time capsule

This blog was put up for a short time while I was isolated in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. It's kind of outdated now, but it's a small window into what was going on. Originally much of this content was from e-mail messages going out to friends "on the outside" while I was operating from my house on generator power before the city was open.

If you want to get an idea of what's up, I'd read it in reverse order, from earliest to latest.

The Mystic Krewe of Marlboro

Hello everyone,

Well, it's been a little while and I decided I would resume some of my e-mailing to "fill-in-the-blanks" of what's been going on. Plus I have a lot of snippets of links I've been collecting that you may find of interest.

We took a short trip to Arkansas to look at some property, but as luck would have it, the property we were interested in, which had only been on the market a week, was sold out from under us as we drove 10 hours to see it! I could strangle this real estate agent. He knew we were driving up, he showed the property to someone else and let them make an offer and didn't tell the seller someone else was interested. That was pretty depressing.

btw, I'm not planning on moving to Arkansas, but I've been looking for property up there for a long time, as an investment and a place to get away to, not unlike how locals have traditionally had "camps". Unfortunately, this has been a long, ongoing process that is hindered by sleazy real estate agents. So my trip to Arkansas where I thought I might relax a bit, wasn't that relaxing. For several days I drove all around the state and put almost 2000 miles on the car. The amazing part is that I had my iPod hooked into the stereo system and I didn't even make a dent in the playlist. iPods are truly one of the neatest inventions in the last few decades (that and Tivo), and the newer car stereos have interfaces where you can plug the iPod right in and control it from the head unit (which reminds me, Mobile One is open in Metairie ;).

Speaking of Metairie, things in Jefferson and New Orleans are slowly coming back online. I'd estimate that 25% of the businesses in the city are probably now open in Jefferson Parish. Orleans has substantially less. In JP, most places are still closing around 6pm, with the exception of bars and such. It's still a pain if you want to run to the grocery store later at night. Gas now suddenly seems to be a big problem. Half the gas stations in the city don't have gas, and the rest have big lines. It seems like there was more gas available last month than now. It's pretty frustrating.

I've also been helping various friends visit their houses and get stuff, and also putting up people as they come through town. It's an exhausting experience as you re-live over and over, the total destruction many people have experienced.

One outstanding thing seems to come to mind through all this. The city will never be the same.... whatever you hear in the media about "New Orleans rebuilding" and "People coming back" just doesn't jive with what I've seen and the people I've talked to. Many businesses will re-open, but perhaps just as many are relocating elsewhere or throwing in the towel. I've spoken with many people who have, at first temporarily relocated, only to find better pay and better working conditions elsewhere, from California to Texas to Georgia. Many people aren't coming back, and some people left, and aren't even coming back for their stuff. I know of several groups who almost have a cavalier attitude about even going back to get minor things -- they're asking friends to grab some essentials but are otherwise moving on and aren't coming back, period.

I hate to say it, but I was much more hopeful about the city's rebirth earlier than I am now. New Orleans and the surrounding areas has become a city of roving bands of contractors (featuring lots of new minorities that never had that big a presence here before), occasionally dotted with a homeowner here or there, more often than not, grabbing their stuff and going.

You can pretty much draw a line between the types of businesses who depend upon the city, and those that don't, and this divides those who are staying and those who are leaving, minus the many businesses who lost everything. And the big thing is employees.... there are many businesses that could open but all their people are G O N E. Gone.

And to top it off, you have Mayor Nagin, who had originally had my respect for the uncompromising way he handled FEMA's incompetence, but then started pushing for this bone-headed idea that allowing casino gambling in all the area hotels would be a boost to the local economy... what the hell kind of medication is he on? This is our one chance to really change the dynamic of the city and we have politicians recommending the most superficial, backwards approaches towards revitalization?

One of the city councilmen has been pushing for removing the restriction on commercial sponsorship of Mardi Gras as another "economic solution". If this happens, that's it for me -- I will never attend nor promote Mardi Gras again. That's the most offensive thing I can think of. That's like offering the opportunity to be "the official deodorant of Christmas" to whoever ponies up the most money. That isn't in the spirit of Mardi Gras. And we have brain dead politicians pandering to soulless corporations as a way to help New Orleans get back on track?? Can you see it? The Krewe of Verizon. The Knights of Baccardi. Mr. Clean will be the King of Endymion. The Baccus-Gator will be flanked by inflatable Michelin Men and Pillsbury Dough Boys. The King of Rex will be the Energizer Bunny. Oooh, look here comes the Bud Light float featuring a paper mache Gecko from Geico!

