August 28, 2006

Revisiting Katrina. . .

I was going to put up a bunch more pictures and video taken after the storm and from my subsequent trips to New Orleans (click for the Katrina archive), but I found something much more important for you, so I ask you give the time you would have allotted to me to Wizbang.

So head on over:

The Katrina Video Congress Didn't Want You To See

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 7:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 24, 2006

Look here MSM, stop with the armageddonist blather. . .

So I was going through my daily routine of hitting the bigger news sites looking for interesting stuff when THIS caught my eye.

Here, via Reuters, we have the alarmist report of a "Tropical Wave" heading for the Caribbean. Got that? A wave, not a tropical storm forming, not a hurricane about to ravage unsuspecting non-white people, but a wave.

Yes, yes, I know it's been a slow year for all those reporters who were banking on a heavy-weight hurricane season to pay for their new condos purchased with their bonuses for Katrina coverage, but to report on a TROPICAL WAVE, give me a goddam break people.

Look, I'll grant that a Tropical Wave is a somewhat important meteorological construct, and weather forcasters should pay attention to such a construct, but for al-Reuters to come out with a statement like:

"If the wave gets into the Gulf of Mexico, it could disrupt the U.S. oil and natural gas producing and refining facilities, damaged last year by hurricanes Katrina and Rita."

This statement is simply bullshit. IF the wave gets to the Gulf of Mexico, and IF conditions are right, a tropical depression MAY form, and IF conditions are correct, then a tropical storm MAY form from that, and IF conditions continue to be favorable for it, a hurricane MAY form, and finally, IF a hurricane forms, it MAY disrupt oil and gas facilities.

To try to elevate this Tropical Wave into the realm of imminent weather threat is simply alarmist and armageddonist blather from the MSM, it's what I could call a "most ridiculous" or "bottom story" of the day.

--Jason

PS This reminds me of the lunacy a few months back when "hurricane experts" were calling for the scale to go up to 6 for categories of cyclonic storms. Which in turn reminds me of the amplifier that goes to eleven.

-JC

Posted by JasonColeman at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 17, 2006

Trying to help. . .

I've gotten a number of comments and emails about Abramson High School as a result of my posts on Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath. Some have made use of the comments sections here to reconnect with friends and family members displaced by the storm.

While I try to respond to emails I get and comments that ask for specific information, I thought that it would be more appropriate to make a separate post in response to this comment received today:

I am a coach at RL Turner High School in Dallas, Texas. I have a student from Abramson that plays football for me. I am having problems locating his transcripts and they are trying to make him take So. and Jr. level classes. Where can I track down this information? Please someone help, give me a number or something.

Unfortunately, the Louisiana Department of Education website has been down for some time and the traditional avenues that administrators and educators would use to acquire student transcripts are still not available. I've spoken with officials from the department and they hope to have the website and it's tools available soon.

I was able to get a direct contact person and phone number for those seeking student information.

For information regarding those students displaced by the storm and school transcripts from Louisiana public schools, contact Deidra Kibbe via email at deidre.kibbe@la.gov or via telephone at 877.453.2721 or 225.342.3730.

Please note that Ms. Kibbe is extremely busy as schools around the country open and requests for official transcripts pour in. Also, Ms. Kibbe can assist with any Louisiana public school system (not just Abramson), but unfortunately cannot help with private school transcripts. Those seeking private school transcripts will have to contact them directly. Let me know if you have problems contacting a specific private school and I'll do my best to help you find current contact information as many schools have been forced to change telephone numbers as service is restored and most have not been actively updating websites (they have bigger crawfish to boil at the moment). If you'd like my help with this matter, please use the following email: katrina_help@[REMOVE_THIS]jasoncoleman.com.

I hope this helps.

--Jason

UPDATE: Almost immediately after posting this, a reader emailed asking which New Orleans public schools are open in the city. The New Orleans Public School District opened four schools on Tuesday for the 06-07 school year. They are:

Bethune Elementary - 3649 Laurel St.
Franklin Elementary Math & Science - 1116 Jefferson Ave.
McMain Unified High School - 5712 S. Claiborne Ave.
McDonogh #35 High School - 1331 Kelerec St.

In addition, the Orleans PM School, where students can work during the day and receive credits in night classes is also open.

Note that these are schools operated by the New Orleans Public School district, there are approximately 18 to 20 schools that are opening in the New Orleans Metro area under state control and additional schools opening as "Charter Schools".

While the fate of Abramson High is debatable, it's my impression from the La. Department of Education that it probably will have to be destroyed and a new high school built or perhaps a combination school district created to cover the areas Abramson served.

-JC

Posted by JasonColeman at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 23, 2006

Can we please. . .

Just go ahead and drill in ANWR already!!!!!!

California Republican (oxymoronic I know, but it gets better) Richard Pombo has dropped HR 5429 on the House Floor to open ANWR to oil production (yes, you read that right, a California Representative dropped this bill, and he's from the 11th District just south of that bastion of liberal hysteria, San Francisco).

Here's the House Committee on Resources fact sheet on opening ANWR for drilling.

While I'm dropping links and runnnig, here's a VERY INTERESTING link on the real National Guard Response to Hurricane Katrina, grab a cup of coffee, read the whole thing, and then pass the link around to your friends and officemates.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 9:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 22, 2006

Let's do the election corruption boogie. . . . .

Today, New Orleans voters (and others as I'll show in a moment) will be casting ballots for the Mayor of New Orleans. It's no secret that Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin is hoping that this election will come down to race based politics rather than doing what's best for the city, but that's not what this post is about.

As voters go to the polls, I want to share something with you, my tiny readership, in the hopes that you'll share it far and wide.

So here we go. . . .

A few weeks ago, the Louisians Secretary of State's office sent out a 4 page document entitled "Municipal Elections Information" within the document was a form to request an absentee ballot by mail.

I've scanned the document and offer it here Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

First I'd like to take issue with Page 1, please notice this:

Now we had a number of evacuees come through Birmingham and we provided aid and shelter to family members and friends in the aftermath of the storm, but I find this shotgun approach to locating voters rather . . . . inappropriate. The mailing came to us because various Katrina evacuees used our mailing address in the immediate aftermath for FEMA registrations, contact info and the like. So our address got on the list and this ballot request made it's way to my hands. Now that's not all that bad, I just thought it was worthy of note.

Here's where things get, in my opinion, VERY BAD. Take a look at page three, here's an excerpt:

Do yo see it?

Take a look again. . . .

Do you see it now????

Ok here you go:

Anything that would positively establish identity is OPTIONAL INFORMATION. Yep, that's right, optional. I could easily fill out this form, get my ballot, send it in; and I haven't lived in New Orleans in over a decade. Furthermore, I can make as many copies of this form as I'd like:

Instructions (NOTE: You may copy this form for outher Louisiana Displaced Registered Voters.)

Given the track record of Louisiana Government in the past say, um . . . well . . . FOREVER, I don't have much confidence that the Sec State will be able to provide for a legitimate election given that anything that could be used to positively identify a voter as a legitimate voter is *Optional.

I'm going to refrain from any more commentary about this, I think that by merely presenting this I'm giving enough condemnation to it. I hope if you have any opinions, you'll share them with me, and further, please feel free to lift these scanned images and repost them whereever you'd like. I'll even go the extra step of saying it's ok to hotlink these for those who may use blogger or other shared hosting resources. However, if you have the bandwidth, I'd appreciate it if you save copies for yourself and don't hotlink. OK???

So here's a final question. How many of those 16,000 absentee ballots already received for the New Orleans municipal election do you think were sent out with no positive identification of the voter based on this form????? I'm guessing it's significantly more than a few.

--Jason

PS You might also find something of interest in my -Katrina Category. Like maybe this.

Posted by JasonColeman at 1:40 PM | Comments (3)

April 19, 2006

Oh damn, it's just gonna fall off?????????

Ok, so back in March, Larry O'Hanlon for the Discovery News service reported that there was "tectonic subsidence" in Louisiana which essentially amounted to:

"New Orleans is at the top end of what looks like a gigantic, slow-moving landslide"

O'Hanlon quotes LSU Geologist Roy Dokka as saying:

"Not only is southern Louisiana sinking, it's sliding"

O'Hanlon also describes the phenomenon as such:

"Like a smaller landslide on the side of a hill, the huge Southern Louisiana landslide has a "headwall" where the slide is breaking away and a "toe" out in the Gulf where the debris from the slide is piling up, Dokka explained. The only difference from a traditional landslide is that this one is far, far larger and it's buried under lots of wet sediments, so it requires very accurate survey measurements to detect it. "

Dokka's work in investigating the "Michoud Fault" which runs essentially through New Orleans' Ninth Ward is slipping, as a result of sediment piling up in the Gulf and pushing the tectonic plate down. While many have been keen to blame the "sinking" of SE Louisiana on the oil and gas industry, Dokka points out that:

"Subsidence associated with petroleum extraction was not a factor due to the lack of local production."

So that brings me full circle back to a topic I've explored here in the past. We simply are too quick and use too much energy decrying the evils of human impact on the planet without knowing enough about what we're talking about.

