 and involved repairs to the westbound span. Prefabricated steel bridge spans were used on the westbound bridge in two areas to replace destroyed segments and segments used on the eastbound span. The west span reopened on January 6, 2006, returning 4 lanes of traffic to flow once again. Due to the prefabricated steel segments, there are both a 45 mile-per-hour speed limit and weight restrictions on the westbound span. Additionally, the span is closed periodically for maintenance work, which is covered by Phase 3 of the original contract.

State Farm Scuzzbuckets

Even though it's old news around here, I assume that the "rest of the world" may have not heard the latest about State Farm Insurance.
From the Scruggs Katrina Group blog:SCRUGGS KATRINA GROUP FILES RICO SUIT AGAINST STATE FARM
Investigation shows pattern of corrupt behavior violating Federal law; policyholders were cheated out of claims payments
Even before Hurricane Katrina hit, State Farm began holding strategy "meetings of the minds" at corporate headquarters to devise ways to avoid paying claims. A few days following the hurricane, a claims "council" continued to meet to develop a strategy for maximizing payment of national flood policy claims. Later, State Farm and Renfroe employees met to participate in "mock mediations" during which they practiced scripted dialogue designed to demoralize policyholders.
.....State Farm defrauded hundreds of policyholders by changing engineering reports which originally concluded that the damage was caused by hurricane wind in order to avoid paying the claim under its homeowners policy.
bastards.

NEW ORLEANS-STILL NOT OKAY

Here are some recent pictures taken by my husband on his daily commute into New Orleans. As you can see, things are not "back to normal".
Click on pictures for full sized versions
New Orleans East - the forgotten section of the city








That's grass from the marsh that washed in during the storm....almost 2 years ago....




Jazzland - a Six Flags Park - abandoned


Approaching the city, this is a typical sight.




"Fast Food" in New Orleans, Post Katrina





Thanks, Katrina.
Thanks, Insurance Company
Thanks, Nagin.
Thanks, Feds.

Another Fest

A small one, but enjoyable to us denizens of the Northshore.


The Lacombe Crab Cookoff Fest starts today and runs
thru Sunday. Admission $3.00

A Blast from the Past

On Bayou Sauvage: the Life and Death of Jeanfreaux’s Fishermen’s Rest

Those familiar with "The Chef" might remember Jeanfreaux's right past Power's Junction.
This is a short story about Jeanfreaux's and its owners, penned by Miss Claire's grandson.

Katrina Recovery June '07

I was up early Sunday morning thanks to my two alpha male cats who decided to duke it out under my
bed, so I decided to venture out into the local area to witness post Katrina
progress.
click on photos for full-sized versions

My first stop was about a mile away from the house at Bayou Liberty Marina.
where I noticed that new boat slips are being constructed.




There is an old boat still sitting on the penninsula



Several houses are being built along Bayou Liberty Road while others lay gutted
and dormant.










I decided to circle Lake Pontchartrain, so I headed down to Highway 90 to check out the Lake Catherine
and Venetian Isles areas. On the way, I passed a FEMA trailer park still being occupied by Katrina victims


This eastern section of Slidell was just about ground zero during Katrina.
The storm made its third landfall here with 120 mph (195 km/h) sustained winds and 928 mbar (27.37 inHg) pressure, still at Category 3 intensity.
There is still a lot of work to do in order for the folks living here to be able to have a real home.
About ten miles away to the southeast, right before the Rigolets Bridge the there are signs of life.


This beauty sits on Lake Borgne.

There hasn't been a lot of activity in the Lake Catherine area since
my last visit, but I just HAD to stop and snap a picture of this fridge, still sitting in a tree, six or more feet off the ground.



Continuing on to Chef Pass I came to Venetian Isles.
Slammed by Katrina, since it is outside the levee system and it's surrounded by water. But the past few months have seen
a flurry of activity as people are rebuilding.





Heading north again, I passed through Irish Bayou. There are several raised houses popping up along this
small fishing community located on Highway 11 at the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.









The Irish Bayou Castle's been spruced up as well



Back in the Bayou Liberty area, St. Genevieve parishoners are awaiting the beginning of
the rebuilding of their church. The chapel, however, stood up to Katrina's wrath and won.



Back at home one of the earlier offending cats relaxed in the backyard


I thanked him for getting me up early enough to make the little "recovery progress" trip.