I think I'm going to puke.

Hey, you New Orleans politicians. Stop taking the easy way out. Try Google'ing "integrity" and learn a little something.

Ok, sorry about the rant.

In the next installment, I have more pictures and some interesting commentary on what kinds of things people have lost. It's pretty neat to see the bizarre and amazing stuff some people had in their homes that was destroyed or spared.

Miscellaneous tidbits.....

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Some great pictures of the flooding in Lakeview taken from a boat while the water was high:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=n7vl128.10k36pe4&Uy=-lsttlk

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Index of Hurricane Katrina-related stories at DailyKOS - a great site for in-depth commentary on social and political issues:

http://www.dailykos.com/tag/Katrina

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Nutjob pseudo-pastor Fred Phelps, notorious for his "godhatesfags.com" web site has another site ( http://www.godhatesamerica.com) where he says "Thank God for Katrina":

America is irreversibly doomed. It is a sin to pray for the good of this evil fag nation.

"Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee." Jeremiah 7:16.

It is a sin NOT to rejoice when God executes His wrath and vengeance upon America

But perhaps what is even sicker than this guy's opinion, is his own personal history of being a hateful, vengeful, evil person, which can be found here:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/michael_haggerty/expose3.htm

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Interesting pictures of the total devastation of the Martin Luther King branch of the New Orleans Public Library:

http://nutrias.org/mlking/mlkphotographs.htm

An index of pictures of damage at various NO Public Libraries:

http://nutrias.org/~nopl/welcome.htm

Best Hurricane FEMA Time-Line I've Found:

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Hurricane_Katrina_timeline

Brown, it turns out, was the administration's scapegoat for the FEMA debacle, when it wasn't his fault

WASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.

Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm.

As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.

But Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.

But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12637172.htm

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Thinking of moving? Here's an interactive map that will show you a graphic representation of flood areas, historical hurricane paths, hail & wind storms, earthquakes, tornadoes and more. Check out areas of the country and how they rate on the "disaster scale."

http://www.esri.com/hazards/makemap.html

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Army Corps of Engineers maps of levee breeches:

http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/katrina/pumps/pumps.html#New%20Orleans%20Pump%20Status

FEMA "rules" slow hurricane clean-up to a crawl and outrage locals

Hancock County Workers Protest New FEMA Rules
Debris clean up in Hancock County came to a halt Tuesday morning as workers contracted by the government to do the job parked their trucks in protest. A new set of rules for clean up from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started the standoff.

The crews stopped in their tracks along Highway 90 in Waveland.

"There are four lanes here, we blocked one on each side and let the through traffic go through. The State Police come in and said, 'If you don't move, we're going to take you all to jail,'" Arizona contractor Tony Jones said.

Jones said the protest was in response to new rules from FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers.

"We get told this morning at 6'oclock that they are allowing one monitor per loader, not per company, but per area. That monitor from the Army Corps of Engineers has to sit there and dictate what pile of debris gets removed," Dennis Whitehurst of Texas said.

Clean up crews say that will slow down the process tremendously.

"You can't come in here and load one truck at a time and let the other ten crews wait while the monitor goes around and says, Okay, it's your turn to load now.' Our kids won't see this place cleaned up at that rate," Hancock County resident Jamie Bean said.

Jimmy Smith of South Carolina agreed with Bean.

"Where we're loading 50 trucks an hour now, we'll be loading one truck an hour per section. It will take 50 years to clean this place up."

The general consensus among the clean-up crews is that it's hard to do business in Hancock county. They say something has to give.

"You can't work like this," Bean said. "What's going to happen is we're going to lose all these people out of our town to clean our town up. They are going to go to New Orleans, they're going to go to Harrison County, they're going to go to Jackson County, wherever, cause these guys have spent money to get down here and they need to make money now."

"We need help period. Stop fighting and just work. Let them help," Rosemary Paul of Hancock County said.

The decision makers at FEMA and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers must have heard her plea. By mid-afternoon they decided to scratch the new rules and put the crews back to work.

"We talked to FEMA because we support FEMA's mission, cause that's what we're here to do. They were agreeable to it at this point and time and we'll move forward," Russell Retherford of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers said.

The protest lasted about 3 1/2 hours before crews went back to work. There is more than seven million cubic yards of debris to be picked up in Hancock County.

