I'm going to Graceland...isn't that ducky?

The world famous Peabody ducks

Well, you didn't think I'd not take advantage of the lag time I had in Memphis, did you? Those of you who have known me for long know that there is little chance of my getting into Memphis and not checking out Graceland, the home of the King of Rock and Roll. I have never had an opportunity to visit this national landmark, but there is an odd coincidence. I was in Tennessee when the funeral for Elvis Presley was held back on August 18, 1977. Elvis died on August 16 that year and I was in Virginia enjoying a wonderful day out on Smith Mountain Lake near Lynchburg. I was driving back that weekend when I thought long and hard about making it to the memorial service. As it turned out, I decided against going there even though my mother was certain that I was making a beeline for Graceland. When I showed up in New Orleans on time and without a detour to Memphis, I do believe my mother said a prayer and thanked divine providence. There are many things to do in Memphis. Obviously, there are the tours at Graceland and then there is Beale Street, the home most associated with the blues movement in America. But beyond that hoary tradition -- and remember we do have Bourbon Street in New Orleans -- there is also a very engaging practice that takes place every day at 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m every day. That's the March of the Ducks at the Peabody Hotel. Many of you are uninformed, but the historic Peabody Hotel has been featuring its twin daily marches for most of the last 73 years. The marches are orchestrated by a "Duckmaster" or "Assistant Duckmaster" and the four mallards and one drake march to the music of John Phillip Sousa's "King Cotton March" during the morning and evening marches to or from the lobby's fountain area where the ducks hang out during the day. The ducks work for three months before another set of ducks are introduced to this strange, but very popular tradition. They begin their march on the roof of the historic Peabody Hotel and return to their "duck palace" by evening. For those of you who have not experienced this delightful tradition, I recommend a trip to Memphis to enjoy this free show.

All the Way to Memphis

Jewish New Orleans evacuees at Camp Henry S. Jacobs in Utica, Mississippi

With the decision still forthcoming from city and state officials as to how and when they would begin to let residents of Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes return, I made the decision to leave the wet and muddy environs of Henry S. Jacobs Camp and venture northward to Memphis. The steady, driving rain for most of the drive through Mississippi made driving conditions difficult. My attention was affixed on the opposite side of Interstate 55 and the astounding number of vehicles headed southward to New Orleans and lower Mississippi. It was notable for one major reason: there were caravans of hundreds of tree cutting and energy service support vehicles traveling ten or 15 trucks at a time. The state border was shut down at Louisiana by state troopers. Unless one was an emergency responder (doctor, policeman, fireman, etc.), he or she could not gain access to the state. Vehicles were being turned away in droves. And so I headed north...towards Graceland and Beale Street. Memphis is home to the largest Orthodox Jewish population in the South and many of the religious observant New Orleans community headed there for support during this evacuation period. Kosher food is plentiful here and an eiruv (enclosure) has been constructed in town that allows Jewish residents within it to carry items on Shabbat, for example. Many Jewish families stayed in Memphis during the weeks they were away following Hurricane Katrina. It wasn't a difficult decision for many of them to make again. After making the drive in intermittent rain still left from the area of disturbed weather that once was Hurricane Gustav, I arrived in the Home of the Blues. Last night with only a few hours to rest, I was invited to the home of Dr. Seth Kaufman, a pain management doctor here. Unbenownst to me, many of the evacuated New Orleans Jewish community had also been invited there. Among the guests were Joel and Natalie Brown of Kosher Cajun Delicatessen and Grocery. They announced they were leaving to make their way back to their store and their Metairie home in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. They said they had only lost power to their refrigerated food items for eight hours, which meant everything was still good. Other guests included their sister-in-law Jennifer Fertel and Dr. Ed and Channah Lang. The Brown's daughter Ruth was celebrating her birthday and several local Jewish girls and boys wearing kippahs (skullcaps) and contemporary clothing were relegated to the kitchen area while the adults dined on kosher beef ribs, vegetarian chili, baked beans with meatless sausage, grilled chicken, grilled eggplant, cole slaw, kosher hot dogs and hamburgers. No one went away hungry, because there was also an ample supply of fresh deserts baked or prepared by Mrs. Kaufman, a former registered nurse. She managed to spring on me something I had never seen before: a yellow watermelon. It was quite refreshing and I had a small portion of some passion fruit sorbet to finish my meal. I was so tired that writing became a chore. That's the reason that this post is going to be made on Wednesday, albeit very early on Wednesday.

