Eddie's Ready To Leave: NOPD Chief Quits

During the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, two New Orleans figures seemed omnipresent. The first was the bald, gray-goateed mayor whose profanity-laced addresses to the media made him at times sound like a losing football coach. The other was the police chief, Eddie Compass, whose tongue-twisted, exasperated public statements caused him to resemble someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Those who don't know New Orleans probably think Compass's departure is a good thing for the city.

Over the past four weeks, the head of the city's police had to shoot his way out of a besieged hotel, presided over a department that had disintegrated to roughly 30% of its active force- the AWOL 250 number is very charitably inaccurate, mass looting- some by policemen while wearing their uniform, and the worst riot in New Orleans in over 100 years.

So why am I not dancing in the street and beating his likeness with my shoe over his dismissal.um I meant resignation?

I honestly believe Compass is a sincere person and did the best he possibly could. While good intentions are the stuff freeways to hell are paved out of, in a corrupt morass like New Orleans, they not only count for something but differentiate him from most prominent people in influential positions of city government.

I had the chance to meet the chief at a Young Republicans meeting (Compass is not a Republican but courteously agreed to speak to the organization nonetheless). After listening to him speak, I developed a few opinions.

The first impression was he seemed obsessed with proving his mental agility. He spent a great deal of time discussing his academic research and even recited a lengthy poem he had committed to memory. The crowd of Republicans politely, if not patronizingly, applauded; I sat there and wondered how the hell the head of security for a crime filled city like New Orleans found the time to remember stanzas and hobnob at Loyola University while doing his job. Perhaps too harsh of a judgment on my part but that was not the only thing that popped in my mind.

My second take on Compass was that he was an honest cop. Not the most able man in uniform as a more qualified candidate for the post was probably passed over for political reasons, but he was at least trying, and for that he gained my sympathy if not respect.

With his career as a Police Chief ending on the same public note James Hazelwood's time as a sea captain concluded, Compass should be properly remembered for two things.

The first was the personal effort he put forth throughout the Katrina crisis. The chief was not just before the cameras in the Hyatt but also in the thick of it. There was one memorable scene where Compass through a bull horn was trying to quell unruly crowds outside the convention center.

The second instance of character was when Compass called for a repeal of the city's infamous "residency rule" for NOPD officers, a reverse discriminatory ordinance that has contributed to the spike in New Orleans' crime rate by chasing away experienced policemen who choose not to live in Orleans Parish.

The rule was enacted as a sop to the city's politically involved ministers and racial demagogues who prioritize demographics over public safety. The policy was a thinly veiled announcement that "whites need not apply." Several career policemen who skirted the ludicrous rule were humiliated on the front-page of the Times Picayune only weeks before Katrina hit.

Few African-American politicians, including the business oriented mayor, have shown the guts to scuttle it out of fear of being labeled an "Uncle Tom" even though the results of this politically correct yet reality challenged policy were evident in the post-Katrina lootings.

Compass's replacement for the interim and possibly the long-term is Warren Riley, the deputy chief and unsuccessful candidate for Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff. Riley is a competent career officer and not as prone to exhibit himself emotionally as Compass did.

Hopefully Riley will pick up the tattered standard of taking politics out of police recruitment by scrapping the "residency rule" and promptly clean house of those men and women charged with the responsibility to serve and protect who failed both the people and their boss.

A Blessing In The Ruins: A Trip to Post-Katrina New Orleans

The world has seen many unflattering visuals of the destruction caused by Katrina and the looters in the Queen City of the South. Networks have made a point of accentuating the human chaos in New Orleans while putting off coverage of the deaths incurred by the Category 5 hurricane in the surrounding areas, particularly in my home parish of St. Bernard.

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to see in person New Orleans in the aftermath of the rising waters and the breakdown in civilized order that overtook the city.

My expedition to inspect what was once Louisiana's largest city began in the congested current holder of this distinction, Baton Rouge. I also had a personal tie with the trip south.

Mere hours before I had fled to Phoenix on the eve of Katrina's strike against the southeast Louisiana coastline, I had the presence of mind to collect a few things that I could store in my humble chariot (1995 Ford Escort), items I couldn't take with me on the plane to Arizona.

Some of the worldly goods secured in the vehicle included my computer tower, two laundry baskets worth of research- a result of three plus years of staring at a microfilm machine and amazingly not developing epilepsy, a handful of hard to find books, a sack of dirty clothes, and a tuxedo I had accidentally left in my car from an event I was supposed to attend but did not.

As I packed, the floor of my abode looked like the last German bunker scene from Patton as papers were scattered across the floor as I bustled about frenetically just before my own retreat. While zipping west on Judge Perez Drive I mulled where I could safely park my modest conveyance.

I know.how about the parking garage by the Superdome!

I did not know what to expect when I approached Jefferson Parish, where commerce and a sense of normalcy had returned. Upon reaching the border of Jefferson and Orleans Parishes, I noticed that the boundary had been fortified with a rampart of shells and was guarded by soldiers.

