As Gustav swells to Category 3 and is projected to hit anywhere between Texas and Florida, NSNC members recall images of the city from our conference only two months past.
Louisiana and Mississippi have already called for evacuation of residents along the Katrina-scarred coast. There is a phased order to evacuation -- those in coastal communities or outside protection of levees are first. Hundreds may fall through the cracks of an evacuation plan, and they will be left in the city.
Eight-five unclaimed victims of Katrina were laid to final rest Friday as a jazz trumpet played. Residents and city officials rang bells at the moment the levee was breached three years ago, on the anniversary of the storm.
We remember our own jazz parade and the city’s friendly people. What about our colleagues who live there and those journalists we met at the convention who covered the Katrina disaster? What about the animals at the aquarium? What about those we met who returned to the city to rebuild? What about St. Bernard and the Lower Ninth Ward?
We remember the theme of our conference, “New Orleans, you are not forgotten.” The impersonal face of disaster has become personal. We are glued to the news – not wanting to see, but unable to stop looking.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
And now there is Gustav
We went… we saw… we wrote… I was in New Orleans in June for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ National Convention. Things were still bad, but turning around. People were coming back. Tourism had started to increase. There was hope.
And now there is Gustav.
I heard about it on the news. I couldn’t believe the projected path. My God! It is headed right for New Orleans!
Not again! They can’t go through that again! They have suffered enough. Not again…
But there is no denying the truth. I flipped through the channels on TV, looking for the weather channel and the latest reports. I came to CNN and there was Ray Nagin being interviewed at the National Democratic Convention.
Obama had just been nominated. The mayor commented and then the interview turned to the crisis in New Orleans.
It was three years ago, three years almost to the day, that Katrina devastated the city. If Gustav does hit, what is the plan? How will things be different?
The mayor spoke of lessons learned from Katrina. People are being warned to make plans to leave. A state of emergency has been declared by the Governor already. The oil rigs in the Gulf are being evacuated.
And what about those who can’t afford to evacuate? A plan has been set up for public transportation to shelters out of the area. There will be no mass shelters of last resort in New Orleans, no Superdome, and no Convention Center.
A lesson learned from Katrina -- GET OUT!
People are asked to sign up if they need emergency transportation; police will go through neighborhoods with bullhorns. They have prepared a supply of cages for people to evacuate their pets. “We learned that people will not leave because of their pets,” said the mayor.
It is a massive undertaking. Will it work? There are only half as many people now as before and the lowest areas are sparsely populated.
What about the levees? Will they hold? They have been rebuilt. It was the failure of the levee system before that caused the most problems -- the flooding.
The mayor believes they will hold. There will be a mandatory evacuation for a category 3 storm or if the storm surge is large. When we were there, the mayor said a storm surge with a category 3 hurricane would top the levees, but levees should not catastrophically fail.
The mayor is cautiously optimistic.
There is something about that man that instills belief. He is projecting confidence as a leader should. In spite of all the criticism, in spite of everything done wrong before, nobody knows better than he does how to avoid the same mistakes.
“This is a test,” Nagin says, “a test of the levee system.” It is a test of Nagin’s courage and leadership ability as well, a second chance, a change to do everything right that was done wrong before.
But maybe the hurricane will take another path… or maybe it will dissipate and not reach full strength. Maybe this is all for naught.
Hotel rooms are said to be booked already all the way to Memphis. I pray that New Orleans will be spared. I learned to love the city and the beautiful people when I was there. New Orleans affects you that way.
The people have suffered enough. We pray for you, New Orleans. Not again, God. Please, not again…
And now there is Gustav.
I heard about it on the news. I couldn’t believe the projected path. My God! It is headed right for New Orleans!
Not again! They can’t go through that again! They have suffered enough. Not again…
But there is no denying the truth. I flipped through the channels on TV, looking for the weather channel and the latest reports. I came to CNN and there was Ray Nagin being interviewed at the National Democratic Convention.
Obama had just been nominated. The mayor commented and then the interview turned to the crisis in New Orleans.
It was three years ago, three years almost to the day, that Katrina devastated the city. If Gustav does hit, what is the plan? How will things be different?
The mayor spoke of lessons learned from Katrina. People are being warned to make plans to leave. A state of emergency has been declared by the Governor already. The oil rigs in the Gulf are being evacuated.
And what about those who can’t afford to evacuate? A plan has been set up for public transportation to shelters out of the area. There will be no mass shelters of last resort in New Orleans, no Superdome, and no Convention Center.
A lesson learned from Katrina -- GET OUT!
People are asked to sign up if they need emergency transportation; police will go through neighborhoods with bullhorns. They have prepared a supply of cages for people to evacuate their pets. “We learned that people will not leave because of their pets,” said the mayor.
It is a massive undertaking. Will it work? There are only half as many people now as before and the lowest areas are sparsely populated.