Jewish New Orleans evacuees including Kosher Cajun's Joel Brown, center, enjoying Memphis hospitality

AVODAH Corps is here too

Joshua Lichtman, right, meets with some of his AVODAH Corps members, now evacuated to Henry S. Jacobs Camp

Joshua Lichtman, the director of the New Orleans office of AVODAH Corps, the Jewish service organization, had planned to have his orientational retreat for his nine recent college graduate members in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. When Hurricane Gustav threatened New Orleans and Lichtman found that the portion of Mississippi he and the graduate volunteers were in was also threatened and that nearby Camp Henry S. Jacobs was offering sanctuary for anyone in the area, he decided fairly quick to move over to Jacobs and make the best of a bad situation. "Tomorrow morning would have been their first date," Lichtman explained while meeting with most of his group late in the morning at the Jacobs dining room. Seven out of the nine AVODAH members made it to Jacobs. These include Ora Nitkin-Kaner from Toronto; Ariana Kolins from Brooklyn; Yaeli Bronstein from Teaneck, N.J.; David Eber from Salem, Oregon; Meredith Grabek from Paxton, Massachusetts; and Eliza Baron from Milburn, N.J. One volunteer will be dedicating herself to helping with ongoing recovery efforts across the city with Rebuilding Together. One will work with the Public Defender's Office and another, Eber, will be working with the lofty sounding Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. I asked him what all of those words meant. "They buy products in bulk and then they give them at little or no cost to residents like green technologies," he said. "They promote getting better business, not just liquor stores and fried chicken stores, but fresh products. It's everything from parks to better lighting, to getting transportation, and getting businesses to help the community."It's certainly a mouthful, but it is an opportunity to make the neighborhood sustainable, both ecologically and economically. These idealistic recent graduates are all living together in an uptown home to which they can't wait to return. If the storm continues on its present track, I can't see any reason why they can't be back in just another day or two.

Girding for Gustav

Evacuees at Henry S. Jacobs Camp watch TV news reports from WDSU-TV

There is no doubt that with the mandatory evacuations of both Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, the greatest confluence of members of the extended New Orleans Jewish community is right here at Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi. Worried evacuees have been crowding into the recreation hall at the camp this morning where a large screen rear projection TV with stereo speakers has been broadcasting WDSU-TV's signal over DirectTV's Channel 361. WDSU has always been my favorite New Orleans station. After all, it was the area's first television station, founded in 1948 by Edgar Stern, one of the Jewish community's best known philanthropists. I confess that I especially like Margaret Orr, an accomplished meterologist who might otherwise strike you as a soccer mom. As Gustav approached the Louisiana coastline, she provided incredibly accurate and calming reports that literally took the winds out of the alarmist we call our mayor. In case you wondered what the "C." in C. Ray Nagin stood for, I'll give you a hint. It isn't Classy! While reasonable journalists and responsible city officials were trying to be accurate and give the citizenry expectations of what was to be, Mayor Nagin was in front of the news cameras urging that citzens should "get your butts out of town." It confirms my suspicion that he is the mother of all mayors. According to reports, news from the city is good this morning. Gustav has been downgraded from a Category 3 storm to a Category 2. My good friends in Houma are taking the full force of the storm, but it has proven to be a lot less of a "mother of all storms" and more like a kid sister. There is concern still left for St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes because of rising water and the possibility that levees could be topped. Gustav is still a very dangerous storm and the levees will continue to be tested for another 12 hours. Yet, as was the case with Katrina, it could have been so much worse. Snake-bitten New Orleanians, familiar with what Katrina did to the levees structure were not taking any chances. Sure, the metropolitan area is largely without power. But, heck, we're used to blackouts and brownouts ever since the grid went back up after Katrina. So, the waiting game goes on here in Mississippi, but I believe we may have dodged a bullet.

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.