The route to the Superdome area would be over Claiborne Avenue, a meandering boulevard that passes through some of the city's ritziest neighborhoods and most economically depressed areas.

The road was cluttered with debris and the numerous ditched cars on the green areas had shown evidence of having been totally submerged under water. A city that was home to around 500,000 souls had been deserted, with only a few homeless people shuffling about. The near total lack of life in an urban area had an eerie feeling, as if a neutron bomb, a weapon of mass destruction that can wipeout thousands while largely leaving structures in tact, had been detonated.

I made a point of looking for waterlines on light covered houses to estimate the extent of the flooding. The degree of inundation differed along Claiborne Avenue, ranging from 3' at Carrollton Avenue to 6-7' around Martin Luther King Boulevard. Evidence of looting was apparent at a large liquor store, a grocery, a Rite Aid, and a recently opened Quizno's. The new Salvation Army building near Napoleon Avenue had its glass façade ripped apart and office areas were exposed, though its pillaging was the work of nature.

After crossing the overpass that led to an abandoned I-10, I entered downtown New Orleans, whose shattered buildings resembled a shelled Beirut during the height of the Lebanese Civil War. Dozens of office windows had been blown out at the Dominion Tower and the Hyatt Hotel. The Superdome showed considerable wear, as the white paint, which draped over its side, had been pealed like an onion from its roof, yet the Freeport McMoran building seemed fine.

The waterline at the Superdome was at 2-3' and the area was crawling with soldiers, including airborne units.

My party slowly navigated towards the New Orleans Centre parking garage, only meters from the now infamous chaos that turned the architectural "Eighth Wonder of the World" into a hellhole. While riding into town I had mumbled prayers and petitions to the Blessed Virgin that I would have something left, but because my car had been parked next to "riot central," I feared the worst.

I explained to the airborne contingent my intention to retrieve my vehicle, or what was left of it, and he allowed us to pass through the darkened parking garage. The good news was that I had parked on the third level between three large concrete walls so my car should not have received any water damage or smashed windows from flying rocks.

I raced up the three flights of stairs and made a bee-line to discover if the human element had destroyed what I figured had been spared by Katrina. There was my heap on an angle in one piece! Despite the "W" and Bush-Cheney 2004 bumper stickers, my tires were not slashed nor were any contents removed. My now three weeks' of dirty laundry, my spyware contaminated obsolete hard drive, my precious research and Office Depot industrial strength hole-puncher.all there!

Even my tuxedo made it through. All I needed now were spats, a monocle, and a top hat and I would be the most dapper evacuee this side of Fred Astaire.

In the middle of the partially destroyed downtown New Orleans, my Ford Escort had weathered the storm of nature and disorder. A sign in the heavens it wasn't but the four-door Escort was enough of a miracle for me.

It overheats, has a malfunctioning CD player, a slipping transmission, a broken air conditioner, and is not much to look at overall, but it still ran and what digital pictures, including my Euro pics, I had lost at my apartment were safe in my computer tower concealed under a pile of dirty clothes. This experience has given new meaning to the Kodak digital preservation commercial currently airing on television.

When considering the rapes, murders, and mass looting that characterized the days immediately following Katrina's visit to New Orleans, my good fortune seems insignificant. However, I'll take what nuggets of good news where I can find it, even if they are found in some of the least likely places.

Rating C-Ray: Judging The Mayor of New Orleans

"Don't believe any false rumors unless you hear them from me!"

That rhetorical gem was uttered by that master of malapropisms, New Orleans Mayor Vic Schiro during Hurricane Betsy back in 1965 and is perhaps the most memorable act of that mayor during the city's worst natural disaster up until three weeks ago.

How the current city leader will be remembered in posterity in the tragedy named Katrina is a matter of great importance in the very near future.

Mayor (Clarence) Ray Nagin will be on the ballot this coming February, assuming New Orleans has by then returned to functioning order and that attorneys for partisans do not try to have the election held up for political reasons.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Nagin lacked a significant announced opponent, not that some Lilliputian candidates had not already promoted themselves through illegal yard signs scattered across the city's neutral grounds (medians).

Even without a declared opponent of substance, Nagin has caught political heat. Politically active African-American ministers, men of God who have curiously been lockstep with a corrupt political machine, have challenged the mayor's "blackness" and obnoxious "drop pieces" have circulated around predominantly poor areas portraying City Hall as being under the control of a bunch of "Uncle Toms" and "Steppin Fetchits."

Ethically, the mayor's administration has been blasted over several questionable contracts by insiders that include an embarrassing pricey garbage can endeavor and the controversial matter of swapping out the old working parking meters with new complicated electronic ones that don't accept dollar bills (though similar devices that do are in use in Miami).

Nagin also falls short as a warm and personable politician. Not that congeniality is indicative of competence or morality, being gregarious is important to lending an air of being one with the people. But should anyone expect anything else than aloofness from the man who used to run the cable company?

