That was the bumper sticker we saw in Jefferson Parish, where we are staying. On a GMC Denali.
It reflects the view of all of the folks we have met this week, the older affluent folks out here who have hosted us as well as all of the people we have met in the city and in St. Bernard Parish, where two groups are working on houses.
Those two houses lie in St. Bernard, across the the line from New Orleans and further down the Mississippi. The neighborhoods look a lot like those we worked in last year, same style and of the same era, except we know that St. Bernard was mostly white prior to the storm and New Orleans East was mostly African-American. The storm happened to both of them. In Chalmette, the Katrina storm surge blasted up the MRGo, a largely useless ship canal built in the 60s, and it overwhelmed the city. Water day one was up to 14 feet deep. Our construction manager said one building was judged habitable in the whole parish post Katrina. Where "Gabe and Babes" (plus Lee and Norm) have been working in Chalmette, today we saw the flood line, perhaps four inches below the ceiling. Today, maybe 4 in 10 houses in this neighbood are re-occupied. Next to ours on one side the house has been razed, the house other side is condemned, as is one across the street.
It's been explained. The people are willing, but the funds are not there. The Federal Housing program set up for rental housing has yet to issue a dime in loans."The Road Home", the State and Federal program that leads to grants for homeowners, is a bureaucratic mess. We met someone yesterday in McDonalds who saw our t-shirts, said thanks, and said that her application for Road Home funds went 2 years without action. She was unable to do a thing to her house, and the parish had to condemn it, and today it's a concrete slab on a lot available for purchase from the parish.
We passed a house yesterday, in which the owner had sprayed in large letters, "Don't Destroy this House! CALL DAVE!" With a phone number.
So. Forget Iraq. Rebuild New Orleans.
-- Lee
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It's very helpful to hear this description of what is going on. Have you heard any word of attempts to fix the system--like, is anyone suing FEMA? not that it would get their house fixed.....
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