The Long Goodbye

I am watching the last of my neighbors pack up his truck as he prepares to hit the road with his family headed for Texas. Our normally busy street is deserted. The stillness in the air is pierced by gusts of what is now a very pleasant breeze. In just a few more hours, however, it will be another story. Gustav is intent on making me a very unpleasant camper and I have horrible feelings about having to leave my humble abode, the home I had been forced to desert unintentionally after the levee breaches three years ago. It is the home that you see above and to the right of this blog with over five feet of water lapping at its base. It has only been 16 months since I returned to New Orleans, living 20-plus months in Cleveland, Ohio. The prospect of having to stay away for another undetermined period is frightening and heartbreaking. What effect this storm will have on the ongoing recovery effort from Katrina remains to be determined. Certainly, the effect on the psyche of the populace has been severe. From reports I have received and watched on my still functioning TV, the drive on the road has been sluggish, at times creeping at a snail's pace. At times the contraflow is moving at 70 m.p.h., while at other times and for no apparent reason, drivers slam on the brakes and everything backs up. I purchased a generator yesterday thinking that it might have been necessary. Now, because I cannot trust leaving it anywhere in or around my house, I will be driving up to wherever I go with it in tow. The only good news is that Gustav seems to be intensifying less than expected and that it still seems to be on a track headed away from New Orleans. It's just not far enough. Were I in Mobile, Alabama -- a two hour's drive under normal conditions -- I would still be in peril. So, the best thing to do is head north and hope that the levees hold. Authorities already have stated that the West Bank area including Algiers is at certain peril due to levees that are expected to breach or are not yet completed. This is ironic because the West Bank was the first area to rebound after Katrina. Gustav could very well finish the job that Katrina and Rita started three years ago. Only time and infinite patience will tell as well as the care and protection of the Lord. Bless us all and keep us in your prayers.

Another mandatory evacuation...

Myron Goldberg, president of Congregation Beth Israel in New Orleans, leads an afternoon prayer service (Mincha) on August 29, 2008 at the still devastated synagogue that was destroyed exactly three years before. (Photo Alex Barkoff)

Mayor Ray Nagin just announced the second mandatory evacuation for New Orleans this evening just before 8:00 p.m. Governor Bobby Jindal and Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu has also urged everyone to take heed to the warnings and get out of town now. We are on the bad side of the expected track of the storm, even more so than Hurricane Katrina. The exodus out of the city has been going on all day with most every channels out of the city slogged down to a snail's pace at the edge of the city. All Home Depot, Loew's, Wal-Mart, and Sam's Club stores have closed down as of yesterday. Gas stations have shuttered their doors and most essential services are but a memory. I have resigned myself to the fact that this is a life threatening situation. Family members have all called and urged me to get out. Yet, I believe it is necessary that someone be here to document what is happening here as we prepare for the worst and hope for he best. Contraflow is due to start at 4:00 a.m. on the major arteries out of the city, which means New Orleans will have no means of entry once those plans are implemented. It's the first time that this plan of simultaneous flow both eastward and westward out of town has been implemented. This weekend, the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was to have featured a number of memorials to those whose lives were lost and as a way to recall what was prior to today considered the storm of the century. Thursday evening's Levees.org event had an auditorium full of people at Touro Synagogue, but that was before the dire warnings from authorities began to be issued. Friday afternoon a Mincha (afternoon) prayer service was held at the Lakeview site of Congregation Beth Israel (see above). That structure is still shuttered after three years following catastrophic destruction that resulted after the 17th Street Canal levee was breached during Hurricane Katrina. After the service was over, the members headed over to Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie, the site where they are now meeting to hold Shabbat services and to enjoy a meal with one another into the late hours of the night. At the same time across town at Temple Sinai, one of the oldest Reform temples in New Orleans, an interfaith prayer service hosted by Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn was held. At the event was Francis Hughes, Archbishop of the City of New Orleans; Episcopal Bishop Charles Jenkins; as well as other clergy representing Protestant, the Ba'hai and Islamic faith groups. It was an impressive night. Yet, the storm that was forming in the Caribbean was very much on people's minds. It was the elephant in the back of the room that could not be ignored.

Anniversaries and Alerts

Three years ago the city of New Orleans withstood its greatest challenge when Hurricane Katrina slammed into it with wind gusts of up to 140 miles per hour. What followed the onslaught of wind and driving rain was a man-made disaster of greater proportions, the failure of the levee structures designed to protect the city. It has taken an army of dedicated city workers, loyal residents and outsiders who won't stand idly by and let politics and apathy take over where the flood waters receded. The only thing that can kill the city of New Orleans is not opposition to its rebuilding campaign. It is apathy. Apathy will drive a wedge into the heart and soul of the City That Care Forgot. So on this important anniversary, as another storm threatens her, don't you forget to care.

Yo no me gusto Gustavo

It looks like my worst fears have been realized. A storm with the potential to be worst than Hurricane Katrina seems destined to impact New Orleans. I am frightened, but I am determined to stay and report on this very important event. I am thinking that I should be hoofing it right about now, but I know that my true responsibility is to let people know what is happening here. I have the resources to do so and will be dumb enough to be prepared to hunker down and deal with this natural disaster. Don't misunderstand me. I am sure that I will be dealing with a loss of power at the very least. However, if things work out, I will be at the epicenter of a very important story. Say a prayer for me and wish me well.