And then there is his unenviable streak of backfired political endorsements that inspired a Saints fan to beg for him to "endorse" the Atlanta Falcons.

However, the aforementioned now lacks significance as Ray Nagin will be judged on one thing alone when his name appears on the ballot: his response to Hurricane Katrina.

The most vivid albatross around Nagin's political neck is the photo of those flooded buses that were not used to shuttle residents who lacked their own transportation out of New Orleans.

Some have mused that if the city machines had those same buses at their disposal and if there was election going on, every inner city resident would have been whisked away with unparalleled efficiency. But lives, not an election, were at stake, possibly explaining the dearth of vim and vigor on the part of the Democratic organizations towards their most loyal constituency.

Assuming the buses were up and running, where would the refugees (or whatever politically correct euphemism that also applies to yours truly) have been sent? You'll have to see the "special woman" in Baton Rouge for that answer. And she and her cohorts proved to be as equally unprepared as the city.

The local reaction to Katrina indicates the current generation of city politicians has done more whistling past the graveyard than taking proper preparations, not that there is a dust-covered binder containing an effective evacuation plan in the bowels of City Hall with "Dutch" Morial's name on it

And then there was Nagin's ill-advised announcement about the secondary nature of arresting looters in Katrina's wake, though to the mayor's credit he reversed course soon enough and unapologetically called for a crack down on the chaos that engulfed New Orleans.

Where Nagin shined brightest was through his passion on behalf of his citizens and personally being on the scene, at times literally standing up to his neck in the thick of the waters. Though Nagin's language wasn't G-rated, it belied the sense of urgency of the situation.

The mayor never minced words about the shortcomings of the Democratic governor's indecision nor the Republican administration's tardiness. It's hard to imagine any Dem politician in this partisan day and age not employing restraint on chiding a fellow Democrat official. It's this trait that has made Nagin an unwelcome figure in the Louisiana Democratic establishment and a welcome alternative to the political norm.

Sure Nagin committed blunders but who is to say any other candidate for mayor from the 2002 crop that was mostly chaff would not have made the same errors as Nagin or had done worse.

There is no doubting Nagin has fought his heart out for his hometown, without factoring in party advantage.

In other words, I'll give C-Ray a "C".

Hurricane Double Whammy? Rita Looms In Gulf

If Tropical Storm Rita, the 17th named Atlantic storm of the 2005 season, makes the transition to hurricane and clips southeast Louisiana, allow me to share some advice to my fellow émigrés: buy lottery tickets!

They say “lightning does not strike twice in the same place.” Actually it does, but such an occurrence is rare.

I wonder if there is a similar axiom about houses floating into apartment complexes. “Homes don’t go a crashin’ into the same rental units more than once,” a leathery Cajun version of Gabby Hayes might muse aloud between spits of tobacco and swigs of Dixie beer. If they were such a saying, I might be willing to play the odds this week if Rita rumbles through what is left of St. Bernard and eastern New Orleans.

Had there been no Katrina, TS Rita would be dismissed as the typical looming threat that many ignored and simply “rode through,” an interesting phrase as most New Orleans residents endure these powerful storms on dry land (or what used to be dry land).

But since southeast Louisiana’s world has been turned upside down by the Category 5 Kat, people are understandably jittery.

Being Catholic (and therefore superstitious), the name of this new storm alone is a frightening omen as one of America’s biggest nursing home tragedies took place at St. Rita’s Nursing Home, where an estimated 34 elderly patients drowned when its owners unwisely decided to roll the dice with the lives of dozens of people’s grandmothers.

But there are serious reasons to be concerned about TS Rita.

The high pressure system moving east in the northwest Gulf of Mexico will likely force the storm, by then a hurricane, into an area spanning from the Mexico-Texas border through south-central Louisiana. As hurricanes are hard to accurately predict days away from actual landfall, the atmospheric conditions could change for the better from Louisiana’s perspective and shove Rita west. Or fickle Mother Nature could send the storm north to the Louisiana-Mississippi border, AKA Katrina Ground Zero.

While Rita is unlikely to become the same size of her gargantuan sister hurricane, the new storm in the gulf would not have to be a powerful hurricane to be comparably destructive. Many of the earthen walls that protected southeast Louisiana communities from storm surges in the Gulf of Mexico have been battered beyond use.

Ninety percent of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet levees were smashed by Katrina, so even a lesser category Rita could inundate St. Bernard and eastern New Orleans with water as the first line of defense that had mostly protected this region between 1965 and 2005 is now gone.

To use a football analogy, imagine the levees are a defensive line and Hurricane Katrina was a fullback that punched through the line. Now imagine a second play where TS-Hurricane Rita is a running back about to run through the same hole except four defensive linemen are still on the ground.

Lake Pontchatrain could also be a problem as the crude levee repairs at the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal, while sufficient enough to plug receding water, would easily burst open with the appearance of another hurricane, once again sending waters pouring into Lakeview and central New Orleans.