For years people have beat the U.S. up over CO2 emissions (one of those greenhouse gasses), stating that U.S. industry and American citizens (current target: the SUV) are killing the planet through global warming. For years this was a mantra repeated far and wide. Attempts to get the U.S. to voluntarily give up our industrious ways and return to eating grubs and berries, wearing loincloths (made from ecologically sound flax farming practices, not evil leather), and to continually in perpetuity pray to Gaia for her to forgive us our sins, have been made by the radical pseudo-scientists lamenting over global warming.

Then along comes a pretty exhaustive study from Columbia that the U.S. is not in fact adding to the global rate of CO2 production in the atmosphere, but we're actually sucking more CO2 out of the atmosphere than we're putting in, making us a NET ABSORBER OF CARBON DIOXIDE from the atmosphere. That's right, all those evil machines that pump out CO2 also had the coincident effect of allowing us to farm more efficiently, manage our forest better and keep millions of lovingly kept lawns and houseplants that sucked more CO2 out of the atmosphere than we were putting in. Big loss for the global warming crowd. They could no longer legitimately beat up on us for increasing CO2 levels (although they still try) and now they had to go look for another evil wrong-doer to blame the CO2 problem on (In truth, they still blame us, and simply ignore the evidence to the contrary, after all, the U.S. is an easy target, we're comfy and content, and the angry "change the world my way" crowd continues on.)

We've also been told that it's mankind that is responsible for Global Warming because of everything from the shoes we wear (more cows for more leather means more Methane) to the cars we drive (the CO2 issue again) to our air conditioners and hairsprays (nevermind we stopped using ozone depleting propellants and freon long ago and replaced them with safe alternatives unlike . . . cough . . . cough. . . Europe). Then we have NASA come back and let us know that the Sun is particularly angry right now (apparently at the U.S.) and burning hotter than any period since we've been aware that the Sun is a big ball of flaming nuclear hellfire at the center of our Solar System rather than Apollo's Chariot streaking across the sky. That would seem to be another loss for the "humans are evil" crowd, but again, it's not. They conveniently ignore the evidence and scream "It's the cars, it's all the cars, I tell you!!!!" This as they jump into their 70's era Volkswagen bus spewing black smoke behind.

[Ok Ok, that's not entirely fair, most of those "humans are evil" hippies are now driving hybrids filled with ecologically unfriendly heavy metal batteries which will be useless after 10 years and be hulks of rusting metal in junkyards with acid leaking from them. I'm not against hybrids, but their just a band-aid, we'll see the cool stuff soon enough if the hippies would just get out of the way of those people that are actually developing the technology. . . cough. . . Exxon. . . .cough. . . GM (ever wondered about why if GM's SUV sales are hurting so much why their stock and sales and profits keep going up. . . cough . . . cough . . . a nice shiny new SATURN anyone?)]

So anyway back to the Michoud Fault (pronounced Me-shoo with a silent d if you're a coon ass), and New Orelans and points south, sinking and sliding into the Gulf.

Here's my point, shut up with the blaming of every little environmental study and hiccup on humans and our activity on the planet. I've got a news flash for the hippies, Earth Firsters, Greenpeacers and my favorite environmental assholes the Earth Liberation Front (thanks alot for fucking up my second season in Vail), humans are a part of the natural environment too, we're animals just like the two toed slow moving Birdfood Salamander and we are filling our role in the evolutionary life cycle of the planet just like every other creature on the planet. The only real difference is that we've got opposable thumbs that allow us to all the things that a beaver can (build dams), the birds can (build nests -- but ours have roofs, score one for us --) and a cheetah can (move really fast, sure we use cars, but that's just another score for us). We're doing what we are simply because "we can". I've yet to see an environmentalist complain about a Beaver turning wetlands into a full fledged body of water, but having a human build it is an affront to Gaia or some such nonsense. We're here with opposable thumbs for a reason, because evolution or God or whatever construct you choose to follow gave them to us. Gave them to us so we could pick up one rock, spin it around a few times, and whack it on another rock to make a tool. Follow that out buy using that tool to break off some more rocks with ore in then, back to the opposable thumb allowing us to master the creation of fire and wham-o we've got metal George. Um, maybe we should put it back.

NO! We shouldn't put it back, we should get more and make more and use those big brains between our ears to accomplish more tasks, more complex tasks. Hey, lets try farming, and lets make some houses so we don't have to force bears out of their caves (or more correctly let's try to avoid having the bears force us out of caves by leaving the caves) and lets build the wheel so we can get around better and lets make a plow to increase our agricultural output to feed more humans, after all humans are animals too and they should be cared for and looked after and allowed to prosper because humans are a part of the natural order too.

Look, I know that it's a tragedy every time a species goes extinct, and it's just as tragic when a fishing village is swallowed by the sea, but lets get real for a moment, things have been going extinct since long before man started to stand up and look across the African steppes at the world beyond. There are also thousands of villages on seacoasts and waterways that have been washed away by rising tides, flooding, storms and tectonic subsidence. Let's get real for a minute and realize that we're just an ant colony (albeit a big one) to Mother Earth, we've got two power hands, like the ant's two powerful mandibles, with which to shape and develop our world to suit us.

When Mother Nature, Mother Earth, the planet, what have you, gets screwed up, she'll let us know, and she'll do it in a big way. Katrina wasn't that big of a storm, there have been bigger in the past, many more much bigger, what was big was that Katrina "just happened" to finally hit a city that for hundreds of years was unprepared for an event which they simply wished or willed to not come along. Well it finally did and to try and connect Katrina with global warming is downright silly. Unless you want to throw the one that hit Galveston, and Betsy and all the other into the "it's the U.S.'s fault bucket as well.

But let's connect up those opposable thumbs and get back to the Michoud fault. New Orleans is a doomed city. It's simply silly to think any other way. New Orleans was doomed from the start, when Iberville and Bienville had a spat and one brother took off to report back to his French overlords about progress in the New World, the other brother laid out New Orleans in a spot where the Dutch could come in and shell it, all for 30 pieces of silver. Yes kiddies, if you haven't heard it before, you heard it here first, the geographic placement of New Orleans is the result of traitorous actions and espionage committed against France so that the mouth of the Mississippi could be opened up to another nation and the port there (New Orleans) could be taken and destroyed, only to relocate the port to a more suitable location.

Events turned on their ear and New Orleans wasn't shelled or taken over and by the time the treachery and espionage was revealed, it was too late and too expensive to move the city to it's original surveyed location. New Orleans is doomed not only because of the treachery of an international plot, but it's doomed because one day the Mighty Mississippi is going to simply tell the Corps of Engineers to bugger off and it's going to reroute itself down the Atchafalaya Basin. No matter what the Corps does, it's merely buying time, the Mississippi is a bit tired of it's present location and wants a change of scenery, we've known this for decades upon decades, but we're fighting it, and putting up a good fight, an honorable battle, but a battle that is destined to be lost eventually. No matter how many control structures, levees, relief reservoirs and the like we build, eventually the Mississippi will change course, and leave New Orleans high and dry. Which to some will be a nice change, although economically it will be a disaster that dwarfs Katrina, Rita, Betsy and every other Gulf Coast hurricane combined.

Don't get me wrong now, I'm not about to suggest that we give up on New Orleans, I'm not saying that we shouldn't rebuild it at all. I'm saying we need to step back for a minute and realize that things are not necessarily what they seem. The present course, like the course of the Mississippi, is not necessarily a good one.

There is a strong urge to rebuild New Orleans exactly like it was (the new addendum to that plan is to raise everything in the city 1 to 3 feet off the ground. . . useless, but we'll get to that in a minute), and I understand that urge. New Orleans is my hometown and my trips down there since Katrina have been simply heartbreaking, but over time and with some reflection, I've come to realize that New Orleans was simply waiting for this to happen and in all honesty, Katrina wasn't quite bad enough for New Orleans. The storm actually missed the city, travelling up the Pearl River instead of the Mississippi. Katrina was a near miss for New Orleans. I know it doesn't seem that way from the destruction and chaos played out on our TV screens, but it actually did miss the city and that part of the storm that did hit the city were the weakest quadrants of the storm. An analysis of the data suggests that the actual category rating of the storm was somewhere between a 1 and a 2. That Cat 1 or 2 storm was enough however to bring about a cascade of disparate events sufficient to effectively destroy a city.

But I still say Katrina didn't destroy New Orleans enough. I'm sure many of my family members who read this, especially those still in the city will be positively horrified by me writing that, but in my mind it's true. I'm not wishing for any more loss of life (I wish Blanco and Nagin would have done their jobs and mitigated the loss of life when they had the chance), so don't try to paint this that way.

I'm talking about DESTRUCTION. I'm talking about shattering buildings instead of flooding them, I'm talking about scouring entire areas of the city clean, wiping the slate and REALLY allowing some rebuilding, the RIGHT kind of rebuilding to be done. Today across New Orleans people are ripping out sheetrock, carpets, and paneling, they are scraping out the inside of their homes with shovels and tossing the soggy remnants of former lives into the street where it cooks for days in the sun then carted away to landfills. Many of these people are "rebuilding" their lives, but it's my firm belief that most, not all but most are setting themselves up for even greater misfortune.

