Well finally made it back to NO after 4 days in Pensacola ( a truly beautiful city which impressed me as a cross between New Orleans and Cape Cod) Unevacuating was as disorganized as evacuating: first only people with special colored placards could get back in … only trouble was nobody I spoke to, including numerous police officers, had any idea what the placards were or where they came from. Then we could get in Tuesday nite…until Gov. Jindal heard Ray Ray say that and immediately issued a slap down. Then we could get in at midnite on Wed …curious time for rentry given there was a dusk to dawn curfew and that Jefferson Parish had a 6AM renetry time earlier that day …and to get to JP from the east you have to go THROUGH New Orleans. Finally even the Guard and state troopers gave up and simply walked away from the checkpoints as carloads of families were arriving with not enough gas to go anywhere but home.
So we’re home and you’d think the first priority is electricity in everyones homes. Or being sure their was food for all the people returning. Or maybe gasoline to run the generators we have to use because the power isn’t on. But no…apparently the most important thing in New Orleans right now is …NFL football.
That’s right … the city is telling police who have been bivouaced in local hotels they have to leave for tourists …but more than half the police had no power in their own homes! The grocery store around the corner from me has no power and people going thru the dumpster they are using to clean out the store to get food …. but the city is cleaning up trees and brush around the Superdome. Treme, the oldest black neighborhood in the US, has people sitting on their stoops in the dark while lights are on in all the downtown hotels. And don’t worry about milk and bread for the kids…we hav plenty of warm beer and cigarettes.
Kudos to Gov. Jindal for his overall organization of the state repsonse and the local police and National Guard for their outstanding efforts in assisting people and most of all kudos to the great citizens of New Orleans and all of southern Louisianna who have endured yet another natural disaster with grace and charm … and continue to endure the ongoing natural disaster we call the Mayor. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