After engaging in a war of words with the new FEMA director on the ground, Mayor Ray Nagin has accepted that his “second line” back to the city has been rained on by Rita and has called off the proposed reopening of New Orleans.

The Navy is sending its relief ships up the Mississippi River and the St. Bernard Parish Government, now the governing authority of a sludge-covered ghost suburb, has nixed its tardy re-entry schedule and is weighing whether to evacuate to higher ground instead of just a taller building. Repopulated Jefferson Parish, which had just finished restoring utilities, might be the scene of yet another massive exodus as Baton Rouge property values continue to rocket.

Residents of the Bayou State are running out of patience with these once in a lifetime “super hurricanes” that have hit twice in the same vicinity within a 30 year period as the slate of names for 2005 Atlantic storms nears the end of the list (there are only four left) with over 70 days left in the official hurricane season.

Presidential Olive Branches and Visions of Reconstruction

After two weeks of finger-pointing, including by yours truly, the last few days have been more conciliatory. The oil and water-stained rug yanked out from under "Brownie" via reassignment, President Bush then followed that up by assuming responsibility for the tardy Federal assistance, which preceded a statewide address by Kathleen Blanco where the embattled Democratic state chief gave an opaque admission of self-blame by declaring the "buck stops here" while pointing at herself.

And then there was President Bush's nationally televised speech from the same square (the former colonial Place d' Arms) where the Louisiana Territory was formally transferred to the United States. The casually dressed president, a wardrobe choice made as much for the south Louisiana humidity as it indirectly underscored the "work montage" of a city under rebuilding, strode to a microphone strategically located so his background included the images of the St. Louis Cathedral, illuminated in an almost ghostly light, and the equestrian monument to the "Hero of New Orleans" himself, General Andrew Jackson.

As a native, what struck me was the total absence of noise. I am a frequent visitor of the French Quarter (get your minds out of the gutter people, the Vieux Carre, French for Old Square - a popular parochial euphemism for the historic neighborhood - is home to some of the best rare book shops in the country) and I cannot remember a time when it was so quiet.

The president's speech was one of his finest. In fact it was the first time I have ever heard a president say the name "Chalmette" and I would not be surprised to learn that he was the last chief executive to have my town roll off his tongue since William Howard Taft canceled his trip to the home of the Battle of New Orleans in 1909 (true story).

President Bush's restating his commitment to see New Orleans rebuilt was reassuring, especially since the head of the national legislative branch had expressed doubts about the point of spending so much money to do so. But to his credit, Big Denny (House Speaker Denny Hastert) should be credited for being the quickest to cry "mea culpa" of all of those who own their fair share of the fault in the post-Katrina fiasco.

While the president made many promises towards repairing the damaged city and the surrounding areas that suffered the wrath of Hurricane Katrina and he should be applauded for indirectly stating his concerns about oversight (Louisiana's reputation does deservedly precede her), his speech was missing one critical element: a call to finally close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the scourge of eastern New Orleans, the lower 9th Ward, and my home parish of St. Bernard.

The outlet, known colloquially as the Mr. Go, has been the source of problems since the shipping channel was carved out of St. Bernard Parish's once lush wetlands in the 50s. The golden tales of positive economic impact for the area proved to be more gilded than 24 karat. Less than two ships per day pass through the outlet though the Federal Government spends $22 million a year to dredge this obsolete canal.

Instead of commerce, the MRGO has brought in saltwater, which over a period of decades eroded the swamp that once served as a natural breakwater to hurricane storm surges and decimated St. Bernard's once thriving trapping industry. The MRGO has served as an express-lane for the storm surges, as happened in 1965 when Hurricane Betsy, a celebrated hurricane that put much of western St. Bernard under water. Betsy was the worst natural disaster to hit St. Bernard. That is until August 29, 2005.

Hurricane Katrina damaged 90% of the MRGO levee that is intended to protect St. Bernard but the earthen walls are not up to task and will never be so long as the MRGO is open.

Had the MRGO never been dug, there is a good chance the total destruction of St. Bernard that came with Hurricane Katrina would have been comparably minimal. The force of water that inundated the parish would have been largely absorbed by the now extinct acres of cypress trees.

Had the MRGO never left the drawing board, tens of thousands of people would be in their homes right now instead of sleeping on cots in shelters throughout the country.

Had there been no MRGO, dozens of people in St. Bernard and the lower income areas of eastern New Orleans might be alive right now.

The task of closing the MRGO was partially done by Katrina, as the shipping channel has been rendered nearly unnavigable for deep draft ships due to the increase of silt. The Army Corps of Engineers, the agency charged with dredging it, will soon be requesting Congress for well in excess of $22 million to reopen this environmental disaster.

