Nutria at Fault

Taken from an AP article regarding Big Oil's part in the damage to the Louisiana Wetlands

Service canals dug to tap oil and natural gas dart everywhere through the black mangrove shrubs, bird rushes and golden marsh. From the air, they look like a Pac-Man maze superimposed on an estuarine landscape 10 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park.



There are 10,000 miles of these oil canals. They fed America's thirst for energy, but helped bring its biggest delta to the brink of collapse. They also connect an overlooked set of dots in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath: The role that some say the oil industry played in the $135 billion disaster, the nation's costliest.



The delta, formed by the accumulation of the Mississippi River's upstream mud over thousands of years, is a shadow of what it was 100 years ago. Since the 1930s, a fifth of the 10,000-square-mile delta has turned into open water, decreasing the delta's economic and ecologic value by as much as $15 billion a year, according to Louisiana State University studies.

The rate of land loss, among the highest in the world, has exposed New Orleans and hundreds of other communities to the danger of drowning. Katrina made that painfully clear.

Oil wells also discharged about a billion gallons daily of brine, thick with naturally occurring subsurface chemicals like chlorides, calcium and magnesium, as well as acids used in drilling.


It was poured into the marshes, said Virginia Burkett, a longtime researcher of the Louisiana wetlands and the chief scientist for climate change at USGS. It contaminated soils and killed plants and animals, she said, before brine dumping was finally regulated in coastal marshes in 1985.


I remember when I was a young boy we had a camp out in the marsh," said Don Griffin, a grocer and seafood dealer in the delta town of Leeville, which became an oil-drilling center for decades.

"The same places you used to have to get around with a pirogue and a push pole now you can go with a 25-foot outboard. There's no more marsh, which is your first barrier of defense for hurricanes."

I've got duck leases out there and I remember when they were covered in grass. They're all ponds now," said Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. "It's not gone because of drilling. It's because nutria ate all the grasses."



Riiiiiight.

Dance Back From the Grave

Songwriter Marc Cohn has a new album out with some songs inspired by Katrina



Best known for his song "Walking in Memphis", Cohn draws inspiration from Katrina several times on "Join the Parade"



From his website, here are a few of the lyrics from "Dance Back...."


Well a thousand souls crossed over
and they were greeted by an all-star band
And while the saints go marching in
there’s still hell to pay back down in Dixie Land
Yeah the storms are headed south again
and the hour’s getting pretty late
Somebody better build that levee
its already Mardi Gras at heavens gate (yeah)


Here's a video of Marc performing "Dance Back from the Grave"



Love his voice.

The album cuts are listed here , as well as samples from each song

Krewe de Vieux

Once again it's time for the Krewe de Vieux (crew da vooo) parade



Here are the 2008 Sub Krewe Themes

RUE DU BOURBON: All You Need is Cash

COMATOSE: Comatose Goes Under The Gun

KREWE DE CRAPS: CRAPS Mutinies – Where’s That Booty

C.R.U.D.E.: When Life Gives You Shit…Grow Mushrooms

DRIPS AND DISCHARGES: "Sgt. Eddie's Only Honkies Banned"

INANE: Mystic Krewe of Inane Extends Its Tour of Booty

K.A.O.S.: You Never Give Me Your Money

KREWE OF SPACE AGE LOVE: "PAY DE BOYS ON DE WATERFRONT"

L.E.W.D: David Vitter’s Lonely Whore’s Club

MAMA ROUX: We All Live in a Jello Shot Machine

KREWE DU MISHIGAS: Krewe du mishigas wards off the evil eye.

MONDU: Mondu Raises Hell-ter Skelter

MYSTIC KREWE OF PAN: PAN Drinks the Lafcadio Kool-Aid

SEEDS OF DECLINE: Fools on the Hill

MYSTIC KREWE OF SPERMES: Spermes: The White Album

T.O.K.I.N.: TOKIN Gets Wasted

UNDERWEAR: Can Buy Me Love

Missed the parade, but thanks to Schroeder I found a link to the KdV's
periodical, Le Monde de Merde, which is hilarious:
Read you some

Mardi Gras is Upon Us

Noteworthy in NOLA has some great articles and links to this years festivities.

