Here We Go Again

That wasn't the title I had in mind for this post.  When I got the digital galleys of the books below, I imagined a post with some "then" and "now" photos (you can see some "then" here, here, here, here, here  and here) however, I spent this weekend with my sick father (prayers for him appreciated) and though I got off work early today due to the approach of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac, I figured taking pictures in strange neighborhoods would be likely to get me arrested today.  Yes, seven years to the day after Hurricane Katrina hit, we in New Orleans are getting ready for Isaac, which, while it does not appear to be another Katrina, has shut the town down for the next few days.

So what about Katrina books?  Well I read two I want to share with you.

We Shall Not Be Moved: Rebuilding Home in the Wake of Katrina

About the Book:

As floodwaters drained in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans residents came to a difficult realization. Their city was about to undertake the largest disaster recovery in American history, yet they faced a profound leadership vacuum: members of every tier of government, from the municipal to the federal level, had fallen down on the job. We Shall Not Be Moved tells the absorbing story of the community leaders who stepped into this void to rebuild the city they loved. 

From a Vietnamese Catholic priest who immediately knows when two of his six thousand parishioners go missing to a single mother from the Lower Ninth Ward who instructs the likes of Jimmy Carter and Brad Pitt, these intrepid local organizers show that a city’s fate rests on the backs of its citizens. On their watch, New Orleans neighborhoods become small governments. These leaders organize their neighbors to ward off demolition threats, write comprehensive recovery plans, found community schools, open volunteer centers, raise funds to rebuild fire stations and libraries, and convince tens of thousands of skeptical residents to return home. Focusing on recovery efforts in five New Orleans neighborhoods—Broadmoor, Hollygrove, Lakeview, the Lower Ninth Ward, and Village de l’Est—Tom Wooten presents vivid narratives through the eyes and voices of residents rebuilding their homes, telling a story of resilience as entertaining as it is instructive. 

The unprecedented community mobilization underway in New Orleans is a silver lining of Hurricane Katrina’s legacy. By shedding light on this rebirth, We Shall Not Be Moved shows how residents, remarkably, turned a profound national failure into a story of hope.

My Comments:

I liked We Shall Not Be Moved.  Of course, as a New Orleans resident I recognized many of the places described.  I remember the grandiose plans put forth by the government commissions and I remember thinking they'd never fly--and I was right.  This is a book about what actually happened, about the people who were leaders, not politicians and about how neighborhoods came back.  I found it highly readable and not very political.  It didn't whine about how things should have been but told how things were.  Grade:  B+

The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back

About the Book:

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became ground zero for the reinvention of the American city, with urban planners, movie stars, anarchists, and politicians all advancing their competing visions of recovery. In this wash of reform, residents and volunteers from across the country struggled to build the foundations of a new New Orleans.For over five years, author Daniel Wolff has documented an amazing cross section of the city in upheaval: a born-again preacher with a ministry of ex-addicts, a former Black Panther organizing for a new cause, a single mother, "broke as a joke" in a FEMA trailer. The Fight for Home chronicles their battle to survive not just the floods, but the corruption that continues and the base-level emergency of poverty and neglect.From ruin to limbo to triumphant return, Wolff offers an intimate look at the lives of everyday American heroes. A s these lives play out against the ruined local landscape and an emerging national recession, The Fight for Home becomes a story of resilience and hope.

My Comments:

I found this book to be liberal whining.  Those horrible rich folks live where it is high, the poor live where it floods and folks who didn't have insurance were worse off than folks who did.  I didn't finish it.  

My Review: What the Bayou Saw

What the Bayou Saw is a powerful book dealing with race relations within the context of a good story. All too often I find that books dealing with race have "good" characters who manage to be color-blind and "bad" characters who hate anyone who doesn't look like them. This book deals more in gray.

The main character is Sally, a community college humanities instructor who lives and works in Normal, IL. Sally isn't from Normal, she is from Texas and Louisiana where she grew up in the 50's-70's. She is about six years older than I am. As a four to five year old she lives in a college dorm at Baylor and hears college boys talking about Negroes (often using less flattering terms). She wonders who these mysterious people are and disobeys her parents to go off campus to "Colored Town". She meets one who seems really decent. When she is in sixth grade, the family moves to Monroe LA. On her way to school the first day, a white man exposes himself to her. The only person who is nice to her at school that day is the Negro cook. At home, she makes friends with the daughter of her next door neighbor's maid, and when they are discovered, no one wants them playing together. Tragedy strikes that changes both of their lives forever.