If Congress is interested in saving money, they should not appropriate another cent towards the MRGO and let nature deliver the death knell to this deadly tear on St. Bernard's northern periphery. The billions it will take to resurrect St. Bernard are the bitter harvest reaped from a boondoggle whose existence favors only a handful of politically favored shipping concerns.

If President Bush is sincere in wanting people to go home, then he should act to close the MRGO so those weighing a return will have the peace of mind that the conduit of their misery will torment them no more.

Katrina’s Wrath: Ground Zero

Baton Rouge has been the state’s largest city for nearly two weeks now. Louisiana’s capital city was mostly unscathed by Hurricane Katrina in terms of wind and water damage but has suffered problems related to the deluge of evacuees from the New Orleans area. The immense traffic congestion aside, one would not think only 80 miles southeast was the site of the worst natural calamity in American history. It was my old college nest of Baton Rouge where I would begin my journey home.

After having spent a week and a half living in Arizona (the longest I have ever been outside my home state with the lone exception of my 2003 trip to Europe), I was anxious to return home and even more so to bring relief supplies with me to Chalmette, Louisiana’s hurricane “ground zero”.

The drive across the straight-shot that is I-12 was uneventful. The closer I came to Slidell, the more I began to notice wind damage from the hurricane through downed trees and billboards. After bearing south (east) on I-10 I would truly see in person what I had watched from afar via the Weather Channel. The lakeside residential development of Eden Isles would somewhat prepare me for St. Bernard. As I drove through streets covered with sand from the tidal surges, I saw wrecked houses and condominiums.

Rooftops were missing shingles and garage doors had been battered in. Damage televisions and furniture were piled high in the front yards of those who were able to return to their residences. The spray painted code identifying searched homes and whether bodies had been found in them adorned kicked in doors. A reported five-feet of water had rushed inside the houses but had receded rather quickly, not before having taken a toll on virtually all possessions not secured in an attic.

After crossing through Eden Isles, I began driving over the Highway 11 bridge, once known as one of the deadliest bridges in America because of their being no barrier between the opposing single lanes. Though an extremely old bridge, the Highway 11 crossover was drivable and almost empty of traffic going in either direction. The preferred manner of crossing the eastern side of Lake Pontchatrain was the I-10 twinspan, though its eastbound side had been washed away, though no missing segments were noticeable on the westbound bridge.

After crossing Lake Pontchatrain, the scariest part of the Tucson-St. Bernard run was to be made: Highway 90, known to locals as the Chef (Chef Menteur- a French memorial to an Indian chief native to that area known for his mendacity which in English means “Big Liar”.)

As the world saw only hours after the last winds of Katrina had departed New Orleans, Louisiana’s former largest city had become a tempest of wanton criminal activity. Random shootings, looting, carjackings, and rape were prevalent throughout a city that had descended into chaos. The stretch of road through the swamp and then past some of the roughest neighborhoods in New Orleans east would be nerve-racking and before pulling out, I had informed a trial-lawyer friend from Lake Charles driving the other truck of supplies to drive as quickly as possible and not to stop for any reason, including if my own vehicle had come under attack. Though I was in my own backyard, I felt like a contract driver in Baghdad.

The trucks zoomed across Highway 90 where the sand and mud residue near the center of the lanes indicated the previous extent of the waters on the road. Fortunately, there was nary a soul in sight as even the unruly East had cleared out. The eerie silence was preferable to the sounds of gunfire as the two vehicles raced until reaching the part of I-510 not under water that led to St. Bernard. My own anxiety did not ebb until I had crossed over the ICWW (known locally as the Green Bridge). Once I had passed the final checkpoint that intercepted traffic heading to St. Bernard (where one of the teen-age soldiers accidentally discharged his rifle), my eyes had gazed upon what was left of my hometown.

The first thing I saw upon crossing Bayou Bienvenue was my grandfather’s old boatyard. His humble office had been knocked over from its supports and it looked like a tornado had hit a place where I had spent many days from my childhood fruitlessly scooping the waters with large nets in an attempt to catch my first “big one.”

The buildings that once stood on Paris Road had suffered extensive damage and those still standing had been broken to a point where the structure would have to come down anyway. The parish’s lone motel, which sat near the gulf outlet, had been demolished by the storm. As I continued upon Paris Road I noticed the Hibernia bank had lost an entire wall though the nearby community college appeared to have made it out relatively ok, aside from a missing stone pelican that had adorned one of the entrance gates.

Ponstein’s Grocery, a corner market that was a local forerunner of the modern 7-11’s that had invaded every community, had also taken a hard hit. The adjoining apartments had been destroyed as its roof had caved in. I had once thought about renting a place there.

After unloading the goods at the temporary governmental center at the Mobil Oil Refinery, I rode around a little to survey the damage in the parish’s interior in addition to taking a ride with a police escort through Meraux.

