Where the Jews Are

The very first bands of thundershowers associated with Hurricane Gustav roll into the deserted uptown of New Orleans

I must offer apologies to Connie Francis for the title, but I do confess it seemed somehow appropriate to have a theme reminiscent of the Sixties, and the beach. After all, I'm at summer camp! I left New Orleans at 7:05 p.m., just as the first droplets of rain began to fall and the most ominous clouds you can imagine began to peer over the horizon. All day long the breeze was steady, but really only gusting every now and then. Just as my car was finally packed and I was ready to leave for Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi, the wind started to pick up significantly. The air became crisp and cold and the skies darkened. Once I started winding my way onto the streets adjacent to my home, the heavens opened and the heavy rain was a more or less constant companion for me until on the interstate well into Mississippi. At times the rain was driven horizontally towards my windshield by the sheer force of the winds. It was scary, but manageable. That was the bad news. The good news was that since I waited so long to leave, there was very little traffic on the highway. What I had surmised would be a five- or six-hour ordeal, turned out to be a little over three hours, more or less normal driving time between New Orleans and the camp, which also serves as the site of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, whose executive director Macy Hart was the original director of Henry S. Jacobs Camp 40 years ago. During my days as a camper I went up to Camp Blue Star in Hendersonville, North Carolina for seven years in a row. The year before he came down to Utica to set up shop for a new Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism) summer camp, my counselor at Blue Star was none other than Macy Hart. As a matter of fact, Macy was still the camp director when my son attended camp here. There are about 150 Jewish New Orleanians living at Jacobs Camp for the next few days (they hope no more than that). Although donations are being accepted, the camp's present director, Jonathan Cohen, is not charging for any essential services for any visitors. The camp is not even charging for meals. Nevertheless, it is still a remarkable gift of charity. Meanwhile, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans executive director Michael Weil has set up shop in Memphis a few blocks away from the Federation building there. Should levees be breached during or after Gustav and the evacuation becomes more prolonged, the New Orleans Federation is prepared to link with the Memphis Federation. Incredibly, the camp has Internet services as well as digital TV that is permitting visitors to be able to view WDSU-TV 6 in the relative safety of the camp. Several of the younger set have been occupying themselves by singing Karoake, something Jonathan Cohen, who likes to go by the nickname "J.C.," humorously calls Evacuroake.

So, we are in a waiting mode as Gustav will take at least another eight to ten hours to come ashore. Some of us are glued to the big screen TV in an adjacent room. Others are on their computers messaging each other. The other necessities -- cell phones and i-Pods -- are also being widely used by the younger set. Some of us old timers are consoling ourselves by singing songs with guitar accompaniment. Can you say "Kumbaya?"

Update on evacuation

New Orleans City Council Vice-President Arnie Fielkow and his family members.

City Council Vice-President Arnie Fielkow and I just met on the street and confirmed to him that I plan on leaving after all. I am now heading to the area where most of my fellow New Orleans Jews are hunkering down, to wit, Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi. It should be about a five or six hour journey that would normally not take more than three. Contraflow has been running so effectively that Louisiana State Police officials are now considering ending it within a 20-hour period. Since the contraflow was implemented at 4:00 a.m. this morning, that means that it could be over with by midnight. Of course, that's about the time that the storm is due to start slamming the city with tropical storm force winds. I will let you know what is going on as soon as I have news to pass on. In them meantime, keep those prayers up and keep us all in your thoughts.

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.