Katrina didn't do enough. The storm left hundreds of thousands of building shells, filled with the soaked remnants of their lives. Cruelly however, the storm left a false hope in place for many of those returning that they'd be able to rebuild, a false hope that levees would be rebuilt to protect against a future storm and a false hope that Katrina was "the Big One" and that New Orleans was safe from another storm for some time to come.

Talking to people in New Oreleans, many times I heard, "Well, it's over now, and we're safe for another hundred years." Similarly I heard, "Well, at least now we know what to expect, so we can build bigger levees to protect us." These are dangerous, albeit understandable, positions to take.

Like CO2 emissions and Global Warming and even "drilling is causing Louisana to sink" we simply don't have a good enough understanding of what happened during the storm on the BIG level. Sure we watched alot on TV, and we saw alot of destruction in real time, but we'll never know what forces were actually brought to bear at the height of the Cat 1 or 2 storm that hit the city. We'll never know if the local nutria had undermined the portion of the levees that failed, there's no possible way for us to know about that, because we hadn't looked at those sections, with an eye for observing what's about to cause this levee to break. Likewise we'll never know if the barge broke the London Ave. Canal levee or the barge was sucked into the Lower Ninth along with the water rushing in from the failed levee.

We do know however that it's far easier to blame human failure than it is to blame Mother Nature. After all, it's Mother Nature, we can't extract a pound of flesh from her, we can never toss her in jail or make sure she never has a job running the weather or even convince her never to strike the city (or another city) again. So we blame people. We look for individuals and say "It's your fault the levees failed" "It's your fault for driving that SUV that global warming increased and made storms increase and that caused Katrina, and it hit New Orleans to prove that Bush hates Black people." "It's you, the phantom government agent who mined the levee with dynamite to flood out the black homes." "It's you, the American people who caused all this by your insistence that you work hard and develop this nation and live comfortably in big houses while you use up oil that causes the SE Louisiana wetlands to sink."

It doesn't matter that all this is all bullshit, because it's easy. It delivers the pound of flesh.

So now that the pound of flesh has been taken. Come on people, it's been taken, lets move on. Let's use our opposable thumbs and big brains. We have to rebuild. But again, we find that the devastation is simply not as great as we needed it to be to make rebuilding easier, so we have to use our big brains to make some hard choices and difficult decisions.

Most of New Oreleans should be bulldozed. Most of the homes that people are currently ripping out sheetrock and carpet from should be bulldozed. Every flooded structure in New Orleans, no matter how severe, should be bulldozed. I'll never sell this argument to many people, but I believe it's what needs to be done.

Building a levee to protect the city against a CAT 4 or 5 storm is possible, but then again it's not. Many people who read this will have never experienced a hurricane. Many never will. Tornados however are a much simpler concept to understand and more of us have a common experience with or have seen a tornado in it's full scope on the television. We can easily grasp what a tornado is because we can see it in it's entirety in pictures with points of reference when we watch video of one.

A hurricane, in very simple terms is a tornado, a hundreds of miles across tornado.

Building a structure to withstand a direct hit from a tornado can be done. You wouldn't want to live in it however. It'd be an ugly structure, largely underground (ding ding. . . warning. . . put on your thinking caps), small and cramped and not what one would consider a home.

Have you figured it out yet? Structures that could withstand a tornado (the forces most similar to a CAT 4 or 5 storm) simply won't work in New Orleans, so it's back to the drawing board. Well, not really, we're back to levees. The levee system to survive a CAT 4 or 5 storm would have to be MASSIVE. Not just big, I mean MASSIVE, Great Wall kinds of massive, pyramids massive, panama canal massive. Massive with a tectonic fault running right through the middle. Do you see the problem yet??

So what's the solution. Honestly, there seems to me to be a solution, but you're not going to like it.

Bulldoze New Orleans. That's the solution. Buldoze every structure that experienced flooding, every structure that's been abandoned since the storm, hell, if someone leaves their home for the weekend and you can get away with it, bulldoze that one too. Wipe the slate clean, THEN you can rebuild the way rebuilding needs to be done.

The Ninth Ward should never be a residential area again. I'm sorry, but it's true. We have a major tectonic fault running right through the middle of it. It's indefensible, and to try is only to prolong the inevitable. I know that there will be an immediate kneejerk reaction to this. What about the homes, the lives, what will these people return to. The answer to that is simple, they won't. That's not a racist statement, although I'm sure I'll get email saying it is, but it's not, and I'd say bulldoze Lakeview if there was a fault running through that area of the city (wait a minute, I'm saying to bulldoze Lakeview too. . . maybe that will get the cries of racism off my back).

The Ninth Ward has a purpose in what I believe the New New Orleans should become. The ninth ward should be a shipping offload/onload and storage yard for the most advanced port facility the world has ever known. It's location is ideal for such a use, the land can be acquired at a reasonable fair market value and allow displaced families a real opportunity to rebuild someplace that A) Doesn't have a tectonic fault running through it and B) Isn't likely to be flooded again.

Rebuild the Ninth Ward levees to the levels they were pre-Katrina, level the shattered homes, pave it solid and turn it into a port facility that's the envy of the world, a port facility that can handle imports and exports for the new milennia, and most importantly, it's an area that would not have to be protected by new, larger levees that will be constantly on the move through tectonic subsidance.

Next, take a hard look at the size and shape of the New New Orleans. No matter what, it will be decades before New New Orleans has the population base that New Orleans did. The footprint of New New Orleans that is protected by levees can be adjusted, New Orleans East could be largely abandoned to create a series of chevron shaped open-ended levees to absorb the brunt of a storm coming from the Gulf and energy and resources can be devoted to rebuilding the core of the city and population centers on the north and west sides of the city.

Next, bring in the pumps. Begin pumping sediment from the Mississippi into the interior of the city. Millions of cubic yards will be needed, but it's there, in the river, and it can be relatively easily extracted, pumped and distributed throughout the city. The project would be a massive undertaking and certainly not easy, but filling the city would be far easier in the long run than raising every structure 1 to 3 feet above grade (the current plan) which will effectively do absolutely nothing in the event of a similar catastrophe (remember, this was a CAT 1 or 2 storm, 3 at most, but there are bigger storms out there, and ONE DAY, one will hit the city. Rebuilding to protect from the storm that just hit isn't enough, IF we're going to rebuild, and stay, we must plan and build for the storm that didn't hit, but almost did.

The filling of the bowl that is New Orleans may take years, but done sensibly, a section of the city at a time, with developers standing by at the ready to come in and build on the New New Orleans mound would do so mostly at their own expense, willingly. I also imagine that they'd be more efficient and effective than a government operation to do the same.

The material is there for us to do it. We have the technology. We just lack the will to do what's right because it's painful. It would be painful to tell families that their homes must be bulldozed and the entire level of the city must be raised 8 to 12 feet. It would be painful to watch billions of dollars go into a project that people wouldn't see create immediate gains.

The New New Orleans mound could be a planned city and again the envy of the world. A pace setting port for the rest of the world to look at and envy, a planned city laid out to maximize resources and space. Between the New Oreleans East Chevrons wetlands could form and nature would reclaim the land, further mitigating destructive forces from storms. Population centers on the West Bank and across the lake would supply safe housing for those wishing to work in the city and commute like workers from New Jersey and the East Bay do in Manhattan and San Francisco. A new example for city architecture and design could be built utilizing all the lessons we've learned over the millenia.

New New Orleans residents would finally see a day where rainwater falling into the city would naturally leave, the millions of dollars invested in pumps which can fail would be replaced by the natural force of gravity, which will never fail us no matter how severe the storm. New New Orleans residents would be able to look down upon the Mississippi river rather than up at it. New New Orleans residents would be facing the same set of problems and utilize the same solutions that other Gulf Coast cities on high ground do. The risk from storms would still be there, but the added danger of living in a bowl on top of a swamp with a tectonic fault running through it would be removed.

The character of New New Orleans must change too. New Orleans can no longer afford to be a hovel filled with poverty, it simply can't afford it. New New Orleans should be smaller, leaner, and meaner. It should be expensive to live in the city proper, and living there, just because it's where you live should be a thing of the past.

New New Orleans should be the Manhattan or San Francisco of the South. It should have a small footprint and space should be maximized due to the inherent dangers of living between a river that doesn't want to be there and a Lake that functions as a Hurricane Magnet (luckily we've dodged the bullet repeatedly of a Hurricane blasting all of it's energy into the city and then parking itself in Lake Ponchatrain to gain strength and batter the city to bits). New New Orelans could have the appeal for tourists that it's always had, with added attractions and facilities designed to handle the throngs effectively and maximize the returns to the businesses present and thereby the tax revenue to maintain the structures necessary to protect the city without fighting the constantly losing battle that it has been fighting for centuries.

What's happening in New Orleans now, as I watch it happen, only seems to be another step toward prolonging the inevitable. Lifting houses 1 to 3 feet is not going to help if New Orleans is hit again in the near future, and it certainly won't help if a bigger, stronger storm rolls through. Rebuilding the fragile wooden shells that have been wracked by Katrina will not serve the citizens well when the next storm hits. New, stronger building codes are necessary, and if the city is not going to "fill the bowl", then it MUST raise the houses, and not 1 to 3 feet, but 8 to 12 feet or more if damage by flooding is to be eliminated.

Stilts Ok, fine, build on stilts. They work, but there are other options, mandate that every residence be built on top of a first story (8 to 12 feet high) of cinder block or poured concrete, use the space for parking or storage, just don't be sad if the next storm comes along and junior is using it as his room, the goal is to save as much of the "authorized" living space as possible from the destructive forces of flooding.

DO SOMETHING EFFECTIVE NEW ORLEANS. Everyone in the city knows that 1 to 3 feet solves nothing. Most homes experienced far more water than 3 feet. Most homes were faced with 5 feet or more, some even more than that. 1 to 3 feet may put insurance risk tables into an acceptable range for flood insurance, but another Katrina event or worse and those 1 to 3 feet will be useless.

I'll wrap it up now, it's quite the rant already, and I went all over the chart with it. Alot of this is something I've wanted to say for a long time but I just couldn't bring myself to post something that my friends and family would read that said "Bulldoze New Orleans", but I really can't get behind the current plan by the city of having people build up 1 to 3 feet when every picture I took while I was there showed higher flood levels. I can't support 1 to 3 feet when I see that every home I ever lived in in New Orleans had 5 to 10 feet of flooding. I can't support the notion of rebuilding the Cat 3 levees that failed under a Cat 2 storm. I just can't.

A levee is like a chain, it's only as strong as the weakest link. The old New Orleans levee system incorporated hundreds of miles of levees, the breaches measured in 10's of feet, not miles, of levee. To assume the old system can be rebuilt and maintained to defend against the storm to come is simple unreasonable. Something bigger MUST BE DONE, a grander undertaking must occur if we're to rebuild New Orleans to any shade of her former self. If we decide not to have as big a city, that's GREAT, I'm all for it. Not because it's easier to evacuate, but because it makes the possibility of a LARGE USEFUL undertaking to commence. Not because I want to see a smaller New Orleans, but because logic dictates we NEED to see a smaller, stronger, leaner, meaner, more efficient, more robust NEW NEW ORLEANS.

Thanks for reading this rant if you got through it all, I appreciate your indulgence and welcome any comments, positive or negative, call me a loon, call me a prophet, I don't care, but if any portion of this struck a chord or sparked an idea, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks to Confederate Yankee (on the blogroll) for pointing me to the Discovery News Article, you can find Dokkas article here in abstract form and here in it's entirety, and once again, thanks for lending your ear (actually, your eyes) to me for a few minutes.

--Jason

I also have a hurricane Katrina category with pictures and other posts if you're interested.

-JC

Posted by JasonColeman at 8:18 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 9, 2006

Ah, New Orleans gets the shaft again. . .

Now I bet you'll think that I'm talking about the storm system that's bearing down on Lousisiana threatening tornados. Well, I'm not.

I'm talking about the "Dubai Ports Deal". Are you looking at your screen like a dog does when he hears a high pitched whistle???

How can the two be connected? I'll tell ya.

Dubai Ports World knows ports. I mean they REALLY know ports, of all the companies in the world, DPW is probably the most efficient and effective managers of seaports there is. They've built some of the most sophisticated and efficient cargo handling operations on the planet, from Dubai, to Hong Kong, wherever you found large concentrations of ships and cargo containers you found DPW. They found their niche and became the worlds best player at the game of shuffling cargo containers on and off ships.

DPW is the world leader in automated handling of cargo containers. Whereever they've gone they've installed automated cranes, robotic trucks and computerized container storage yards and dramatically increased the efficiency of the port facilities they operate.

Now it seems they're about to be cut out of a market that desperately needs their expertise, and more importantly, their money and investement.

One of the port facilities . . . . OK, I'm going to stop here for a second and point out a few things.

PORT SECURITY - Port Security WAS NOT, I repeat WAS NOT being turned over to DPW. The deal was this: DPW would lease some land within a designated "port area" and offload and onload ships into a yard where US Customs would inspect and oversee the "border" within the ports. Security would have remained a U.S. responsibility.

It should also be pointed out that in MOST of our ports, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Venezeula, Great Britain, France, Germany, China, Taiwan, South Korea and many more nations have entities like DPW that are CURRENTLY operating facilities within U.S. ports.

This ridiculous and false debate is NOTHING MORE THAN partisan politics, racism and ignorance combining to conspire against Dubai and Arabs in general. It's sickening in that sense alone, but wait. . . .there's more.

The port of New Orleans was devastated by Katrina, container yards, loading facilities and critical port infrastructure was largely destroyed by the storm, flooding and inattention after the storm as the companies that operated the facilities largely disappeared when their employees left town.

One of the most attractive portions of the DPW deal was the acquisition of leases for property in the Port of New Orleans. Making it more attractive was the need to completely rebuild the port facilities and making it even more attractive was that now there's actually an opportunity to expand port operations in New Orleans as the city is rebuilt in a more sensible and practical way. The Port of New Orleans was hemmed in, slums, housing projects and lower to middle class neighborhoods cramped any efforts to expand the port, sending business AND MONEY out of the city into St. Bernard parish, Baton Rouge and east and west along the intracoastal canal.

Katrina opened up whole new possibilities for New Orleans to become a MODERN PORT FACILITY. In fact, the possibility that the Port of New Orleans could be completely reworked was perhaps the one shining light in the entirety of the Katrina disaster.

Mardi Gras won't save New Orleans, tourism is only icing on the cake that is New Orleans. New Orleans is a port, it's always been a port as it will always be a port. New Orleans is the primary gateway for all those within the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Red River watersheds to get their products to the open sea via water, the most cost efficient way to ship products long distances. New Oreleans was also the primary gateway for products coming into those markets. Take a look at a map of the nation and look at those three watersheds and the smaller ones that feed into them, New Orelans in many ways is the beginning and the end of domestic shipping for a large portion of the nation.

Katrina has given us the opportunity to expand, upgrade and enhance the Port of New Orleans. It was (and may still be be) our opportunity to create a seaport that was the rival of the world, unconstrained by zoning and neighborhoods preventing an efficient layout of the port. This was the opportunity to FIX so so so many problems with the Port of N.O. It was the opportunity to develop an automated system to handle cargo by offloading, scanning, monitoring, inspecting, TAXING and loading shipments in the most effective way possible.

DPW realized this opportunity and like any good business who's business was ports would, they struck a deal to get in on this exceptional opportunity.

There aren't many players in the port game at this level. In the United States we have Haliburton, in Israel they have Zim, in Dubai, they have DPW, the Brits have P&O, et cetera, et cetera. All of these players work together wherever you find large concentrations of ships and containers. All of these players come together wherever a nation puts its ports of entry.

Now, at the time we need international cooperation on international shipping the most, we've told one of our allies, both in business and in the GWOT to essentially go away, that we dont' want them to do business with us anymore. The players in this game (and that's what it's become, a game) are effectively stiff-arming New Orleans once again, and I'll suggest that their motives are far from honest and sincere once they step in front of the cameras.

On one front you have the President and the Administration, who approved the deal because it MET ALL OF THE REQUIREMENTS THAT CONGRESS LAID OUT. That's right, the Administration, through it's bureaucracy that transcends President Bush or any individual, put the DPW deal through the mill and checked it off against all the requirements that Congress had set forth. The DPW deal is a good deal. It's a deal we've done time and time again within our ports, it's a deal we make with numerous nations, Arab, Caucasian, Black, Asian, it's a deal that before now was blind to race, but GUESS WHAT? The Democrats (through Reid and Schumer) led the racist charge to bring this deal down and they convinced a number of Republicans to come along for this hate-fest through misinformation, fear and spin.

No one talked about New Orleans and the need to rebuild the port operations there from scratch, but BOY O BOY were they ready to LIE about "turning over security". No one talked about automated efficient cargo handling like they have in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Dubai or some of the major ports of Europe, but BOY O BOY were they ready to destroy the reputation and goodwill of one of our allies in the GWOT. No one talked about the reality of the deal, they only gave out the false soundbites, the false claims that security was at risk, and misleading assertions that the "port" would be taken over.

When I talk to people about the ports deal, they believe that it means the entire port would be taken over in various U.S. cities. Why do they think this? Because the media tells them so, even though the media knows it's untrue. It's easier and more effective to their purposes to scare and mislead than it is to tell the truth and explain what it means. People are also under the impression that there is a security threat, when exactly the opposite is true.

How can the opposite be true??? Well lets see there for a second. With more efficiency comes more time, with more time you can do more. Makes sense doesn't it???

So here's the kicker. DPW wanted to install automated loading, offloading and handling systems in their port facilities much like what they have installed in other places. By automating many of these processes you gain time, and time is what port security needs most. The reason that only 5% of containers coming into this country are inspected is because the offloading of ships is so inefficient. Every available shortcut is taken by companies to get cargo off ships and onto trucks because port facilities are generally too small and cramped. Containers now in many places come straight off a ship and are dropped onto a truck which passes through an inspection station and then moves out into the city. A majority of cargo coming into the country comes in just this way. It's rarely inspected in our ports other than a quick glance at the manifest, maybe someone walks around the truck with a radiation detector and maybe a dog sniffs the back end of the truck, but that's it, mostly cargo just sails on through.

DPW offered a partial solution in their automated cargo handling systems. By using automated cranes to transfer containers to automated shuttles you gained time. The actual unloading of the ships is dramatically increased and the congestion and chaos of the yard is replaced with the quiet hum of electric motors as automated shuttles ferry containers through a radiation detector, place suspect containers aside for customs inspection and move the bulky cargo away from the docks into holding yards where there is time (and in the case of New Orleans, ROOM) to actually undertake systematic inspections of containers on a grand scale. When you're paying people by the hour to sit in the cab of a truck and wait for inspectors to look at the cargo, money gets wasted and people get sloppy. No one cares about a robotic shuttle sitting still or going in circles back and forth to inspection stations, the computers won't complain about wasted time and not enough mileage. Robots don't argue with customs agents that they need to get on the road so they can get home early for their kids recital.

DPW wanted into the U.S. market in a greater capacity then they already had been. Yes, Dubai already has operations in the U.S., they bring in oil and natural gas to numerous terminals, and have shipping and receiving terminals in many ports across the U.S. The facilities that P&O operated were much sought after leases within the 6 ports in question, but the jewel of the deal, make no bones about it was the Port of New Orleans and the opportunity to create a world class port facility in New Orleans and turn the tragedy of Katrina into a godsend for a city that so desperately needed it.

But yes, fear, racism and partisan politics once again conspire to keep New Orleans down. Just like the idiocy of the reports of mass murders and rapes and lies about the events dominated coverage of Katrina, and continue to do so today, lies and misinformation dash hopes for a truely world class port facility to be developed in New Orleans.

I probably won't revisit this topic again, I'm pretty sick of spineless Republicans and fear-mongering Democrats and their treatment of this issue. I'll close by saying that when all is said and done, I'll tell you who's going to be controlling these port facilities now that the deal is killed. I'm sure we'll hear cries of foul and evil Bushhitler dirty tricks when it's said and done.

I'll tell you though, this new entity, when you look at who they really are, will be shown simply to be the company I mentioned in this post three weeks ago.

New Orleans gets screwed again. Of course people will say that it's all Bush's fault again. To be honest, it seems like the entire federal government on both sides of the aisle and in every agency is against New Orleans, add to that the mayor and governor too. It seems like the only one who is actually on the side of New Orleans, is the President. Go figure.

--Jason

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March 4, 2006

VICTORY!!!!!!

Once again the blogosphere has undone (in part) some of the damage the MSM created.

The Associated Press has now "clarified" the story about the video I discuss HERE.

Clarification: Katrina-Video story

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.

The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.

It's a shame that the AP won't give this "clarification" as much play as they did to their misrepresentations.

I so wish I could take credit for it, but I'm just a baby blogger, I do this because it makes me feel better to rant and rave a bit about what I see going on in the world. It does make me feel good though. Just like it did when I was one of the first to bust the faulty reporting of the Taliban Bodies story (start toward the bottom of the page).

Thanks to Powerline for pointing me to the AP clarifcation.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 2, 2006

Hey, MSM, topping and breaching are two different things. . . .

People are talking about the video now being passed around of a videoconference between President Bush, FEMA officials, and Max Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center.

Click here for AP's exclusive coverage of the video.

Now alot of people are trying to make political hay about the bit at the end. They're getting up in arms, again, about Bush's comment:

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."

They start frothing at the mouth because in the video Max Mayfield says:

"I don't think anyone will tell you with any confidence or not whether the levees will be topped."

Now critics of the administration are going to scream their heads off about these two comments. They'll try to say that Max Mayfield is there on tape warning of levee failure, when in TRUTH, he is doing no such thing.

Mayfield is talking about water coming over the top of the levees, that's TOPPING. He is speaking to the issue of the storm surge and how high it will be. Mayfield is NOT, I repeat NOT talking about a levee BREACH.

The topping of a levee is one thing. A levee is "topped" when water levels on one side of a levee rise to a point where they spill over. Think of a bathtub filling with water, eventually the water will run over the side and onto the bathroom floor. This is what Mayfield is talking about, because it's a somewhat serious event normally associated with storm surge.

Now when Bush speaks four days after Katrina that "no one anticipated the breach of the levees" he is NOT talking about the topping of the levees, he's talking about total levee failure, a breach, an actual HOLE IN THE LEVEE. He's talking about what happened at the 17th St. and London Ave. Canals. President Bush is saying that no one anticipated that whole sections of the levee system would simply crumble and disappear.

While levee "topping" is certainly serious, it's a completely different event than a levee breach. When a levee is topped, water enters the protected area and collects in canals where, hopefully, the water can be pumped out by the city's pumping stations. When a levee is "breached" this is a whole different order of magnitude of serious. When a levee is breached, you can't pump the water out because it comes right back in through the hole in the levee. Pumping after a levee breach is useless. A levee breach is effectively a complete collapse of the system and it cannot be immediately remedied.

People are going to get worked up over this and the mainstream media is already mouthing off and saying that Mayfield warned of levee breach when he most certainly did not. Mayfield was warning about levee topping, not breaching. Until someone can come out and say that there was a clear indication given to the President that the levees would crumble under the storms assault, the President is correct when he says:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Personally, I expected topping of the levees, I expected water to run up I-10 into New Orleans East, I expected some of the inner city canal levees to be topped and some of the St. Bernard and Jefferson parish levees to be overtopped by the storm surge. I expected flooding, you always expect flooding in New Orleans during a hurricane, but then I expected the pumps to take over and pump the water out of the city. That was the defense plan for New Orleans. That's always been the plan. If water comes into the perimeter protected by levees, collect it in the canals and pump it out. A levee failure, like that experienced during Katrina, can't be "anticipated" because it's a catastrophic total failure of the levee. If you "anticipate" the breach of the levee, why even rely on the levee system at all, a breached levee might as well be no levee at all. For centuries New Orleans has relied on the levees to protect it, and for centuries, a levee breach was not "anticipated".

Levee "topping" however is a completely different story, and NO ONE has ever talked about not anticipating the levees being topped. In fact, almost everyone talked about them being topped.

I don't expect the mainstream media to notice or even accept this distinction between what Mayfield is saying, Bush is saying and what the media WANTS to say. I've pretty much given up on the mainstream media reporting the honest facts and making those important little distinctions that separate real truth from fantasy. I only hope that the blogosphere can get out in front of this and point out that Mayfield is talking about one type of event and Bush is talking about another. Most Americans aren't familiar with levees in as intimate a way as New Orleans residents are, but anyone who's lived in New Orleans and had an actual levee standing between them and water over their heads can certainly attest to knowing the difference between topping and breaching. Hopefully the blogosphere can make that explanation and demonstrate the difference between the two for people.

--Jason

PS - All of my Hurricane Katrina blogging can be found here.

UPDATE: Dabgummit, Powerline and Big Lizards beat me to the punch on this one (and of course did a better job), that's what I get for having Gumbo and watching local boy Taylor Hicks on Idol with the family before thinking about bloggin. I guess I just need to chain myself to the desk more. Patterico also weighs in.

-JC

Posted by JasonColeman at 12:15 AM | Comments (24) | TrackBack

February 9, 2006

Witness. . . the next Rove-a-Dope

They're piling up the political hay on the left over Michael Brown, the ex-FEMA chief who handled 500+ federal emergencies for the Bush administration only to resign over criticism about New Orleans post-Katrina and the federal response.

The left is clamoring for a look at Brown's confidential and candid reports from the field in the immediate wake of the storm. Senators are beginning to grandstand that since Brown is now a "private citizen" he no longer needs to respect "Presidential perogative".

No matter how CNN tries to spin this, this is not an advance warning of some release of information that will be harmful to the Bush administration. Sure there will be some colorful language about Blanco and Nagin's incompetance and stonewalling, but that will be nothing compared to the direct indictments handed down about the failures of state and local officials to properly act as first responders (and even second responders) during and immediately after the hurricane. I'm sure more than a little will be revealed about how the emergency supplies DHS paid for (MRE's and bottled water) to be pre-positioned in New Orleans LONG BEFORE the storm were somehow MIA throughout the entire disaster.

Mark my words, if Brown does release his correspondence with the White House, it won't be hurting Bush or his administration, but it will be downright disasterous for Nagin, Blanco and the political left in general.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 1:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2006

Sometimes I wish. . .

I could just reach out and grab people that are reading this blog and say "HEY, What do YOU think?"

So why am I saying this here and now??? Because a few different IP's from the "Water and Sewerage Board of New Orleans" have been pouring through my Katrina Archives and passing my Copyu/Nutria article around their intranet.

I noticed their perusing while doing some blog-maintenance and just wish they'd either comment or drop me a line.

I get quite a bit of traffic from New Orleans, but I'd really like the opportunity to talk to some people inside the Water and Sewerage Board of New Orleans. I've got quite a few questions about recovery in the city, the water supply and other issues concerning their particular bailiwick

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 4:37 PM

January 21, 2006

No comment (yet). . .

Don't have the time to comment on these now, but some folks were having trouble opening them via their email programs, so I'm posting them here so they can see them.

Clicking on the images will take you to a larger version.

Maybe I'll make some comments on these later, but for now I'm just throwing them up. If you like them save them now, because I'm probably gonna have to take them down later as morons begin hotlinking to them.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 3:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 16, 2006

On this of all days. . .

On the annual observance of "Martin Luther King Day", a day when it's suggested that people reflect on the legacy of Martin Luther King and the principles he stood for. A day when people should take a moment and think about the "One Nation" and about the "liberty and equality for all" and about King's, dreams.

Among those was King's dream that one day this nation would be:

"where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers"

We now present Ray Nagin, soon to be ex-mayor of New Oreleans (hopefully). . . Go ahead, click the play button. I dare ya.

CLICK HERE for the "Chocolate City" video clip.

Oh, oh, but wait, that's not all . . . Nagin's channeling Pat Robertson as well. . . just in case you weren't confused, befuddled or dumbfounded enough already, click here for more.

I could probably type for hours about how angry I am, how totally offensive, counter-productive and hypocritical Nagin is; but I won't, I'm just going to leave it there, and point to it whenever someone trys to drag out the "racist" crap when speaking of Katrina and her aftermath. I'll tell you where the racists were and ARE, they're right up there in those videos, and Ray Nagin has become their leader apparently.

As Ian asks, "Is that a “black power” swastika on his shoulder?"

Sick I tell ya, I'm just sick over this, and sick because the main stream media will give Nagin a pass, they will gloss right over this and pretend it never actually happened.

Oh well, while I got ya. Go back and read this and this about Nagin's success as Mayor of New Orleans. I no longer have mixed feelings, Nagin's got to go.

--Jason

PS, If you'd like to have your own copy of that little gem by Nagin to send to friends and family and don't want to link here, just RIGHT CLICK HERE and "Save As. . .", or for the God comments, right click here and "Save As. . . "

-JC

Posted by JasonColeman at 11:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 15, 2006

Dammit people. . .

LOOK! If you really want the rest of us to rebuild New Orleans, ya'll have just got to stop doing stupid stuff like THIS!!!!

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 9:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 23, 2005

What's a Coypu and what does it have to do with Katrina and Rita?

I know this isn't going to fit very well into peoples desire to shift blame for what happened in New Orleans from the local government to the federal government, but I still have to point it out.

For decades upon decades a fuzzy little rodent named the Coypu has been burrowing into the levees of New Orleans. The levees offer ideal habitat for these little creature's dens and because they undermine levee systems, damage wetlands and eat crops, the state of Louisiana and her neighbors have classified the Coypu as "vermin". Locally, these rodents are referred to as nutria, and they are as common as sight in New Orleans as a squirrel is in hardwood forests. The nutria of New Orleans couldn't ask for a better habitat in which to thrive than the soft soil banks of the canal and levee system. The canals offer them room to swim and provide protection from land based predators as well as food, while the levee banks provide den space and the concrete walls atop the interior levee system ensure that human molestation is kept to a minimum.

As a youngster, I played often along the canal and levee system of New Orleans, the levees and canals defined my cohorts "territory" and I can't say how many times that rather than go to the park, I'd be down at the canals throwing rocks across the canal or running up and down the levee banks. I also can't say how many times I stuck sticks down "nutria holes" in the levee bank and scattered the little critters lounging on the canal banks into to the water as I approached.

An individual nutria will burrow a four foot diameter hole underneath the levee to make its den, they'll tunnel from 4 to 150 feet in before they carve it out. Multiply this by the thousands upon thousands of nutria living within the canal and levee system and you're left with levees that resemble swiss cheese more than they do the earthen dams they are intended to be. As I watch the investigations go forward into the levee breaches in New Orleans, I can't help but think that no one is really mentioning or considering the nutria and the damage they continually cause to the levee system. It's not like it's a secret that the nutria damage levees, the parishes and levee boards have been battling the critters for decades, but now they are mainly silent about them. I can only assume that the powers that be (mainly the media) is looking for anything they can find to blame the federal government (or man in general) and deflect attention from anything that may be considered natural causes or deficient local administration, management and animal control. I also think that because there's no direct evidence at the 17th St. and London Ave. canal breaches (hint hint: The burrows were washed away) that a policy of groupthink is setting in and people aren't seeing the forest for the trees.

I think that honest historical analysis will account for nutria undermining of the levees even if the investigations now don't consider it. I also think that building the new proposed levee system incorporating more rock and concrete, rather than just the soft dirt so loved by the nutria, will mitigate the problem of nutria undermining levees. I still don't agree with the current path the government is taking in the rebuilding of the levee system and New Orleans (I'll get to that another day), but I think that by reducing the amount of prime nutria habit along the levee banks by incorporating more concrete and rock is a good first step, just don't forget that these little critters can dig underwater folks, and given the opportunity, they will. So I hope this is taken into account.

Now I know that people will disagree with me, and that's fine, but anyone who's lived along the canals and levees of New Orleans know what the nutria do and they know how many there are. I always looked at the nutria as cute and fuzzy little buggers, but in the context of Katrina, they're evil little bastards that definately had a hand in weakening the levees and if you do the math, the nutria have removed a significant amount of soil from the interior of the levees. Hollow spaces within a levee seriously weaken the structure not to mention the erosion activity when these dens fill and drain from rainfall and pumping, storm surge and pumping, etc etc.

I'm not saying that nutria are the ONLY factor in the levee breaches, because that would be a foolish assertion, but I will suggest, and local levee boards and parrish commissions agreed with me (before the storm) that they are a significant contributing factor to levee failure and breaching. I'll also point out that the nutria (which is not a native species) are frequently cited as a MAJOR FACTOR in wetland destruction, and we all know that the South Louisiana wetlands and marshes are instrumental in sucking energy out of a storm (but we also know that blaming man for wetland destruction is much more fun than blaming an invasive little rodent eating everything in sight and digging holes in levees).

For reference I'll leave you with a few links so you can investigate and make descisions for yourself. I may return to this topic in the future, but for now, I'll just end here.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Nutria website
Wetlands Damage (from the above site)
Survey of Nutria Herbivory Damage in Louisiana
Jefferson Parrish looks at Nutria Damage to Levees mitigation
Times-Picayune article cites undiscovered "nutria holes" a factor in levee failure.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 1:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 20, 2005

What the hell???????

There's been an EARTHQUAKE in Louisana? Talk about insult to injury. I guess it wasn't that big a deal though, the affected area is made of soft alluvial deposits so there's plenty of soft wet ground to "buffer" the quake.

It is damn strange though.

The quake's epicenter was approximately halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and about eighteen miles down.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 7:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 18, 2005

It wasn't a flood, it was multiple floods. . .

People talk of "Katrina fatigue", a sense that people are tired of talking about it, or want to deny it in the hopes it will all just go away or someone else will handle it. Unfortunately there is not magic fairy that will come by and restore New Orleans to its former somewhat dingy glory. Also unfortunate is that people simply have no real understanding of what happened to New Orleans and the Gulf Region with this storm. Nor do many people want to truly understand what happened; they instead want to live in a more comfortable state of being where they can blame events on human failings and grander schemes guilt and conspiracy. Whatever you think of that is fine, my opinions have been stated in the Katrina archives, but right now I want to address one particular issue that people don't seem to realize.

There wasn't ONE storm, there were TWO (or more in some areas), also there wasn't one flood that took down New Orleans, there were many. Perhaps the best illustration of this can be seen in this picture from my last trip.

Click to enlarge

Take a few minutes and look at the larger image, notice the water lines on the house. You may not be able to pick them out in the image, but there are no less than ten (10) standing water lines on that house. That represents ten different flood levels of STANDING WATER. Each flood level was the result of a particular event, whether it be localized flooding from rain, flash flooding from levee breaches, or multiple waves of flooding and standing waters generated by the storm surge. Also it's important to keep in mind that those are "STANDING WATER" lines, not "HIGH WATER LINES", judging from high water lines on two story structures and telephone poles, this little yellow house was completely under water at some point during the storms. (NOTE: This house in the West End/Lakeview area of the city. This photo was taken the first week of December.)

While the stories of human misery detailed in much false detail by our news media are certainly heart-breaking, the objective examination of the situation in New Orleans is even more devastating once you get close enough to wrap your head and heart around it.

There is very little left of New Orleans. That sentence hurts to write, but it's true. Certainly there were areas of the city that were spared, such as parts of Uptown and the French Quarter, and I guess it's a wonderful thing that many of the most important historical areas were saved, but the city itself, the areas that were the homes and businesses of the common people of New Orleans are almost completely destroyed. Hydraulic forces hammered and hammered and hammered away on the structures within the city, rising water and waves entered homes and then swirled furniture and other possessions around as if they were in a blender, then falling water did the same again, then another period of rising water, then falling, then rising again.