Volunteers Moving on in

Despite the lower-than-low opinions of some people, there are many many people out there that continue to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

From USA Today ....

Two years after Katrina, the spirit of volunteerism is stronger than ever: 600,000 people headed to the Gulf Coast in Year 2 vs. 550,000 the first year after the August 2005 storm, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that runs AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs. Most are short-termers whose sheer numbers have provided the muscle behind the rebuilding. But the brains are the long-term volunteers who have dedicated at least six months to New Orleans. They provide the expertise needed to direct volunteers to the right work sites, teaching them to drywall and varnish wood.

The exact number of long-term volunteers is unknown, but their effect on the rebuilding is not. "We've seen this as the largest volunteer response in American history. There's a huge diversity of volunteers, from retirees to people right out of college," says David Eisner, CEO of the community service agency. "The long-term people are the glue that holds volunteerism together."

Despite all its problems, New Orleans is attracting new residents.
David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, says a growing trend, dubbed "the brain-gain phenomenon," is getting traction in New Orleans. "Katrina offers a new frontier for people who care about social change," he says.

After two years of volunteering in AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps), Ashley Sloan, Greg Loushine and Jackie Smith decided to start their own non-profit group, Live St. Bernard.

"Many volunteers stay because they bond with and identify with residents," he says. "It's hard for the volunteers to leave and continue with their lives after bonding with the residents." The couple have decided to make New Orleans their permanent home.

"New Orleans represents the great optimism of America," Eisner says. "We've seen people turn their experience in long-term volunteering to inform their career paths. We've seen people move to change their lives of success to lives of significance."


Things are changing ever so slowly, but they're changing for the good.

Big Boys

Found the you tube video where those two large Houma men were kicked out of a restaurant



The video blacks out at about minute 5:30, but returns at about minute 7:03.

Good ol boys who eat too much.
Jeesh.

Trees for the wetlands

From the Times Pic, a little video showing how

Christmas trees restoring the marsh in Jefferson Parish.

For the next three Saturdays, volunteers are needed to help load the Christmas trees into the marshes. Numbers are provided at the end of the video above.

From the Jefferson Parish website
Louisiana is losing 25 - 35 square miles of coastal wetlands each year. The Barataria Basin is the fastest-eroding area of Louisiana's coast. Jefferson Parish once had 50 miles of near-solid healthy wetlands between it and the Gulf of Mexico. The wetlands protect developed areas against hurricane surges, provide natural treatment for storm water, and provide a rich nursery ground for fisheries. Now, a large percentage of these wetlands have been converted to open water, significantly reducing storm protection.





Facts from the
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
The 2007 Christmas season will mark the 17th consecutive year of the PCWRP. About 40,000 linear feet or eight (8) miles of brush fences have been constructed, utilizing over 1,574,000 used Christmas trees. Fifteen coastal parishes and Southeastern Louisiana University will participate in the 2007–08 PCWRP. Most parishes will restock or refurbish existing fences. Participating parishes are Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Terrebonne, and Vermilion. Southeastern Louisiana University will participate in place of Tangipahoa parish. Trees will be picked up curbside or as advertised locally

Post K Mental Health blog

Some people may be familiar with Josh Norman thru the
"Eye of the Storm" blog which he co-authored from Mississippi following Katrina's landfall there.

Joshua has awarded the fellowship through the Kaiser Family Foundation to explore ways in which disasters affect people mentally, specifically the way Hurricane Katrina affected people on the Gulf Coast.

The new blog, called Post Katrina Mental Health

In one of his first posts, Josh tries to answer the question
at
What is a Katrina Victim ?. Here's a little piece of that post

There are certain story lines that many people seem to have followed, with only the details differing.
One story I keep hearing over and over again is this one: "My (parent, grandparent, elderly relative, etc.)
was doing fine before Katrina. They survived the storm. However, upon returning to their home in (the Pass, the Lower 9, the Kiln, Gentilly, etc.)
afterwards, their health started to deteriorate. They stopped (eating, sleeping, smiling, communicating, etc.) Eventually, they died.

