Various observations
Oct. 11th, 2005 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infrogmationBeen in town one week.
Main activity: Cleaning up (de-debrising) my place.
Small signs are all over town along the roads, many announcing businesses that are open. Others advertise clean up, repair, etc companies or workers. One of the more interesting was a hand made with a phone number and "TEMP REPAIRS TREE INSURANCE".
More is opening up every day. Yesterday the laundrymat near me opened.
Large parts of the city, however, are still, well, dead zones is the term that comes to mind-- even parts of Uptown that were flooded. No lights at night. Grass and shrubs killed by the toxic flood waters.
Also, nothing like regular trash pick up. Foul odors abound; it reminds me of Belize City, which when I lived there for a few months had open canals which served as the sewage system. Let's be honest: It's nasty here.
Still, this weekend Uptown seemed more healthy, and for the first time I've been seeing families with children back.
Somewhat to my own surprise, I have not gotten down to the Quarter yet. I even didn't take up a chance to jam last weekend. I got into sawing and carting fallen trees, and just kept at it til too tired to go anywhere else.
One of the early days in town I was driving on the Westbank with Ms Hollie, and there was a Salvation Army truck set up at one of the more up & running intersections in town at that time (had an open grocery store, gas station, and pharmacy). I pulled in, just 2 cars ahead of me. I asked if they had bottled water (east bank not yet declared safe at the time). They said yes, and food too if you want some. Sure, I said. They handed us two small personal bottles of water, two styofoam containers with a ladel full of stew (not bad), and two rectangular packages from a large stack that I thought were going to be MREs, but were instead Bibles. They didn't ask if we wanted any Bibles, they just gave them.
Main activity: Cleaning up (de-debrising) my place.
Small signs are all over town along the roads, many announcing businesses that are open. Others advertise clean up, repair, etc companies or workers. One of the more interesting was a hand made with a phone number and "TEMP REPAIRS TREE INSURANCE".
More is opening up every day. Yesterday the laundrymat near me opened.
Large parts of the city, however, are still, well, dead zones is the term that comes to mind-- even parts of Uptown that were flooded. No lights at night. Grass and shrubs killed by the toxic flood waters.
Also, nothing like regular trash pick up. Foul odors abound; it reminds me of Belize City, which when I lived there for a few months had open canals which served as the sewage system. Let's be honest: It's nasty here.
Still, this weekend Uptown seemed more healthy, and for the first time I've been seeing families with children back.
Somewhat to my own surprise, I have not gotten down to the Quarter yet. I even didn't take up a chance to jam last weekend. I got into sawing and carting fallen trees, and just kept at it til too tired to go anywhere else.
One of the early days in town I was driving on the Westbank with Ms Hollie, and there was a Salvation Army truck set up at one of the more up & running intersections in town at that time (had an open grocery store, gas station, and pharmacy). I pulled in, just 2 cars ahead of me. I asked if they had bottled water (east bank not yet declared safe at the time). They said yes, and food too if you want some. Sure, I said. They handed us two small personal bottles of water, two styofoam containers with a ladel full of stew (not bad), and two rectangular packages from a large stack that I thought were going to be MREs, but were instead Bibles. They didn't ask if we wanted any Bibles, they just gave them.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-11 11:22 pm (UTC)How did the Bibles taste?
Date: 2005-10-12 03:26 am (UTC)I refrained from saying anything to the Salvation Army guys (I was still in WTF? mode), but I did ponder to Hollie on how useful these "aid" items might be as levee fill.
Re: How did the Bibles taste?
Date: 2005-10-13 12:21 am (UTC)