A thick, oily muck covered the ground east of Paris Road as the truck unsteadily maneuvered around debris that littered the street and low-lying powerlines. The truck slipped a little but I was able to control it. The drainage canals were still filled to the brim almost two weeks after the hurricane hit. Ahead was my now former apartment along with the house that had floated across the drainage canal that had crashed into the row of complexes. Upon hoping out, the jet-black goop landed on my legs and splashed even more on my khakis as I trudged to my front door. I could see in the murk rainbow clouds one sees when looking at gasoline spilled in water. I restrained myself from yelling out a blasphemy only to exclaim a profanity not as offensive to Providence.

The apartment complex had not been exempt from Katrina’s Wrath. Cars had floated or been thrown out of their previous parked positions. The brick side of the first unit had been torn up so much I could see inside as had the other two occupied by my neighbors.

I tried my front door just to see if it had been kicked in by looters or rescue personnel but the door had been locked as I had left it. However I noticed that the top part of my front window had been smashed open and my television antennae was poking out from the green Venetian blinds. Obviously the rising water (official estimates a peak of 6.6 feet, my own estimate from aerial pictures 10 feet or more) had punctured through or an acrobatic looter had been the culprit.

I inserted my key but the door would not open. Apparently the lock pins had corroded from the combination of salt water and sewerage and/or oil that officials had claimed that had not gone that far (though the X-Files-like black substance on my shoes and legs led me to beg to differ with their rosier projections no doubt made for liability reasons). St. Bernard Parish had experienced its very own version of the Exxon Valdes spill.

A thought had entered my mind for me to simply kick my door in just to see the damage for myself, though I knew it was total, but an army helicopter that had been circling the area that had suddenly stopped and held its position within my visual caused me to rethink this entry option, not wanting to be mistaken for a looter. Slushing through the mixture of toxic sludge, I got back behind the wheel of my truck and cautiously navigated my way back to Paris Road and crossed over to the western side of the Versailles subdivision.

The watermark on a white, intact garage door was somewhat reassuring as it was only about three-feet high, though when I reached my grandfather’s house I noticed what appeared to be “mud-laps” halfway up its white front door. My grandfather’s handicap ramp somehow exited the backyard and ended up on top of the neighbor’s garage on the front of the street. This time I could have entered through a concealed back way avoiding the helicopters but on this occasion I simply did not have the heart to enter the place where I grew up.

While driving down the mostly unobstructed west streets I saw neither standing water nor oil, though reminders from the wind and flooding damage were present. An amber-colored Cadillac was on its roof in a nearby yard though a PT Roadster only three houses down remained externally unharmed aside from a small tree branch on its top. Wooden fences were torn away and an Episcopal church had lost its roof though its giant crucifix was still in place and visible from the street. Forces of nature played no favorites with the various houses of God as my home parish of Our Lady of Prompt Succor had damage to its blue and white glass steeple and several holes around it were visible from the highway. First Baptist Church on St. Bernard Highway had its roof ripped off its Sunday school building.

A tour through the parish brought some relief to me in some areas but mostly sadness.

Perhaps the only highpoint was a visit to the parish library, which had several of its vertical panes of glass broken but otherwise many of the books were still on the shelves.

A drive east on Judge Perez saw more oil contamination as the slop was so thick in some parts that a plow that had preceded us had its track vanish before we were able to cross that part of the roadway. The old Delchamps that had been transformed into a Hollywood soundstage where Lindsay Lohan had filmed part of a movie looked as if a cyclone had visited it. A camper dealership had its wares dispersed hundreds of yards from its yard, with trailers and campers scattered into the backyards of upscale homes in the Jumonville subdivision. Borgnemouth Park where I played baseball was totally decimated with the only reminder of its field being the field lights. Another branch of the Hibernia bank, this one in Meraux, had been reduced to matchsticks with its brick exterior reduced to rubble. While exiting Meraux I saw something odd along the still standing trees lining the side of Judge Perez Drive when I saw a symmetrical line of garbage and trash on the branches marking at about 12 feet above the ground the highest point the water reached.

As I drove towards Camp Katrina, the name assigned to the Chalmette Port Slip where thousands of rescued refugees were taken across the Mississippi River, I saw soldiers in white biohazard outfits being hosed down. St. Bernard, once known as the site of one of America’s most important military victories, would now be known as the home of the nation’s greatest natural disaster and a superfund cleanup site from the excess of 350,000 gallons of oil that has spilled into the residential heart of Chalmette. If the thousands who lived there are lucky, they’ll have a chance to at least pay their residences one last visit to collect what little that might have survived the storm and the oil spill though they will likely never live on that now contaminated earth again.

My exit from St. Bernard was just as remarkable as the means of my arriving to Louisiana, as I would be departing via a double-rotor Army Chinook helicopter. The monster chopper could hold dozens of people though the lawyer and I waited for the others to board first just to make sure nobody was turned away. When the last passengers walked on to the Chinook, I took a seat near the back, the door of which was open during the entire flight, affording me a breath-taking view of the still underwater lower Ninth Ward, eastern Orleans Parish, and Lakeview that left me speechless.