Scuzzbuckets of the Week

First we have a post by a seemingly unhappy, unfulfilled individual entitled "Cutting Through the Katrina Krapola"


Written by Gerard Vanderleun, whom one blogger describes as " is an ugly man with an ugly soul ". That blogger seems to have hit the nail on the head.

In his latest diatribe against New Orleans, Gerard goes on and on and on using ideas that seem to come from the black hole where his heart may or may not have been. His commentors share the reign of SOTW for their input as well (see some below) Some excerpts:


I've considered the matter of New Orleans carefully.

I've weighed the never-ending, and now maudlin, saccharine suffering of its people against my now limitless cache of compassion fatigue. They have been found wanting.

To be fair and just, here's what I propose we give New Orleans from this day forward. Nothing. Niente. Zip. Zero. Nada. And a full-scale barium enema just for asking for one more thin dime. Did you send money to this barrage of bozos? I did and I want it back. With interest.


If that doesn't set the hair on the back of your neck to a stand, some of the comments from his readers will...


Wouldn't it be worth it in the end if we could somehow turn this Democrat-controlled city into an ally in the war on terror?
Posted by: Gagdad Bob

Maybe it's time for a new t-shirt:
"Nuke Nawlens"
with the Super Dome and a mushroom cloud.
Posted by: tkdkerry

It's time these lazy thugs got off their bottom heavy behinds and did for themselves instead of wanting everyone else to do for them...talk about a microcosm of the "nanny state" in action...

GREAT article!
Posted by: Miss Beth

Real Americans are not money grubbing leeches that are too useless to earn their own keep.
Having been to NO, I see nothing worth keeping.
Blow the levees and let the River wash the filth away.
Posted by: goobersnot


It goes on and on, but you get the picture. Now there are responses by NOLA bloggers and others who take offense to this article, but when you're dealing with
people as closed minded as those above, it's not worth the effort to try to show them the error in their small-minded thinking, IMHO.

For more local reaction on this article, here are a few links:
Varg

Oyster

Gentilly Girl

Ashley

Animamundi

Hurricane Radio

Slidell Votech gets help

From the Times Picayune, 1-13-08:

FEMA to give college $2.2 million

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has pledged $2.2 million to replace the ruined contents of Louisiana Technical College's Slidell campus, which has been closed since Hurricane Katrina.



The money will go toward replacing furniture and equipment for the college's culinary, nursing, welding, automotive, drafting and computer technology programs. The items were destroyed after the storm inundated the campus off Canulette Road with more than 7 feet of water.

Steve Zeringue, senior compliance officer for the college, said the money will be "of great benefit" to the school.

"The residents of St. Tammany Parish need all the equipment necessary to train for job opportunities," he said. "FEMA has been very cooperative. They've done a good job addressing our needs."

Sending a team to the inundated campus after the storm, FEMA initially estimated the damage to be $160,000, Zeringue said. After school officials provided a more detailed list of the furniture, computers and technical equipment destroyed in the storm, FEMA came back with the revised cost of $2.2 million.

The school will relocate north of Lacombe to a consolidated educational campus that will include Delgado Community College, Southeastern Louisiana University and the University of New Orleans, as well as an advanced studies high school.

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St. Tammany Parish will finance construction of the colleges through a bond issue and repay the debt through lease payments from the universities, which will be given ownership of the buildings once they are paid off, officials have said.

With plans to open the campus in two years, parish officials are waiting for final approval from the Legislature to start construction, said parish spokeswoman Suzanne Parsons Stymiest.

Rough estimates have the construction costing $30 million.

"It may take three (years) but this is a project that (Parish President) Kevin (Davis) is fully committed on, and he is pressing everyone to move forward as quickly as we can," she said.

Still Not Okay

Check this out