Tired

Visited a friend's place in Lakeview today as she opened her doors for the first time to see what she could salvage. Be thankful that the wonderful smell that came from this place can't be transmitted via e-mail. Just walking into the place for 10 seconds puts this "stink" on you that you can't get off. It's bad.

Pictures:
http://www.mikeperrymedia.com/xib/20050929-kat/

Interestingly enough, the second floor was fine. But the first floor of the place was decimated. I don't think anybody has to worry about looting. The muck this crap has been simmering in is so vile it's just not worth even touching.

More tidbits:

FEMA SIGNS SWEETHEART DEAL WITH THE LOVE BOAT: FEMA recently signed a cushy
$236-million, six-month no-bid contract with Carnival Cruise lines to house
evacuees on ships. The half-filled ships are now anchored in the Mississippi
River and Mobile Bay. If you do the math on the contract, even if you had the
ships filled to capacity with 7,116 evacuees, the price per evacuee works out
to about $1,275 a week. Compare that to the price of an actual seven-day
western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, which costs a mere $599 a person
(and "that would include entertainment and the cost of actually making the
ship move.") In related news, hundreds of lobbyists, corporate
representatives, and would-be government contractors met yesterday on Capitol
Hill to figure out how to get their share of the federal largess. The
so-called "Katrina Reconstruction Summit" was hosted by Sen. Mel Martinez
(R-FL) and sponsored by -- surprise, surprise -- Halliburton.

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/09/29/nobid29.htm

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On another note, I am not sure I'm going to be writing/posting much any more. All this has taken its toll on me and I'm probably as tired of talking about it as you all are hearing about it. You think by running around and keeping busy it helps, but I'm not sure if just doesn't delay the inevitable and compound your problems with the problems of everyone else. In any case, I'm feeling that burden and I think I'm going to try to get away from it for awhile.

A good example of why I'm burning out is on Slashdot today, there's a story about some church group in Lincoln, Nebraska who is organizing a mission to the Gulf Coast area to help victims. They have publicized their little "humanitarian" trip, which is to happen in a few weeks and want advice on what people need. It's way late for groups like this to come down here and offer any substantive help and it just pisses me off because you know they're not coming down to help victims of this disaster; they're coming down here after the dust has settled to make themselves feel better about themselves. And Louisiana residents are the new little "Citizen Ruth" that these groups can exploit. It really pisses me off and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the national charities coming down here whoring TV time and then leaving everyone hanging. I'm sick of CNN and FOX and MSNBC marginalizing the people of the South to sell advertising for Pfizer. I'm sick of the pseudo-humanitarian efforts which are rooted in selfishness. If these people want to help, they'll go to one of the shelters in Texas or Arkansas and help people who really need help. We don't need them coming down here getting in the way of things stroking themselves.

I'm sick of it all.

I'm sick of watching my friends pretend that everything's ok, even though they've lost everything.

I'm sick of coming up with thoughtful words of comfort to tell my friends that trailer living is fun and that change is good for the soul.

I'm sick of watching the never-ending battle between detached federal idiots arguing with embedded local leaders trying to help out their citizens.

I'm sick of hearing about people who spend six different nights on six different peoples' couches.

I'm sick of watching New Orleans' mayor Nagin show up at a T-shirt shop on Bourbon street telling the Vietnamese proprietors that "customers will show up soon."

I'm sick of the one Burger King that's open only offering Combos number #1, #2 and #9. I'm sick that I'm actually admitting I ate at Burger King.

I'm sick of arrogant dumbasses proclaiming that since Ruth's Chris has moved corporate offices to Orlando, they'll never eat at the restaurant again.

I'm sick of breathing this air. I'm sick of showing credentials at checkpoints. I'm sick of having to watch TV to find out what time I have to be off the streets or else I'll be arrested.

I'm sick of partisian idiots from Kansas spamming Louisiana web sites with "impeach Blanco" propaganda.

I'm sick of seeing gun-totin' locals act as if this is the wild west.

I'm sick of the veiled racism that's inherent in the critiques of New Orleans' mayor's job. When he kicked ass and took care of his people.

I'm sick of the charity groups which have descended upon the city like roaches trying to exploit our suffering to pad their coffers.

I'm sick of caring, when I'm surrounded by so much phony superficiality.

I'm sick of feeling like I am not a "New Orleanean" when I worked on staff at Jazzfest for ten+ years, the world's fair of '84, Pontchartrain Beach, played in bands and performed everywhere from the Superdome to Jimmy's, HOB and the Saenger, graduated from Brother Martin, attended University of New Orleans; my grandmother was a teacher at John Mcdonough and my grandfather worked at Lykes, and my whole family has been ingrained here... and I still feel like a total outsider.