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Mike Bayham is a former St. Bernard Parish Councilman and can be contacted at MikeBayham@yahoo.com.

The Spirit of Phoenix and the Incompetence of Baton Rouge

When I hastily departed to Phoenix, I had hoped that it would end up being a brief stay with friends and a chance to relax in the dry Arizonan desert. However, it became apparent once Katrina's fury battered St. Bernard Parish that my jaunt would become an extended exile. I would also learn that thanks to modern communications and technology, I would be able to lend a hand to my community even though I was well over 1,500 miles away from Louisiana.

St. Bernard Parish lost power and its communications during the storm and the deluge of water that inundated the parish to levels of 17 feet and higher had cut off the local government from the world.

Thankfully, cell phones were still operational; the ubiquitous communication devices would be the lone lifeline between St. Bernard and the outside world. As my mother, essential government personnel, had to remain at the government complex, I was able to reach her during late hours and was able to relay information to the outside world, call in address for rescues, coordinate medical drops from FEMA, and even dispatch search and rescue teams from out of the state.

From my St. Bernard Parish Southwest Command Post, I spent hours on the phone and the computer, building information websites, trying to get the attention of the national media on the parish, posting news about St. Bernard on the Times Picayune's website, and fielding questions from concerned residents.

The greatest burden that fell upon my shoulders was bearer of dire news. St. Rita's nursing home was the scene of a terrible calamity when the building was quickly engulfed by water resulting in the deaths of over 30 aged and infirm people who could not help themselves. A relative of a nurse who worked there noticed that many people were posing questions about their relatives and asked if I would be willing to pass word to families inquiring about St. Rita's.

Reluctantly, I agreed. Out of the blue, grief counselor had been added to my list of responsibilities. In a period of 96 hours, I had to break terrible news to over 50 good people. Though the requests came by e-mail, I made a point to personally calling all who inquired about St. Rita’s. Some took the information better than others when told that their mother, sister, or grandmother would not be coming home.

Since my phones were ringing off the hook at all hours of the day, I figured that meeting my Sunday obligation would be improbable and called a friend of mine who is a priest for dispensation.

After previously declining other requests, the pastor readily granted it but then suggested that I go to church and speak with the priest to see if he would allow me the opportunity to address the congregation for the second collection, which was earmarked for hurricane relief. I showed up at Phoenix's Roman Catholic cathedral and spoke with the priest officiating the 11 AM Mass and offered to say a few words, as a plea from a genuine evacuee might help spur donations.

It's a good thing I had asked for absolution as I was not able to sit through the Mass, between taking calls and fidgeting. My body was in the church though my mind was elsewhere. Just before Mass ended, the priest invited me to the pulpit and I delivered a brief talk on the destruction and death toll in the forgotten and forsaken parish of St. Bernard all the while fighting back tears.

A staff member from the office of Congressman Charlie Melancon called about raising badly needed supplies for rescue crews and rescued evacuees in St. Bernard Parish. The congressman agreed to supply the plane if I could gather the food, water, and clothes.

After spending a few days trying to reach out to Phoenix businesses, a Young Republican from Tucson called to inform me of a charity called WorldCare, an organization active in relief efforts around the world. Not having heard of this group, I was doubtful about their ability to put together so quickly nearly one ton of items.

When I arrived at the Tucson charity's headquarters, I was stunned. The large building had spilled its donated supplies out into its parking lot and there were dozens of people and donors on hand working like bees, stacking everything from boxes of underwear and socks to cans of dog food. As a large supply of water had already been loaded in the plane, I decided to bring pet food for those animals left behind and had weathered the storm and the post-hurricane starvation in adition to extra clothes for those workers who have not changed their wardrobe for over a week.

When the final load was passed through the hands of the cosmopolitan group of volunteers that included Republican activists, environmentalists, jet pilots, and postal workers, I expressed my thanks on behalf of my parish and state for their enthusiasm and direct contribution to those who needed it most, as opposed to cutting a mystery check that may or may not make it to where the money is needed most.

I dubbed the jet "The Spirit of Phoenix", to some chagrin of the locals who were from Tucson, though I explained that Phoenix was a symbol of resurrection, an appropriate analogy as southeast Louisiana tries to come back from the dead.

The flight marked one of the most relaxing moments since I left home. Away from computers and phones, I was able to sit down and just be idle. My surroundings were ironic as I was enjoying the pinnacle of luxury at my most destitute. The pilot informed me that they had an extensive DVD library on board and I selected a comedy, Dr. Strangelove. Though I had seen the movie many times, I figured I had lost my own copy in the flood and I needed a laugh.

Just as the plane descended into Baton Rouge's airport, the final scene of atomic explosions flashed on the screen as the song "We'll meet again someday" played. What an omen.

The plane was unloaded into a jet hanger and I contacted the person who was supposed to arrange the transport of the 3,000 lbs of supplies 70 miles as the crow flies from Baton Rouge to Chalmette. What would transpire from this point on would be demoralizing as gathering and hauling 1.5 tons of supplies through two time zones would prove to be a walk in a park compared to the seemingly mundane task of trucking them to St. Bernard Parish.