What about the levees? Will they hold? They have been rebuilt. It was the failure of the levee system before that caused the most problems -- the flooding.
The mayor believes they will hold. There will be a mandatory evacuation for a category 3 storm or if the storm surge is large. When we were there, the mayor said a storm surge with a category 3 hurricane would top the levees, but levees should not catastrophically fail.
The mayor is cautiously optimistic.
There is something about that man that instills belief. He is projecting confidence as a leader should. In spite of all the criticism, in spite of everything done wrong before, nobody knows better than he does how to avoid the same mistakes.
“This is a test,” Nagin says, “a test of the levee system.” It is a test of Nagin’s courage and leadership ability as well, a second chance, a change to do everything right that was done wrong before.
But maybe the hurricane will take another path… or maybe it will dissipate and not reach full strength. Maybe this is all for naught.
Hotel rooms are said to be booked already all the way to Memphis. I pray that New Orleans will be spared. I learned to love the city and the beautiful people when I was there. New Orleans affects you that way.
The people have suffered enough. We pray for you, New Orleans. Not again, God. Please, not again…
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Welcome to the 32nd Annual Conference of The National Society of Newspaper Columnists
Coverage of the convention as seen on the NSNC Website
.........................
"New Orleans, We Have Not Forgotten"
Mike Argento, NSNC President, opens the 32nd Annual Conference in New Orleans.
Lt. Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu, says Katrina was a life changing event for the people of New Orleans. Things are spoken of now in terms of pre-Katrina and after Katrina. Many of the problems were not only from Katrina, but social problems like race, poverty, transportation, health care and emergency response. American was forced by the media attention to face these things and didn't like what it saw. New Orleans is a lab of democracy and a symbol of all that can be better.
Mayor Ray Nagin spoke to the NSNC on June 20th about the situation of New Orleans. Business is coming back, he says, for example, Shell Oil and Winn Dixie. There is high employment and opportunity. Many construction projects are going on. A new VA hospital has opened and another new 400-500 bed hospital has been announced.
Over 100,000 volunteers have come to New Orleans to help. The American people have been incredible about helping.
Katrina is a different kind of storm as there is nowhere to point anger. There is no enemy as there was with 911. Katrina exposed the soft underbelly of the U.S.
Population is down from 455,000 pre Katrina, to 327,000, per the mayor. However, he agreed that the top population prior to the storm was about 600,000. Much of the lost population is middle class because they were able to transition successfully.
New Orleans lost about 500 policemen and the National Guard is still there. Crime is down as drug trafficking was shaken up too. Fraud has increased as there is big money to be made out of disaster.
Homelessness was a problem before, but has increased. Post traumatic stress is an issue. The system for hurricane protection is not complete. Another category 5 hurricane could overtop levees, but there should not be another catastrophic failure.
When asked what message we should take to our readers, the Mayor said. “We are not under water.”
“I am afraid for America. We have not changed one single thing since Katrina.“ The government needs to focus on the infrastructure of America, Nagin stated.
Many in New Orleans are still struggling to recover. New Orleans believes that the rest of the world either does not understand their situation or no longer cares.
Panel of journalists from the Times-Picayune discuss Katrina's impact on the city. Ted Jackson presented a powerful photo show of Katrina victims and talked about how he could not be objective when people were trapped in water and he couldn't help them. Journalists lost their own homes, but continued to cover the story so others could know.
Jarvis DeBerry, editorial writer, talked about the need to report local events after Katrina and answer the question, "What happened to my house?" He spoke of the anger and the disrespect New Orleans felt when others were asking whether New Orleans should be rebuilt, even while people were still on rooftops. Jim Amoss, editor, said the world as New Orleans knew it ended in 2005. We were urged to meet and talk to the people of New Orleans and to take their story home.
Rod West, CEO of Entergy, the electric company of New Orleans. He talked about the difficulty of restoring power. They started where it was dry and followed the falling water level. The water did not differentiate between race or socio-economic status. It was simply a matter of geography. They had to fight corruption, gloom and doom to restore the basic services needed.
A panel spoke on whistle-blowers in government. Deepa Fernandes, journalism fellow at the National Institute, investigated the mysterous disapperance of Asian Americans after 9/11. Families were unable to find out who arrested them, what the charges were, or where they were being held. She is currently investigating the displacement of families from FEMA trailers who have no place to go.
Spencer Bohren, New Orleans songwriter, guitarist, and singer performs. You might be saying, “Who?” But this extraordinary New Orleans songwriter, guitarist and singer is an amazing talent.
Spencer performs all over (he’s between gigs in Europe, and made a special effort to be in town for our meeting), has been on “Prairie Home Companion” and pops up often on NPR’s weekend music shows.
If there is any one song that captures the heartbreak of post-Katrina New Orleans, it’s his “Long Black Line” — about the watermarks left on homes once the flood waters went down.
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