I'm sick of seeing the desolation. I'm sick of seeing "grey grass." I'm sick of having an opinion on what's wrong with things when nobody seems to give a damn. I'm sick of feeling that if I have anything critical to say, there's a contingent of loud-mouthed locals who think I need to leave.

I'm sick that while you might not find a place to stay, you can still get pot, coke and X.

I'm sick that I have been cursed with not having my house destroyed, so I get to have the ambiguity of my future spread out across the next three to six months to find out if half my clients will pay me and whether or not I'll be in business.

I am sick of it all. That's what I get for trying to be a trooper. I should have known.

It's time for me to sign off. I thank you all for listening to me and I wish everyone well.

- M

Mismanagement

A hot sunny day today in the city. The relief station on Airline is now closed down. That's unfortunate, but they stopped giving out MREs awhile ago, in favor of shrink-wrapped junk food, and with all the local businesses slowly starting to go back online, I guess it was time. Outback and Chevy's are open so there are finally places to sit down and eat, and probably in another week, things will be even more city-like.

Today Mayor Nagin cracked a good joke in his press conference. When asked about why he was making it difficult for people to enter the city, he responded, "We have the lowest crime rate we've ever had and I want to keep it that way." The audience of reporters erupted into laughter, at which point some lesser politician had to point out to everyone who was already aware it was a joke, that this is because the city is empty. Some people still don't get it. Nagin is much smarter than anyone else around.

There's still debris everywhere; no significant mail service (I seem to be getting new mail but more than a month's worth of old mail has DISAPPEARED), no trash pickup and problems here and there, but it's even worse further into New Orleans. As I drive around the city there are boats all over the place: on the edge of the interstate, in parking lots, and huge piles of debris, twisted metal and trees strewn about. Clean-up is coming along, but even a month later, the place still looks like a bomb went off.

However, the bigger bomb... Hurricane FEMA, continues to spread its devastation (and now) misinformation... check THIS OUT: This is a big story that the mainstream hasn't grabbed yet.


While everyone points fingers at state, local and federal authorities regarding how things went wrong in the Hurricane disaster planning, including claims by both FEMA and Bush that "nobody anticipated a disaster like this", truth is starting to seep out that this is complete BS. As the ex-FEMA director points fingers at the Louisiana Governor & others, insiders who were involved in the government's hurricane plan show who was really at fault.

The reality is, a company was contracted by FEMA to produce a new disaster-recovery plan for the almost exact situation presented by Hurricane Katrina. In their exercise, the now-infamous "Hurricane Pam" was the event which triggered deep analysis and logistical planning - a simulated storm which almost exactly took the path of Katrina. A project implemented by the federal government more than a year before Katrina hit involving dozens of agencies working together to figure out detailed, realistic plans on how to quickly rescue and restore the city. What went wrong? An insider posted a very revealing analysis of the project and points to FEMA as the main protagonist in making bold promises (and ultimately not delivering) during all stages, and even pulling funding in the final stages of the disaster recovery plans and causing things to potentially unravel after most of the hard work had been done.

Check it out here: The real deal...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/9/192848/9052

So: Louisiana did have a hurricane plan, but was devising a new one, to be based on recommendation from the people who would actually be doing the work. The need to evacuate people from impact areas, including those without transportation or the means to obtain it, was discussed, despite media assertions to the contrary. The possibility of levee overflow was discussed (levee breaching may have been discussed at some point, but I was in the dewatering room, and I never heard it mentioned. A rescue and evacuation plan, including sheltering, was reasonably firm. There were and are officials in Louisiana, including New Orleans Emergency Management, who know the limitations of current planning and who have been trying to come up with a better solution.

The problem is FEMA, and by extension the Department of Homeland Security, which gobbled FEMA up in 2003. FEMA promised more than they could deliver. They cut off deeper, perhaps more meaningful discussion and planning by handing out empty promises. The plans that were made -- which were not given any sort of stamp of authority -- were never distributed or otherwise made available to those who most needed stable guidance; they vanished into the maw of FEMA and LOSHEP (probably when Col. Brown was removed from his command due to financial "irregularities" -- the project was tainted after that). Adoption of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) would have made most of the plans moot anyway -- FEMA's adherence to the untried NIMS is a primary reason for the chaos and ineptitude surrounding

their relief efforts.

