Hurricane Isaac: A Post-Mortem Analysis

I was going to do a comparison/retrospective pre-storm post cleverly titled "Isaac Meet Gustav.  Gustav, Isaac" --  a flashback-flashforward piece, if you will, involving this post.  However, my detailed prep routine highlighted in that Gustav post prevented that.  

Folks getting their extra 2 inches of parking elevation pre-Isaac

Isaac, as irritating as he was, provided positive experiences I would not have otherwise had.  I learned that I have some very interesting neighbors.  Despite New Orleans' reputation for close-knit communities, I had never gotten to know these folks.  A lot of bonding can happen on a neighbor's front porch on the pitch black, windy, wet second night of a 'cane.  The cool Tulane college students who live next door and I finally had the opportunity to really hang out.  They even came over and made a delicious meal in my candlelit kitchen, complete with enthralling conversation that made me feel like a dope compared to their brilliance.  I, in return, provided some "radio action" during which Margaret Orr wowed them and, consequently, gained a new fan or two.  I experienced the kindness of my neighbor, about 7 or 8 years old, who swept the leaves off of my side of the porch in the heat of the morning without even being asked to.  

 

I learned that if you have older candles you haven't used in a while, you should make sure before the power goes out that the wicks aren't buried in the wax. 

I learned that my cat BoBo gets car sick. 

I learned that given the choice, I would pick air conditioning over cable TV, telephone service, and yes -- even Internet.

The bluish (some see more green, others more purple) glow given off by transformers in the pitch black darkness of a windstorm is eerily cool!

Tree down on Leake Av. - Wed., Aug. 29th, 2012

I learned that my what-to-cook-in-the-order-it-will-spoil-without-electricity strategy needs a great deal more refinement.

I learned that if it involves using the oven in an already sweltering house that I will most likely not cook it.  To hell with it spoiling!

Stacy Head's Emails: An Analysis

Garland Robinette is put off, and rightfully so, by the public's focus on a few distasteful emails to the detriment of the bigger problems facing the City. Still, Stacy Head's ongoing issues with how she approaches things and people are relevant to how well she is performing in the very important job of councilwoman. So, I really can't help but weigh in on what the T-P published today. I often agree with what Ms. Head tries to accomplish on the Council, but her presentation sucks.

My analysis of her electronic communications:

"Pisses me off 100 percent of the time. I have been shopping carefully, looking at the per serving cost of all items. This chick in front of me is buying pre made croissant and egg, canned soups, solft driinks, pre made beef pattie (who eats that???), pre made RICE KRISPYs!!! Precut sweet potatos (didn't know those existed) and is payong with a food stamp card. I am voting for the freak mccain and his trash bag vp. I am sick of it."

• First of all, this rant was written 6 days post-Gustav. Citizens evacuated via public transportation were still trying to get home, electricity was still lacking in a good number of areas, curfew was still in effect. She was stressed out I'm sure, but THIS set her off? And at the same time most public officials were trying to extend emergency food stamp benefits to practically everyone?
• Ms. Head assumes the food stamp user is not cost conscious. Does she know the woman's monthly food budget or how much money she had on her food stamp card?
  
• Apparently, food stamp users should be forced to buy the cheapest food in the store while simultaneously meeting Ms. Head's personal culinary standards of no pre-packaged foods.
• It seems Ms. Head would compromise her political philosophy in a second to either end food stamps or make food stamp recipients cook everything from scratch. (I guess I missed this particular pledge of the McCain-Palin platform.)
  
• Why is she so angry about this?

Putting this together with the other emails, and from much of what I have heard come straight out of Stacy Head's mouth, this is not someone inclined to understand, let alone respect, others' points of view or life circumstances. Does it ever cross her mind that she could be wrong or that she doesn't know everything. Even her failure to check her spelling and grammar suggests that she expects people to know what she is talking about, and it shows a lack of consideration for bothering with whether others grasp what she's trying to say or accomplish.

Does she ever talk TO people or just about them?

