Katrina Points

I wanted to write a little something about Katrina but I didn't know how to put it into one cohesive post so here's just some thoughts and snippets.

- I've been watching a cycle of The Weather Channel, CNN Headline News and CNN (my Hurricane Katrina headquarters!) since probably Sunday night. I've been watching video feeds on the Internet. From predictions, to hurricane path watches, to past comparisons... and then to flood maps, and during-storm-wind shots and etc. I feel very involved in the whole process yet still I know nothing.

- Why have I been involved in the process? Well for one - Miriam's sister Nora lives there (or "lived" there... now she's on her way back to L.A.). Two - I finally visited New Orleans last year and now feel a sort of attachment to it. Three - Anne Rice vampires. Four - Ghosts. And most importantly, Five - if a hurricane of "biblical proportions" was going to submerge a city - I fucking wanted to witness that shit live!

- I could rant about the government and the shit they ain't doing fast enough but the person that peeved me the most was the head of FEMA who said (in response to the question "why weren't there National Guardsmen immediately ready to move in?") "We had brainstorming meetings with a lot of people and the simple explanation is that none of us foresaw this worst case scenario." Bull-fucking-crap!! I'm a non-logical-minded girl who has been to the city once as a friggin' tourist and every friggin' tour guide and taxi driver said "and these are our levees which, if they don't withstand a hurricane, will flood our below-sea-level city." So you're telling me, FEMA dude, that I knew that and your highly prepared and intellectual group of planners didn't see that coming??? Again I mention that I was WATCHING the hurricane LIVE to see if it would submerge the city.

- And yet watching everything live still ended up with me missing everything. I tried to stay up the whole night to watch Katrina hit but I ended up going to bed and waking up the next morning to watch some video tape of storm and winds. The best was when the CNN anchor said "Let's just listen to the wind on this tape for a moment" and then they cut to storm footage and the reporter (on the scene) could be heard saying "Fuck Me!!"

- And still I've been watching a cycle of news coverage to try and find out about the things concerning me like "What happened to the animals at the Audubon Zoo?" "What's going to happen to the students that were about to start school and the universities?" "What happened to the universities?" "Are there gators floating by everywhere?" "Does Nora have a job??" "Is the French Quarter covered in powdered sugar... making it a syrupy sort of mess?" And etc... but every focus has been "where are the helicopters?? where's the food??" (Which is obviously also important.)

- I have an acquaintance through MySpace who's from New Orleans. We met in a "paranormal" group there because she'd actually seen my picture of Julie the Octoroon ghost from Royal Street on the internet. (http://www.neworleansghosts.com/Ghosts.htm Picture number 13!) She wasn't in town at the time Katrina hit because she'd flown out to be a bridesmaid in a wedding. Now all she's left with (as her house is gone) is the bridesmaid dress, two changes of outfit, flip flops and $200 in the bank. I told her I'd rather give her the $20 donation I could afford to make sure that she could buy a couple of tacos and a pair of Payless shoes. She told me she'd be too humiliated to take any handouts... but desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm waiting a few days more to see if she'll change her mind. (Though now she wants me to call her to talk about it all and I'm like "ewwww! Phones!" but... desperate times call for desperate measures.)

- When my parents and I were in New Orleans last year we stayed in a hellish B & B that shouldn't have been open to the public yet as their rooms were OBVIOUSLY not ready to be occupied by humans. My Dad giggled a little evil the other day and said, "I wonder what happened to that place!" I checked their site. They've said they didn't have a lot of damage and the music in the courtyard will resume shortly. Oh and if you happen to be without a home... they'll soon be offering long-term stay packages. (?????!?!?!??!?!) (There's no fairness in this world.) (http://www.creolegardens.com/) But to give them the benefit of the doubt... I don't think the owners (or at least the one that wrote that up on the site) have actually been back to survey the damage yet.

- If you want to know my thoughts on the looting you can read T's "Tea & Toast" blog because all I'd pretty much write is "Yeah! What she said!!" But with the addition, "Now that you've floated that flat screen back to your submerged apartment... where did you plan on plugging that in Genius?"

- The convention center. Who the frick FORGOT to tell FEMA about the convention center?? That's one hell of a missed memo.