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More FEMA debacles... Let's say you have people in need and you're FEMA. What do you do? You close down the aid center because, um, there are too many people who need help??? WTF?

Saying they were caught off-guard by the number of people in need, FEMA (search) officials closed a relief center early on Wednesday after some of the hundreds of hurricane victims in line began fainting in triple-digit heat.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170711,00.html

I really am not trying to beat up on FEMA but every time you turn around, this agency does something profoundly bone-headed. This administration is complete chaos when it comes to protecting its people.

FEMA = Federal Emergency MISMANAGEMENT Administration

Wasteful Charity

Interesting article on the Red Cross and how rich their executives are:

"Red Cross' Top Person: Marsha Evans

Top Salary:* $651,957 (FY ending 06/30/03)

Total Revenue FY ending 6/2003: $2,946,000,000"

There is no one, repeat no one, that is worth that kind of money let alone members of a charitable organizations who can't or won't fulfill even their mandate let alone are befitting of all that dough!

Just like days of old when all were duped into thinking that the kings where above others but finally when challenged to prove that they indeed were better than others they could not do it.

In this gloomy picture there yet may be glimmer of hope - naturally you will not hear much about this if at all....

"...One charity has stayed above all this for 137 years. The Salvation Army is unique among all U.S. charities for many reasons. Let

20mph

The beginning of a new week. More and more people are coming into town. More and more people are wheeling-and-dealing to get into restricted areas of the city -- most people are not having problems getting in, and are finding that there's not much to salvage.

The next few weeks should be even busier around here. We have people staying with us on-and-off as they come into town.

Many of us are feeling lots of stress. Even though things are seeming to return to normal, the parade of people coming and going, the invasion of so many contractors and other foreigners in the city, the weird sense of distorted, ambiguous authority has all of us on edge. Even though most traffic lights are lit, almost nobody obeys the speed limit or follows the rules. Everybody seems to sense that there is no traditional traffic enforcement going on. A sign on my street says "20mph even for maggots!" - I'm not sure exactly what that means, but the lady on the corner is apparently fed up with people speeding.

Three trips in and out of Orleans today... each time you go through a roadblock, it's slightly different... some loose, some uber tight. Took some interesting pictures including a humorous poke at FEMA:
http://www.mikeperrymedia.com/xib/20050927-kat/index.html

Nice pictures of the crashed helicopter at Bayou St. John, Airline Hwy at the Orleans Parish line where they've created a levee across the highway to stop water, some erie dark clouds from Hurricane Rita as it passed nearby, and various random shots of debris and destruction, including a friend's beautiful hard wood floors completely buckled and ruined...

Tidbits:

Monday, St Bernard Parish residents were allowed to enter their city in select areas. Unfortunately, the Parish, according to NOPD and the State Police, didn't coordinate things with New Orleans and when thousands of evacuees on I-10 were stopped at the Orleans Parish border, things got nasty. State police refused to let the people from Chalmette go through Orleans to get to their homes, citing the interstate was for emergency vehicles only. So the St. Bernard people blockaded all of I-10 and refused to let any traffic through until the authorities let them pass through New Orleans. Several hours later, they got their way. For awhile, it was a very tense scene.

249 New Orleans Police Department officers went AWOL during Hurricane Katrina. The department is trying to figure out how to impose some sort of punishment/investigation against the police officers who didn't serve during the crisis.

Video montage of press & president during Katrina:
http://www.bushflash.com/wmf/leadership.wmv

Through-provoking montage of the New Orleans disaster situation with music by Bruce Springsteen:
http://theunitedamerican.blogs.com/Movies/Myhometown.html


Five people in Beaumont are dead after they were discovered in an Apartment; authorities suspect they died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator indoors. Ok, Louisianians are notorious for being stupid enough to try to outrun trains and getting hit, but even a Louisianian wouldn't be dumb enough to run a generator inside their house. Darwin winks.

Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail - Don't Expect Service from the US Mail

We're battening down the hatches and hanging here for Hurricane Rita. Hopefully it will not turn east. You can watch the action in the area here:
http://webcam.icorp.net/
(provided we have power or the generator is working)

Apparently I'm not the only one who is noticing the abnormal amount of incompetence of the Feds in managing things. There's now a web site collecting stories:
http://femahorrorstories.blog-city.com/

However, I did get an e-mail from someone who was working the phone banks for FEMA and wasn't happy at my characterization of the organization.

Let me qualify this. I honestly feel for those who are "in the trenches". I've never personally met a FEMA rep who wasn't a really nice person who wanted to help others. Unfortunately, these aren't the people who make the decisions and create the multi-layered bureaucracy. There's an inherent, definitive, decline in the efficiency of any organization which is directly proportional to its size. If you don't believe me, go into any chain store and tell someone there you aren't happy about something. Watch their surprise... not because they're concerned about an unhappy client, but because they can't believe that you'd think they could give a damn.

If that agency is a government agency, double the inefficiency. One thing that bothers me is that government pay scales are tied to levels of formal education and not real-world experience. Someone fresh out of college kid who has a bachelors degree and works for the government will get paid more than someone who never graduated, but has 20 years of experience. In the government, the more you can keep yourself out of the real world and a regular career, the more money you can make.

So you FEMA people who may be helping out, you have my empathy. I know it's hard doing what you're doing. I know it's even harder because half the stuff you're telling hurricane victims is probably BS, but that's what you've been told to say.

Speaking of the government, I don't understand why the USPS continues to suspend mail service to many areas of the city that are now beginning to thrive. Remember that saying? "Rain, Snow, Sleet or Hail, nothing will stop the U.S. Mail?" In my area, we should have full mail service. There is no good reason. But we're lumped in with New Orleans proper in the 700xx zip code and we should have had mail service restored more than a week ago but we don't. A huge portion of the city is moved back in and rebuilding, but nobody can get any freakin' mail! One post office near by house seems to be open, and I dropped by the other day and it was like something out of M*A*S*H. You had a huge group of people in a big line asking if there was any mail for them. Seriously, it was like some sort of military mail call, where a carrier would yell out someone's name or address and people would shuffle around.

I can understand that some home delivery may be delayed, but I have a P.O. box at a very big, undamaged post office which has remained empty. I'm still waiting for this month's issue of Penthouse Forum dammit! (A big shout out to my good friend Xaviera Hollander, who has stayed in touch and been quite concerned about how things are going down here. I hope all is well in Amsterdam.)

On more positive notes, Cafe DuMonde opened up in Metairie, and having a beignet was just the medicine I needed to remind myself of some of the good things New Orleans has to offer. We decided to purchase a big quantity of beignets and drove them over to the national guard relief station and give them to the soldiers. I'm not sure these kids knew what a beignet was, but I think they definitely enjoyed them and we enjoyed doing something for them -- they've been doing a wonderful job of taking care of us. If you have a hankering for a beignet, you can make your own - our online shop for Cafe DuMonde is up and working at: http://shop.cafedumonde.com/

Which reminds me, I really want to do more for the guard troops who are in the area. They're working their butts off. If anyone has any ideas or things to donate you think they would appreciate, let me know and we'll figure out something to do. In the mean time, I'm going to keep bringing them beignets and other little local things I can get ahold of.

My friend Kim had an interesting theory on mother nature I thought I might share:

It occurred to me tonight, listening to CNN....Much of nature contains self-correcting systems. Natural forest fires clear out brush while sparing the larger trees, resulting in forests that are less susceptible to fires. Animals that reproduce too rapidly end up competing for limited resources, and eventually enough die from competition or starvation to reduce their numbers back to sustainable levels. You get the idea.

Now, our own over-indulgence in fossil fuels creates global warming. Global warning leads to melting ice caps and rising sea levels, and possibly more, or stronger, hurricanes. (There is some scientific disagreement about that, but bear with me. Rising sea levels alone would make even normally-occurring hurricanes more destructive by bringing storm surge closer to the coastal cities.)

So these hurricanes totally whack the offshore oil rigs and refineries in Texas and Louisiana, disrupting the supply of petroleum products and sending costs skyrocketing. Gas could go up to $4 or $5 a gallon, more if there are other problems down the line, like say more hurricanes next summer, or over the next decade, for which they are predicting more active hurricane seasons.

The high prices encourage conservation and make it much more desirable to investigate alternate energy sources. Maybe they actually make the most petroleum-guzzling country on the planet use less. And given enough time, perhaps that leads to the reduction of greenhouse gases and an end to global warming.

And the system corrects itself. The only drawback is all the extensive pain and suffering required to get things back on track, when we could have just decided to do it ourselves without being forced into it by scarcity and high prices. Unlike the multiplying rabbits or the tinderlike underbrush putting themselves at risk, we have the ability to plan ahead and change our actions when we see trouble coming...if we are smart enough to do it.