Coasting...
With my business partner and friend, I journeyed back to the Mississippi coastal villages and New Orleans last week. It had been 20 months since my last visit to those regions. I first went in about 8 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, and then again about 4 weeks after that.
On those trips, the devastation was overwhelming. There's little I can add to what the media provided. Except to say that it was different in person. It lacked the news show theme songs, the celebrity newscasters and the commercials. It was just quiet and desolated.
What has been erased along the Mississippi coast is human architectural history at the waterfront. From Biloxi to Gulfport to Pass Christian to Bay St. Louis, most of the historic antebellum architecture was wiped out by wind and surge. Remember, a 50-foot wave slammed into this area.
One can really see what a difference it made to be behind a primary dune system. Only those structures still stand. The dune took most of the energy of the surge.
The land there is very flat. And on 99.99999999% of all days, the Gulf of Mexico there seems as flat and harmless as a back bay, and nothing at all like the open big water that it is. A large hurricane makes it traitorous. The other days lull the populace into denial.
The recovery we saw consisted of: massive debris cleanup; live oaks who sprawling limbs had been stripped away now putting forth green leaves and branches; a few new and disposable high-rise condos built upon land so historic that one almost wishes for another surge to carry them away.
I predict that if the scientists are off a bit in their former prediction that we're in a new 40-yr hurricane cycle that will bring us more Katrinas, that investors and developers will slowly creep back to redevelop that area. But if they are right, and these two years since Katrina are the anomaly before the storms, I predict the developers will hang back.
That open land at the edge of the Gulf is nearly irresistible. Green now, with weeds growing at the sites of former mansions, the empty lands provide a view not seen in nearly 200 years. A developer's dream, the erasure of old development making way for the new. But it comes with a price. Howling winds, slamming seas, and death. Everyone still there is a survivor.
New Orleans has always been a different story. And while its main avenues and high ground are looking pretty recovered, taking a wrong turn and going around a block reveals the truth behind the facade. Still, I'm grateful for the facade. All small towns develop their main streets first, an economy grows, and then the rest of the town.
One bit of good news is that my activist friend over there -- one who has effected much positive change over several decades in that city -- may yet find a way to force the reopening of the Charity Hospital system. If he succeeds, the city will regain an important part of its infrastructure: medical care for the indigent and trauma care for everyone.
My business partner was slammed with a sudden migraine and before analgesics began to work for her, I went through some moments of hell realizing this was happening in a city with no infrastructure. If it had turned out to be more serious, I would have had to strategize some way to carry her to another city far enough away from Katrina's devastation that a hospital would have been available. Thank God it didn't come to that. But it caused me to realized that I wouldn't live there with children or old people. It wouldn't be safe. Likewise, I wouldn't want to be in an accident there, or cut myself seriously.
The good news is that the artists of that area are recovering. Many restaurants have reopened. Whole Food Market has reopened on Magazine Street. The French Market is undergoing improvements. Barring another attack on the levy system, the city will largely come back. But, like the Mississippi coastal villages, a lot of disruption has occurred, a lot of people are dead, and a lot of history has ended. What replaces all of that remains to be seen. Pray that something authentic survives.
..................................................................................................................@
With my business partner and friend, I journeyed back to the Mississippi coastal villages and New Orleans last week. It had been 20 months since my last visit to those regions. I first went in about 8 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, and then again about 4 weeks after that.
On those trips, the devastation was overwhelming. There's little I can add to what the media provided. Except to say that it was different in person. It lacked the news show theme songs, the celebrity newscasters and the commercials. It was just quiet and desolated.
What has been erased along the Mississippi coast is human architectural history at the waterfront. From Biloxi to Gulfport to Pass Christian to Bay St. Louis, most of the historic antebellum architecture was wiped out by wind and surge. Remember, a 50-foot wave slammed into this area.
One can really see what a difference it made to be behind a primary dune system. Only those structures still stand. The dune took most of the energy of the surge.
The land there is very flat. And on 99.99999999% of all days, the Gulf of Mexico there seems as flat and harmless as a back bay, and nothing at all like the open big water that it is. A large hurricane makes it traitorous. The other days lull the populace into denial.
The recovery we saw consisted of: massive debris cleanup; live oaks who sprawling limbs had been stripped away now putting forth green leaves and branches; a few new and disposable high-rise condos built upon land so historic that one almost wishes for another surge to carry them away.
I predict that if the scientists are off a bit in their former prediction that we're in a new 40-yr hurricane cycle that will bring us more Katrinas, that investors and developers will slowly creep back to redevelop that area. But if they are right, and these two years since Katrina are the anomaly before the storms, I predict the developers will hang back.
That open land at the edge of the Gulf is nearly irresistible. Green now, with weeds growing at the sites of former mansions, the empty lands provide a view not seen in nearly 200 years. A developer's dream, the erasure of old development making way for the new. But it comes with a price. Howling winds, slamming seas, and death. Everyone still there is a survivor.
New Orleans has always been a different story. And while its main avenues and high ground are looking pretty recovered, taking a wrong turn and going around a block reveals the truth behind the facade. Still, I'm grateful for the facade. All small towns develop their main streets first, an economy grows, and then the rest of the town.
One bit of good news is that my activist friend over there -- one who has effected much positive change over several decades in that city -- may yet find a way to force the reopening of the Charity Hospital system. If he succeeds, the city will regain an important part of its infrastructure: medical care for the indigent and trauma care for everyone.
My business partner was slammed with a sudden migraine and before analgesics began to work for her, I went through some moments of hell realizing this was happening in a city with no infrastructure. If it had turned out to be more serious, I would have had to strategize some way to carry her to another city far enough away from Katrina's devastation that a hospital would have been available. Thank God it didn't come to that. But it caused me to realized that I wouldn't live there with children or old people. It wouldn't be safe. Likewise, I wouldn't want to be in an accident there, or cut myself seriously.
The good news is that the artists of that area are recovering. Many restaurants have reopened. Whole Food Market has reopened on Magazine Street. The French Market is undergoing improvements. Barring another attack on the levy system, the city will largely come back. But, like the Mississippi coastal villages, a lot of disruption has occurred, a lot of people are dead, and a lot of history has ended. What replaces all of that remains to be seen. Pray that something authentic survives.
..................................................................................................................@
posted by Luna @ 10:36 PM
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