Imagine that you place a cup of milk, an egg, a wooden box and a roll of paper towels in the bottom of your bathtub, now take two five gallon buckets full of water and pour them both quickly into the tub. Chances are your egg is now cracked and yolk is flowing out, the milk is gone and there's a good chance that the glass is cracked, the wooden box is now careening around the tub in a circular motion, banging into the egg and the glass and the roll of paper towels has swollen up and weighs about 6 pounds or so.

Now imagine that 6 feet of water came rushing into your home in about a 15 to 25 minute timeframe, or event quicker, now drain out 3 feet, then add 4, drain 2, add six, drain 5 add 3 then let it all drain out. Were you able to picture the floodwaters coming in and throwing your belongings around haphazardly, could you imagine your mattresses swelling up with water and becoming 500 pound floating sledgehammers spinning around your bedroom? Were you able to imagine your refrigerator floating up slightly then falling over with a crash? How about the cleaners and chemicals under your kitchen sink mixing and reacting, producing poisonous slicks on the surface of the water and then coating everything? What about pictures floating off the wall, swirling around the house then days later the waterlogged frames swell and snap the glass sounding like a gunshot and sending shards of glass down into the piles of debris sunken under the water that's been standing for a week?

In a previous post I wrote about my visit into New Orleans one month after Katrina, I noted that there were no insects, no rodents, and hardly any birds at all in the city. Imagine if you will though, the scene during the floods themselves. Fire ants will form a ball of hundreds of thousands of ants that floats on the surface of the water until it touches something offering high ground, the millions of rats and rodents in the city came up out of the sewers and up into homes to escape rising water, along with dogs, cats and even humans, many were caught in attics as waters kept climbing eventually drowning en masse.

Now we can move on to the period after the waters receded, then the heat sets in, that famous New Orleans wet, sticky oppressive heat, cooking everything in the city (thank goodness Katrina didn't visit earlier in the season to add some 100 degree plus days to this period). Bacteria colonies flourish in the wet sticky debris piles, in the waterlogged carpet, in the mattresses and couches, and then the mold sets in. The evil and dreaded black mold of New Orleans, toxic by almost any standard begins to grow at each standing water line, then casting out spores with each heat wave, covering every wall and ceiling which in turn develop mold colonies of their own, the mold is literally covering everything now, having had 3 months to grow without much molestation.

The insects and rodents that survived the storm are coming back, with a vengeance. The debris fields which stand four stories tall and cover thousands of yards are the Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street of New Orleans rat population and breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other insects that notoriously infest the city. Biology is reclaiming New Orleans faster than intrepid human souls can reclaim it.

I write this to preface future posts I'm working on regarding New Orleans. I needed to my interpretation of what physically happened in the city down and out there because it's central to my position which will be outlined in future posts that simply holds that New Orleans cannot be repaired, but rather must be rebuilt, BUT not as its former self as Mayor Nagin is trying to do. The damage to the city is too great to repair; wholesale demolition must take place in areas like the Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and Lakeview. The current strategy of allowing people to willy-nilly come in and gut their homes and begin rebuilding without a plan is doomed to failure, and even making matters worse as resources are diverted and supplies misused.

People need to realize that this wasn't a flood like the mid-west experiences, this was salt and fresh water, this was wave action and successive periods of rising and falling water, then all rinsed and repeated again. Everyone knew this was coming one day and everyone knew that a Category 4 or 5 storm would effectively destroy the city, and effectively, it has. I support rebuilding the destroyed New Orleans, just not all of it, and not in the same way.

I see a future New Orleans very much similar to Manhattan or San Francisco where a small densely populated area is supported by outlying communities where Manhattan has Queens and The Bronx, and San Francisco has Oakland and Marin; New Orleans will have a West Bank and a North Shore. A smaller geographic footprint for New Orleans can be defended against storms easier than the sprawling city that built itself in a bowl and then expanded to build on the swamps around it.

The truly MASSIVE levees needed to protect the city (don't rely on just rock and concrete armor New Orleans) will require significant uses of eminent domain (the non-Kelo, "for public works" kind) to get the real estate needed for their footprint and should be high enough and strong enough to theoretically protect the city from a Level 5 storm (although I'm not sure that's even possible).

The devastated areas of the Ninth Ward and New Orleans East should not be rebuilt or redeveloped into residences at all in my opinion, New Orleans East simply has no real protection from the Lake along the route I-10 takes and using that real estate to construct a series of levees and breakwaters, coupled with allowing nature to reclaim that area (with a little help) would go a long way to protect the city from future storm surges by sucking energy out of the storm and sucking up water like the marshy sponge it was intended to by.

Rebuilding the Ninth Ward should be focused on supporting the port and industry of New Orleans, with huge container yards and light to medium industrial facilities that can provide fuel for the city's economic engine. Putting peoples homes in New Orleans East and the Ninth Ward just doesn't make sense, it's one thing to lose a business' inventory to a storm, putting individuals in that situation just doesn't make sense, it's an invitation for another disaster.

I'll examine most of these topics and suggestions later in more detail as I flesh out more details and organize my thoughts more. I'm sorry there aren't any links here and maybe I'll add some later, but right now this is a "stream of consciousness" piece that I want to develop more as time goes on, but I felt I owed it to some of you to write this up and get it posted. So there you go, my evolving sense of what's going on down there.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 11:44 AM

A way you can help. . .

There are quite literally thousands upon thousands of ways you can help with recovery and rebuilding efforts in New Orleans and the Great Gulf Coast that were affected by Hurricane Katrina. You could simply donate cold-hard-cash to relief organizations, you could send care packages to victims still in hotels and shelters, you could even pack up the family SUV and head down to the region and lend a hand, BUT. . . I've got an easy one for you, and one you've probably not thought of. So here it is. . .

BUY SHRIMP!

Yes, that's right, buy shrimp. You see, just like the movie "Forrest Gump", the Hurricanes destroyed much of the Gulf Coast fishin', shrimpin' and crabbin' fleets and just like the movie, those commercial fishing boats that are left are pulling in shrimp hand over fist.

There's a problem though, people aren't buying.

Now I understand that in the immediate aftermath of the Hurricanes, prices skyrocketed as wholesalers rode out the supply shortages, many restaurants changed their shrimp sourcing from Gulf Coast suppliers to overseas suppliers to keep tasty prawns on menus and many consumers simply stopped buying.

Many facilities for processing and cold storage of seafood were destroyed during the Hurricanes, Mississippi's production and storage facilites were reduced by 50%, virtually all of New Orleans production and processing was lost (although it's coming back fast) and even Alabama had it's fleet reduced and facilities closed. Each affected state suffered losses in their fishing fleets as boats at their moorings were tossed (in some cases miles) inland.

All that's changed now as fleets and facilities come online, and now, there's a glut in the Gulf Coast shrimp and fish markets. The few processing plants that remained open are now silent, because cold storage has been maxed out and there's no place to send processed seafood (read: people aren't buying gulf seafood). Boats with full holds are forced to dump or hold up to half their catch because there's no where to safely offload and process seafood. So even with reduced capacity, demand and supply are still out of whack while Americans consume foreign seafood over Gulf Coast products.

Now far be it from me to discourage importation, exportation and global food markets, but if you want to lend support to the Gulf Region, an easy way to do it is simply to BUY MORE SHRIMP. Ask at your local grocery seafood counter "Where are you getting your shrimp from?" If they say Southeast Asia or someplace other than the Gulf Coast, ask if they have any from the Gulf, look for Gulf Coast processors in the frozen seafood section, or suggest that your local grocer source out some Gulf Coast providers for their fresh seafood. Prices are dropping rapidly as these producers try to recapture market-share and rebuild the Gulf Coast seafood industry.

With the Holiday Season upon us, we're all cooking for family and laying out the big spreads, so why not throw some Gulf Coast Shrimp in the mix and help out our Gulf Coast fisheries and shrimpers.

--Jason

PS I know that some of you may say that helping out the Louisiana shrimpers, crabbers and fishermen is not really "helping after Katrina", but rest assured, it does help. Putting this industry back to work helps the economic engine in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast roar back to life. While many land based industries are clogged with traffic snarls due to damaged roads, debris and the destruction of facilities, the bounty of the gulf remains right there. Fishmen literally harvest cash from the sea and that that cash gets pumped right into the Gulf Coast economies, provided someone buys it (that's us).

Supporting the fishermen (and women) also supports a large support industry and provides tax revenues that leverage out to buy goods and provide services throughout the region. Too often people think that the best way to help with recovery is to donate cash, and that's simply untrue, re-developing the industry is much more effective a way to help the region, and the only way to re-develop the industry is to buy their products. So when you're doing your holiday grocery shopping, pick up some Gulf Coast seafood (think shrimp) and while you're at it, thow a couple of bottles of Tabasco and some Community coffee (if you can find it) in your shopping cart and remember that you're doing your part to help the Gulf Coast recover.

-JC

Posted by JasonColeman at 10:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Just for fun. . .

There's not alot "fun" to say about Katrina or it's aftermath, but you have to look on the bright side sometimes and other times you just need a laugh to get through the day. So to start off a series of posts about Katrina, New Orleans and how things are progressing, here's a little tune to start with. . .

Downtown Got Run Over By Katrina (.wma format - 2 megs)

Before anyone writes me hate mail saying how insensitive this is, GET OVER YOURSELF. They're playing this on the radio in New Orleans and no one there is offended, so you shouldn't be either.