That morning I was told that the original plan was to load the supplies into a barge and send them to the parish via the Mississippi River, which made sense when considering the flooded roads. But when I learned that they would not arrive for another week, I nixed that and insisted that they be brought in by land. My state contact conceded the point and told me to be at the airport before noon.

I arrived at the Baton Rouge airport before 11:30 AM and waited till 1:30 PM before I was told that it would be necessary to load the goods on to a truck and bring them first to the West Baton Rouge Parish port. Without question, I complied, putting on the truck the most crucial supplies. After crossing the Mississippi River, I was treated to another waiting game in the humid Louisiana weather. The state trucks did not arrive until 5:00 PM and they had not been filled with gas, further delaying matters.

And then I heard something that put me in a state of apoplexy: the truck I was to drive to St. Bernard was not to deliver supplies but to just to deliver a truck. I had been blindsided. I furiously protested and was told that the supplies would eventually get there. All of my frustrations with the current state administration boiled over and I and a lawyer friend stood our ground: we would not be getting behind the wheel of a truck unless it was loaded. I had not flown from Arizona for livery duty nor had the people of Tucson gave essentials that would gather dust in a warehouse.

Grudgingly, the state official backed down and asked me to try and catch up later. By the time we loaded the trucks with the secondary materials, the sky had grown dark and my willingness to drive through "Mogadishu on the Mississippi" without electricity had evaporated. The run would have to be made the next morning.

Though Governor Blanco's administration had been late getting to St. Bernard and resources intended to help with search and rescue in the parish had been held up and requisitioned for New Orleans, they were right on top of the late truck delivery and were pitching a fit. I didn't really care as I was determined not to bring an empty vehicle to St. Bernard while needed supplies would sit in a warehouse or be sent to other areas.

Never mind it was the state that had changed plans because of their inefficiency; never mind it was the state that was 6 hours and 3/4's of a tank of gas tardy. The whole situation epitomized the chaotic state of Louisiana government and their total misplacement of priorities.

The trucks were unloaded in Chalmette the next day and were delivered to their intended destination where they were placed next to the eight other trucks, which had appeared unused and unmoved since they were parked the previous evening. Angry calls from the state over paperwork were directed towards this writer-disaster volunteer, but the tirades were relegated to voicemail as they just so happened to call when I was in poor cell reception areas.

The Spirit of Phoenix had encountered the Incompetence of Baton Rouge and the former prevailed despite the determined efforts of the latter.

The whole experience screamed out why so many people get frustrated not with nature but with pen-pushers and how personal initiative is suppressed by government. Apparently, hell or hurricanes hath no fury like a bureaucrat.

Morons Of The Storm

This is quite possibly the most bipartisan column I will have ever written, as I spare no quarter to those figures who I disagree with and members of my own party. Catefory 5 mistakes were made from the archbishop of New Orleans's failure to cancel Mass that weekend down to Jefferson Parish's decision to let the hoi polloi re-enter the parish at the risk of slowing down infrastructure rebuilding for more affected areas.

But then there were those who stood out as true "morons of the storm." Grave errors were made prior to Katrina's crash into the fragile Louisiana coastline and I am taking this opportunity to do a little venting and point some fingers (I won't mention which one).

Mayor C. Ray Nagin To his credit, Mayor Clarence (that being hizzoner's first name that he hates, though his mother loves to call him), fumbled at first with the parked buses that could have been used to evacuate people in advance had his administration had developed a well-laid plan of action that should have been handed down from the previous 4 administrations and fine-tuned. After the Ivan scare of 2004, Nagin should have taken disaster preparations more seriously instead of focusing his attention on installing new parking meter machines that don't accept dollar bills.

His public comments declaring looting a secondary matter caused it to become an overnight priority as New Orleans experienced its worst riots since the Robert Charles incident in 1900. His later "iron fist" approach showed that the political "scales" had finally fallen from his eyes after watching his city burn. His passionate pleas on behalf of New Orleans have struck a chord with the nation. About as close to a Giuliani as there was in the New Orleans-Louisiana hurricane crisis leadership though his previous butterfingers are inexcusable.

Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco If you don't know my take by now on this poor school board member excuse we have for a governor, you have not been reading my columns. I'll sum up her most grievous mistake in one sentence: Blanco has refused to sign over control of the National Guard to the federal government and has turned to a Clinton administration official, so basically the DNC is running Louisiana's smear the president-save the people (in that order) efforts. Maybe Edwin Edwards should be pardoned and running the state and Blanco should be in Oakdale. Not even "Fast Eddie" could have eclipsed the looters.

Speaker Denny Hastert Let's hope this guy doesn't join ER. Got cancer? Why waste my time smoker! Liver disease? Lay off the hooch! Chronic obesity? