Fort Pike's Rebirth

After being ravaged by Katrina and being damaged by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Fort Pike is on its way back to life. We visited recently and were very happy to see the results.

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The Fort is fully open to visitors, although it is not completely renovated. Apparently a good deal of the historical pieces related to the Fort were shipped up to Shreveport before Katrina and many are still there pending completion of the resurrection of this historic site.





For two dollars you can enter the Fort and explore all it has to offer. I'd say it was money well spent on our part. I'm not much of a history buff, but I found the Fort fascinating.



Right inside the entry way is an oar that shows the flood levels from previous hurricanes.



As you can see, the oar is as tall as the doorway.



The line for Katrina's floodline is higher than the oar.

The first room to the right of the entryway holds all sorts of ammunition.












A little archway brings you to the interior of the Fort.





There are doors along the walls of the Fort that lead to different functional areas. I enjoyed looking at the details in the brickwork.



We entered one of the arched doors and were presented with this awe-inspiring picture



(at least I found it awe inspiring!)

In this photo, the area down the middle of the floor was used to bring the cannons in to place them in the windows looking over the Pass.



Back out into the main area, we found the citadel



This looks like where the current refurbishing effort is taking place. The walls are all painted white to provide the visitor with a "pleasing" view of how life used to be at the Fort.



Across from the citadel is the blacksmith's shop. This room was most interesting, as what appears to be the actual tools are in this area. Decide for yourself from these picutres.



















Nearby the Blacksmith's Shop is the Commissary







This plaque, hanging outside the Blacksmith Shop, is a dedication to those Indians that were brought to Fort Pike during the Seminole War.



My thinking is that they were put in the bricked in "jail" section in the middle of the Fort.



This photo depicts the old world versus the present. Touring Fort Pike does bring one back in history. As I said before, this is definitely worth the $2.00 entry fee, even for non history buffs.

Well, imagine that.....

From Save Charity Hospital dot com: information that our sorry excuse for an ex governor - Kathleen Blanco - had a hand in stopping the reopening of Charity Hospital shortly after it was cleaned up following Katrina.

Here's an excerpt from an AP story regarding this travesy


Weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans and worsened the medical plight of the city's poor, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the publicly run Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to medical-ready standards, the retired Army general who oversaw the work said.



In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said Blanco told him in late September 2005 the 20-story building that served the region's poor residents would not reopen.

"'Ma'am, we got the hospital clean, my people report ... if you want to use it,'" Honore recalled telling Blanco. "Her reply to me: 'Well general, we're not going to open it, we're working on a different plan.'"

Honore's revelation raises questions of whether state officials used Katrina as an excuse to leverage federal financing for a new public hospital.

Talking Points Memo discusses "Culture and Race in New Orleans" following Katrina. One snippet I find especially interesting is this:


Clearly, no New Orleans media--not the Times-Picayune, not WWL or WDSU television, not Gambit Weekly--characterized the disaster as a racial event. That was a template stamped on the flooding by New York-based media which preferred to do its coverage from sites within a quarter-mile of an interstate offramp. The Convention Center and Superdome filled that bill. Lakeview and St. Bernard Parish did not. And the national media did not choose to be concerned with the question of why the city flooded. It covered the disaster under the template of "natural disaster" and, as with all such, quickly moved on.


HT New Orleans Ladder

Scuzzbucket of the Week

A woman has been booked with theft for allegedly stealing money from a woman with Lou Gehrig's Disease that she helped take care of, Kenner police said.

Cherri A. Desporte, 43, lived in the victim's house in Kenner between July 2007 and May 2009, according to a police report.

The victim entrusted Desporte with a power of attorney to pay her home mortgage and medical expenses with medical disability benefits that were directly deposited into an account she shared with Desporte, according to police.

The disability benefits were more than enough to cover her expenses, said Lt. Wayne McInnis, Kenner Police Department spokesman.

The victim learned about the alleged theft when her mortgage was in foreclosure because of 23 failed payments, the police report said. An investigation revealed $9,093.63 in unpaid bills and a negative balance in the shared account, the report said.

The report did not list the total amount allegedly stolen.

Desporte referred calls to her attorney, Robert Levenstein, who could not be reached Tuesday.

ALS is a debilitating neuromuscular disease that causes muscle weakness and atrophy, according to ALS Association Web site. With ALS, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. Patients in the later stages of the disease may become paralyzed.

The victim used a computerized eye response system to indicate to police that she wanted to pursue charges against Desporte, the police report said.

Desporte was booked Wednesday and released Thursday on a $10,000 bond, according to court records.

I hope she rots in hell

My morning laugh

Thanks to EJ for the laugh.

Fun in the Sun

This past Friday hubby and I left the house with cameras in hand, off to discover changes that have taken place since our last trek through the outer reaches of New Orleans East.

One of the stops we made was the Bayou Sauvage Ridge Trail on Highway 90 (Chef Menteur Highway). This nature trail reopened last August after being completely flattened by Katrina.

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The ridge trail boasts bathroom facilities as well as a covered picnic area.




The boardwalk runs about a mile through what used to be lush swamp growth. Currently the land surrounding the boardwalk is in rebirth stage which is pretty lush for its size.







Along the boardwalk there are benches to allow the visitor to relax and contemplate the peaceful surroundings. I wouldn't recommend contemplating too long in the summertime.



The boardwalk comes to an overlook section that illustrates just how much damage the inundation of salt water from Katrina caused. This was once an area covered with native cypress trees.



But the people at the Wildlife and Fisheries have replanted hundreds of new cypress trees in this area. Everywhere you see a blue tube, you're looking at a baby cypress tree.







Leaving the overlook, we head back to the boardwalk. Taking the right at the fork, we are now passing through an area with different types of flora.



These trumpet flowers grow on vines on the trees. This beautiful flower attracts butterflies as well as hummingbirds. We noticed a few butterflies during our trek thru the ridge trail. But what we noticed was the number of grasshoppers during our visit there. All along the boardwalk we could see and hear the grasshoppers flying around. Hubby got a great shot of one of the grasshoppers resting here.



While looking at the ground on either side of the boardwalk, my husband spied what appeared to be some sort of vine growing freely in this area.



Some of the vine had this flower attached to it, while other had fruit



Upon closer inspection, the fruit appears to be watermelon!



The swamp melon is growing for a good 1/2 mile along the boardwalk. The fruit is small, probably due to the lack of rain and the heat, but it's growing nonetheless.

While looking at this, I was reminded of the phenomenon of the watermelon growth after the storm.

Watermelon growth was spontaneous after Katrina hit this area four years ago. I'm thinking that the watermelons in the Bayou Sauvage Ridge Trail is related to the other watermelon surge after Katrina.



The Ridge Trail is a great way to spend an hour or so if you're looking to be a tourist in your own backyard. And it's free. Can't get any better than that. We plan to revisit this area after summer's over to gauge the rebirth of this precious resource.

It's a great spot for birding as well. Here's a link to what birds can be seen, as well as directions to the Ridge Trail. Enjoy!

Trouble the Water

Coming on DVD on August 25th is the film "Trouble the Water". Nominated for and Academy Award for best documentary, the movie is described as follows:

With a $20 video camera that she bought off the street, Kim Roberts, a 24-year-old resident of New Orleans’ lower 9th Ward, shot agonizing and intimate footage as Katrina‘s floods forced her family and friends into their attic and then to a dramatic escape that not all survived.

Click below for more