In 2005 Sally has a class that includes one very bright African-American student who obviously isn't from Normal, and three neo-Nazis who are. Those boys don't like the way Sally brings Christianity and African-American culture into her humanities class, and threaten her. That day, Shamika, the African-American student doesn't show up for class and it is learned she was raped in the school parking lot. She accuses the neo-Nazis of the crime. While tutoring Shamika while she is recovering, Sally tells, for the first time ever, the real story of what happened on that Bayou.

The book is Christian fiction. Starting when she was a young child, Sally lied to keep people happy. After what happened on the bayou, the lies increased, and had become a regular part of her life. Part of the resolution of the story is her resolve to quit lying--and the realization that to do so after all these years will be hard. Sally prays, she belongs to a Bible study and her husband talks to a preacher about problems they are having. Sally repents of her sins, particularly lying, but I wouldn't really call this an overly religious book. In other words, unless you are offended by religion/Christianity, I don't think you have to be a Christian to enjoy this book.

What the Bayou Saw is being toured this week by Tywebbin Creations Blog Tours. To find tour stops, click here.

First Wilcard will tour it July 11, so check back then to read the first chapter!

A Bunch of Older Moms

Ever wonder what happened to the folks with whom you went to college? Thanks to the wonders of the internet (and an alumnae directory from Mississippi University for Women) I've discovered that my favorite classmate in the education department is now a principal, and has a son with problems like my son's. I've also discovered that out of the about 10 girls on my hall (we were allowed to sign up for rooms as a group, so you lived next door to and down the hall from your friends), who were all my age, three of us had babies within a few months of each other. What is remarkable is that these women's kids who are my kid's age, aren't the age of my older kids, but of my baby, who was born just weeks before my 43rd birthday. One of those women is Michele, whose blog is the newest on my blogroll. We ran into each other again on our alumni listserve. The other is Norma. I don't know why, but her name popped in my head the other day, so I tried googling her, and even found a picture. For some reason, she looks a little older than I remember her, but her baby has to have been born within weeks of mine, because both were fifteen months old for Katrina.

More Lakeview shots

An unkept yard showing an absent owner












You can still see the water line on the white house









This is a new modular home.

Katrina Recovery

The tear down sign is on a now-empty lot.










Below is a FEMA trailer. I don't know how long this has been there, but a family on my block was in one for over a year.

To the left is a series of empty lots caused by tear-downs.


People from other places ask me about the recovery from Katrina. Some almost sound like they think we are still underwater; others sound like "Isn't that over yet??". Neither one is right. I live in Jefferson Parish. If you remember the pictures after the storm of the 17th Street Canal--one that was breached--you may remember one shot showing water on one side of the canal, and dry streets on the other. Later there was a shot showing lights on one side, dark on the other. I live on the dry, light side. The Katrina problems in this area had to do with shingles blown off roofs, fences blown down, tree limbs in windows and floods from rainwater. The flooding on this side of the canal happened because the pumps were turned off during the storm because the operators were evacuated. Lots of houses got a few inches of water in them, water that went down pretty quickly, but which caused more damage than is normal during a flood because no one was around to clean up the mess. However, people in this area are pretty much middle or upper class homeowners with good insurance policies. The insurance companies came in after the storm, adjusted the claims, paid them, and paid supplements as it became obvious it was costing more than normal to effect repairs. Basically people had to take out the floors, the baseboards, the door moldings, the interior doors, and four feet of sheetrock. They lost a lot of furniture, though expensive furniture was generally salvageable if it wasn't upolstered. In short, most people's insurance settlements were big enough to do the work and they weren't in a position of having to replace everything they owned. A few weeks ago the parish government started putting notices on FEMA trailers telling people that unless they got special permission, the trailers needed to be removed by March 1. Permission will be granted to anyone who can show they are still working on thier house; they are trying to make sure people aren't renting out those trailers and they are trying to encourage people to get this over with. People are tired of looking at those trailers in their neighborhoods and most people are done with them.

Contrast this with the other side of the canal. People there got six feet of lake (salt) water in their homes, and it stayed for weeks. By the time they got home, none of their possessions were salvageable (at least none on the first floor). While there were plenty of well-insured folk over there, there were also people who skimped on it as money was tight and they didn't live in an area that flooded. There were also some who inherited homes, and just flat didn't have the money for insurance. Many of those who had their homes insured to what they considered full value at the time found that thier insurance payments (even if for policy limits)weren't enough to rebuild in the current market. Also they had to make decisions about whether a bulldozer was an integral part of their recovery plan. For these reasons and more, recovery on that side of the canal is much slower.

I drove over there today and I'm going to share some pictures with you.