The Weary Wait

While millions of our fellow Americans watched Hillary whip the Democratic National Convention into a dither last night, all of New Orleans was chomping at the bit, wishing it were all over so they could see more of what really interested them...the weather report. As Gustav pounded Haiti, the entire populace of New Orleans kept a watchful eye on every update available, taking note of the barometric pressure of the storm, its forward momentum and top wind gusts. Gustav, like voodoo, is an export from Haiti that most New Orleanians would disdain. This dangerous storm looks like it will be the first to disrupt oil production since the twin threats of Katrina and Rita in 2005. To his credit Governor Bobby Jindal was broadcasting to the populace emergency plans he was putting into place and announcing that evacuations, voluntary at first, would begin by Friday. People who remember the mass exodus from New Orleans on the days prior to Katrina making landfall do so with pain etched on their faces. The 70-mile drive to Baton Rouge took some people as long as six hours and the town was booked solid for those who needed a hotel room or other suitable lodging for an extended stay. A drive to Houston took 12 hours, according to those that made the trip, and the trip to Mobile was also marked by bumper-to-bumper traffic that should have only been a few hours at most. The elderly and those dependent on care will need to leave the city very early so as to make as expeditious and safe an exit as possible. Then there are those stubborn fellows like me who are loath to leave home and hearth no matter what nightmarish scenarios might occur. The fact is no one can tell just where the storm will make landfall and the margin of error is too great to be overly concerned. So we wait and watch. And wait and watch. And wait and watch.

Dare we mention the "h" word

Fay is a just memory now, but all of a sudden an area of disturbed tropical weather in the Caribbean has strengthened into a full-blown hurricane and Gustav is now on everyone's minds. Looking at the suggested trajectory of the storm (according to the National Hurricane Center), it may well come into the Gulf of Mexico and, if it holds its present course, may become a problem for us unlucky fellows situated along the Louisiana coastline. Well, it is only three days away from the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. This is the time of year that we are all prepared for this kind of problem and I've spent much of my life dodging storms. The irony of all of this hurricane preparedness is that for Hurricane Katrina, I was out of the picture. I was vacationing and didn't have an option of staying or leaving. In fact, when I left, the storm was little more than a minor consideration for Louisiana or Mississippi, where it eventually came ashore. We were all told that the storm would skirt up along the Florida peninsula and threaten Panama City and Tallahassee. In 24 hours it changed course and headed straight for New Orleans like a powerful locomotive on a long and straight stretch of track. It wasn't until at the last possible moment, as the storm began lashing the coastline of Louisiana and Mississippi that it veered toward the right and moved ashore east of the city.
Levees.org is getting ready to roll out one of its big guns in its tireless fight against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whom they hold responsible for the failure of the levee system designed to protect the city of New Orleans. On Thursday night, they will release a new short film titled "The Katrina Myth: The Truth About a Thoroughly Unnatural Disaster." Produced by Levees.org, the advocate organization headed by Sandy Rosenthal, the short film will be presented at Touro Synagogue with a festive party on the eve of the Katrina anniversary on Thursday night. Following the opening party with a live jazz band, the film will be shown, followed immediately by an audience discussion. To reserve a place for this free event, call 504-269-2650.
Another reform temple, Temple Sinai plans an interfaith worship service on Friday evening. Around the same time Congregation Beth Israel worshippers will hold their Minchah (Afternoon) prayer service at the site of the destroyed Lakeview synagogue on Canal Boulevard. A major program on Sunday morning will follow where markers recalling the 3,000 holy books and seven sefer Torah scrolls that were destroyed and buried in the synagogue's two cemeteries will be revealed. Community members are encouraged to participate at the outdoor event and to enjoy a festive repast at the new site of the synagogue, Congregation Gates of Prayer. This will probably be the last time that the Hurricane Katrina anniversary will be observed at Gates of Prayer, since Beth Israel is due to move out of the rented space they have been using for the past two and a half years by next July.

We're gonna party like it's Two Thousand and Nine

While flash storm warnings remain in effect across southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi from still stubborn tropical depression Fay, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that it could have been a lot worst. Sadly, the folks in Florida got a pounding from Tropical Storm Fay that resulted in a lot of flooding. Nobody appreciates the damage that can result from flooding more than the populace of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. I hope they make a full and quick recovery. In the meantime, much of the nation's attention is now focused on Denver where a political storm is being unleashed on the national scene in the form of the Obama-Biden ticket for the Democratic National Convention there. I don't know if Senator Joe Biden's addition to Barack Obama's ticket will prove to be fortuitous or not, but I do reckon that Senator Hillary Clinton's addition might have foretold of doom. The so-called "Dream Team" bruited by President Clinton could have resulted into a nightmare. Hillary will have a hard time convincing the majority of her backers that they should fold and cast their ballots for Obama, but she doesn't have much choice. Unless she wants to be perceived as a spoiler (and forever cast her as a non-team player), she simply must do what the presumptive nominee wants and needs. Tonight, it will be another wife taking the national political spotlight in the person of Michelle Obama. Fist bumps aside, I am waiting to see and hear what the Demos have up their sleeves to make the case for her husband. I am sure it will be a spectacular send up. Party people (as in Democratic), give it up for Master O and his posse. There's a lot at stake and nobody knows how to party more than them. Of course the same can be said about strife and infighting. Let's hope they party more than they squabble.