New Orleans Coverage
If you’ve been following the hurricane coverage with a watchful eye like I have, you have probably spent a good chunk of time on our sister site, Metroblogging New Orleans. The boys down there are doing a phenomenal job, so much so that The Trib has taken notice.
While mainstream media has provided quite a bit of information, I’ve found that the blogs offer the best perspective on what is going on, and have been reporting truths and discrediting rumors before the news sites. My boss commented on Monday that MBNO had better coverage than CNN. Chris in New Orleans has written a scathing article tsk-ing the lack of media coverage, and with good cause.
New Orleans is a town that, much like Chicago, has a lot of civic pride. People love their city, and can’t wait to get home. I can’t even imagine being forced to leave Chicago for safer pastures, not knowing when I would be able to return. A heartfelt hope to everyone down in New Orleans that news starts to turn better, and soon.
I still can’t even fathom the thought of having to leave town because 80% of it is underwater. Please everyone…do what you can to help out those folks whose lives have been turned upside-down.
It’s so sad and horrifying to read the NO metblog. It breaks my heart.
My extended family arrived on Sunday from New Orleans. They packed their cars with what they could of their lives and escaped to safety. I’m so happy to know they are safe, but their lives have to go on. School was supposed to start, so they have to enroll their kids in the school here. And they have no idea the condition of their home. It could be flooded, it could be destroyed, it may have been ravaged my looters. So all they can do is sit around and worry. And they have no idea when they might be able to return. It could be days, it could be weeks or even months – if there is anything to return to at all.
We have this idea that we have some semblance of control of our destiny… of our own lives. Events like this put that in perspective.
I keep thinking about the kids I worked with who survived the tsunami. I know our society has created a situation where people feel a lot of loss of material things, but I’d hope that in times like this that people just look around and see that they have family and friends who love them and know that they’ll get through it. My family is crazy. They are fascinated by hurricanes and tornadoes and wave the damage off as “stuff happens”. They’re nuts. -Well, they’re New Orleans folk. That kind of says it all. I guarantee they’re all sitting at my cousin’s dining room table playing cards or dominoes.
My friends and their family evacuated to Baton Rouge , but their homes have most certainly been wiped out. My dear friend Jane has a shotgun off Magazine that’s up on blocks, so it’s sure to have been washed away. My New Orleans family is in New Roads staying with my cousin until they’re allowed back in the city next week to check the damage. Again, home in the Garden District, but it’ll probably fare better than the shotgun.
It’s just surreal. Everything is under water. It’s strange, but I keep wondering what happens to the mausoleums. We have a family tomb there. Wouldn’t the water pressure break them open? Creepy.