She comes across as a spoiled bully. She wants things the way SHE wants them, and more and more it seems like being confrontational is the only way she knows how to accomplish anything.

On The Road Again

Like nearly 2 million fellow Louisianians, I participated our new age tradition of getting the hell out of dodge before Gustav before completing a few minor rituals that accompany getting ready for storms:

• Hitting at least 5 stores to stock up on beer, liquor, food, water, batteries, cat food, cat litter, paper towels, styrofoam ice chests, medicine, beer, liquor, heavy duty gloves for post-storm clean up, flashlights, beer, liquor, transmission fluid, motor oil, beer, and liquor
• Spending about 4 hours on the Internet and phone with 3 relatives and 4 rental car companies and 1 bank executive figuring out how my non-driving, non-credit-card-owning grandparents could rent a car for them and a relative willing to drive them in a day and age when apparently good ole American cash is no longer good enough for conducting good ole American lifesaving business
• 2 hours on the phone and Internet trying to find a hotel that takes pets
• Washing 4 loads of laundry and packing some of it (hey, I was without a dryer for a few weeks so I was a bit behind, OK?!)
• Trying not to get too stressed out
• Helping a friend board up windows and move stuff out of her basement
• 2 trips to the gas station
• Checking the weather forecasts 40-50 times a day
• Securing a few outdoor items to keep them from flying away
• Planning my contraflow evacuation route and devising alternate routes to avoid that pesky problem of ending up in Florida instead of Texas
• Accepting that I'd be driving to Texas without that much needed front end alignment after pulling up to Firestone and not even being able to find a parking spot
• Gathering up papers needed to work on a manuscript due August 30th (LOL-- yeah like THAT happened)
• Backing up important computer files on my flash drive
• Checking in with relatives and friends to find out if, when they were leaving and devising alternate plans of communication for when cell phones would inevitably become useless
• Washing the dishes in the sink so they wouldn't mold and smell up the place
• Taking out all the trash in the house
• Throwing away all food in the fridge that would spoil after losing electricity
  
• Packing the car at 4:30AM with part of my stockpile detailed in bullet #1, important briefcase of important papers already packed and ready to go at moment's notice, shrimp boots I believe are given to every male born in south Louisiana at birth, first aid kit, CDs for the drive (even though I know I'm going to listen to news radio damn near the whole way), family photos that post-Katrina wisdom dictates are no longer safe left at home on top of an 8-foot high bookshelf, strategically placed cat food, water, litter, & cat toys (before realizing my cats were planning a hunger-drinking-pooping-playing strike to protest the interruption of their livelihoods);
  
• Helping the friend I tailed to Shreveport pack her car at 6AM; aaaaaand...
• Playing that fun game with my employer of Do I Have to Go to Work? When Do I Need to be Back? How will I know I need to be back? Hell, I Just Hope to Have a Damn Job a Week from Today
  

You know, it's quite amazing there aren't more tragedies on the road when 2 million sleep deprived people are driving for their lives. Then again, who had the energy for road rage?

Once I settled into my comfortable, spacious hotel room in Dallas (ever thankful and knowledgeable of the fact that many of us were living without that luxury and reminiscing on my own lack of such accommodations during Katrina), I realized that I needed this vacation. Gee, I wonder why.

One thing about disasters is that they do bring us together. Especially when Louisianians outnumber Texans on Texas highways and essentially commandeer their hotels for a week or 4. I imagine the same applied in every state below the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Rockies. Prompted by my formidable friend who runs New Orleans: A Labor of Love (still bringing folks here to rebuild from Katrina, by the way) to get off my ass and do something while in exile, here are a few pics of fellow citizens I got to know while away. I don't even know the last names of these families, yet I'm still thinking of them and hoping & praying that things work out for the best for them.

Algiers, Avondale, & Harvey, Louisiana

Cut Off, Louisiana (a.k.a. down da bah-yoh)

Church Point, Louisiana (outside of Lafayette)

Beau-Barack & Bella-Michelle hanging out in Dallas, TX during Gustav

Cats don't much care for evacuating either