UPDATE: From commenter, Lenrose Fears:

"Downtown Got Run Over By Katrina" is performed by the Pascagoula High School Boys' Impact Show Choir from Mississippi. Please give them credit. For more info on the song, go to www.kicker108.com and read all about it. Oh, yes, CDs will be available for purchase soon, so BUY one and help out the boys' choir.

Thanks for the info Lenrose, let me know when CD's go on sale.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 9:14 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 14, 2005

Back. . .

Well, I'm back from New Orleans, but not fully recovered yet. Expect a blogburst of pictures, video, commentary, bitching, ranting and raving starting tomorrow. I've got to finally get caught up on some sleep and get video and pictures organized, but have no fear, it's coming.

--Jason

PS - The Iraqis start voting in 10 minutes!!! YAY!!! Meanwhile, Nagin and Blanco are conspiring to ensure that people in New Orleans don't get to vote in February (more on that tomorrow).

Posted by JasonColeman at 9:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 27, 2005

Looting continues in New Orleans. . .

This pains me to report, but there still appears to be widespread looting going on in New Orleans, Police officials in the city are attempting to downplay the reports, but tonight I received word from friends and family who have attempted to return to the city that whole areas of the city are now the undisputed territory of armed gangs after dark, and even during broad daylight.

From the Times-Picayune:

Rep. Alex Heaton, D-New Orleans, told Riley that looting was reported as recently as Friday on Maple and Oak streets, two principal commercial strips in Carrollton.

Riley said a 200-member task force that recently formed to combat looting is focusing on largely uninhabited neighborhoods, not areas such as Carrollton, where a large number of residents have returned. But Riley said he would talk to 2nd District commanders about patrolling the two streets.

He said the task force has found it must allocate more officers to daytime patrols than when it began. With many neighborhoods vacant, looters aren't waiting for darkness to invade homes, he said.

It's been reported to me that armed gangs have also taken over Cato St. in the Uptown area of New Orleans, roving the streets openly armed and confronting homeowners and business people who attempted to enter the area to assess damage, clean out flooded homes and begin the process of rebuilding.

"They are entering homes with bedsheets, loading them up with our belongings and then hauling out the loot 'Santa-style' with the bundled sheets slung over their shoulders."

I've been reluctant to straight out say that Mayor Nagin's "look and leave" policy for many New Orleans areas simply isn't working, but I will now. Even with a heavy National Guard presence in the city, the reluctance of the city to integrate the National Guard troops into the city's 9-11 response system is making them ineffective. Additionally, many guard units placed under the operational command of the city and state officials have been switched from security duties to recovery and restoration tasks.

The city should have never attempted to bring residents back into the city without the resources necessary to manage the influx of residents spread throughout the city and without any orderly process of resettlement. It's an "every man and woman for themselves" mentality with only a minimum of order and security restored. When Mayor Nagin re-opened the city against the advice of Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, and without any plan for orderly resettlement, he set the stage for a new round of injustices to be visited on those residents who returned to reclaim their homes.

Mayor Nagin seems to be more concerned with getting a new football team (after attempts to shake-down Saints owner Benson were unsuccessful) than he is about the safety and security of New Orleans residents. The "mayor without a plan" has shown again his total and complete incompetance with regard to managing the city. Cell phone coverage in the city is spotty and land lines aren't any better, police response to attacks is non-existant unless such attacks occur in the French Quarter, Wharehouse or CBD districts, New Orleans East, Gentilly and Uptown are sporadically patrolled at night and requests for help are routinely met with "you'll have to call the National Guard". Of course the city hasn't integrated (by the city's choice) with the National Guard communication nets and there's no phone number familiar to New Orleans residents who need to contact the Guard when the police won't respond.

I don't find it surprising that the MSM isn't reporting on the state of siege in New Orleans and the city's inabilty to respond or simple apathy, the MSM in it's zeal to report carnage in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of the storm severly dropped the ball, they're embarrassed and afraid that they'll get the story wrong again; and of course, when Mayor Nagin still gets on TV and laments that "no one is helping" despite thousands of workers and billions of dollars flowing into the city with absolutely no accountability from Louisiana's NOTORIOUSLY corrupt officials and politicians, I almost don't blame them.

I do find it ironic that I had to resort to reporting from another of my former residence's newspapers, the Vail Daily (repuires registration) to find accounts of the looting that is still going on beyond those personally related to me by people within the city now:

I didn't find the looting surprising. The area is pitch black at night. There are mostly migrant workers in the area during the day. The area is mandated empty at dark. It's a thief's "made to order."

The mayor's "look and leave" is a major part of exacerbating the situation in the city. With drive times out of New Orleans stretching upwards of 4 hours, many neighborhoods are deserted well before dark and the looting begins when the clean-up workers make their daily retreat across the lake to campgrounds and temporary housing in Slidell, Mandeville and Covington.

The Times-Picayune (the New Orleans daily) is doing it's best at reporting what's going on within the city, but with a severly depleted staff and utilizing offices as far away as Mobile to produce the paper, much "on the scene reporting" has taken a back seat to official reports and press releases. The mainstream media is almost completely hands off, and so it seems, are the police.

Leaving New Orleans to be destroyed again, from the inside. AGAIN.

Martial Law was NEVER declared in New Orleans, all bluster by Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin aside, the National Guard has no real authority to actually fight crime in New Orleans. They can certainly chase looters away when they happen upon them, but there's no mechanism in place (by the city's choice) to utilize the resources the National Guard can bring to bear. Couple the hamstringing (again) of the National Guard, with a corrupt local government, a police force more prone to looting themselves than actually protecting and serving the citizenry, and haphazard and downright DANGEROUS approach the city has taken to resettlement, the future prospects for the city are looking bleaker with each passing day.

One can only hope that the MSM will lick it's wounds and begin getting back on the ground in New Orleans to report the situation. One can only hope that the National Guard will be embraced for the resources and manpower they can bring to bear in the area and one can only hope that Mayor Nagin will begin to "pull his head out" and begin actually managing the city he was elected to serve rather than simply whine and continue blaming everyone else for his city's mismanagment and disfunction.

You created this catastrophe Mayor Nagin by failing the first time, and unless you're ready to turn over control to those who truely want to help and manage the crisis, it's up to you to pull things together.

FORGET ABOUT BRINGING THE BROWNS TO NEW ORLEANS TO REPLACE THE SAINTS, FORGET ABOUT CASINOS, MARDI GRAS AND CONVENTIONS!!!

New Orleans needs basic services returned, rather than complaining that the money is going to run out in March, use the time between now and then wisely. Restore those services you can and for goodness sakes, ask for assistance from those in place and ready to assist rather than whine and cry about whether or not you have meter maids getting checks from the city while they wait out the recovery in Houston and Chicago. Those cities will worry about the people taking shelter there, YOU, MAYOR NAGIN need to worry about protecting the people and property still left in New Orleans, and those you enticed to return.

And face it Nagin, there's an election in February, and it's HIGHLY unlikely you'll even run, let alone win. So let someone else worry about March, you need to be worrying about today.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at 8:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 26, 2005

Entering Slidell. . .

It's been almost three weeks now since I returned from New Orleans and Slidell. The original purpose of the trip was to help my grandfather clean out his house and begin the process of reconstruction (or more appropriately, to figure out if reconstruction was even an option).

Just two days before I left Birmingham, Mayor Nagin of New Orleans announced that the city would re-open for "look and leave" visits to the worst areas of the city, but that New Orleans East, Lakeview and the flooded Uptown areas were now open for residents to return. I knew that given the opportunity, I'd have to see what happened to the city I grew up in and maybe for the last time see the homes I lived in and schools I went to before the major demolition of entire swaths of the city began.

There's really only one word to describe the trip in total, and that word is "surreal". Everything about the trip was surreal. It began with the drive down. The journey west from Birmingham on US 20/59 was normal enough, but once I turned south on I-59, the whole "feel" of the trip changed. Within a few miles on I-59 out of Meridian, the first downed trees could be seen. By "downed trees", I mean ALOT of downed trees. Hundreds of them, probably thousands. When you hear the reports of how difficult it was for troops and material to be transported to the Gulf Coast and Louisiana, most people dismiss the claims, but just 25 miles out of Meridian, it was obvious that the highway itself was undoubtedly closed due to down trees and debris. The Mississippi DOT was still present in force along the route (keep in mind this is still one month AFTER Katrina's passage) the roadway itself was clear, but the median along almost the entire route was transformed into holding areas for three story tall collections of cut up trees and debris.

It was obvious that the destruction along the road had a significant effect on the drivers, many were obviously returning to New Orleans for the impending opening of the city. Many cars were loaded down with luggage and supplies, more than a few were towing UHaul trailers or flatbeds with generators, cases and cases of water and the necessary tools and equipment most would bring to reclaim their homes. That wasn't the "effect" I speak of though, the effect manifested itself in the attitude of the drivers and their behavior on the road. The politeness of the travellers was actually disturbing. On this road that I'd travelled many times before, the normal rate of speed is 80 and just like most other major highways in the nation there shou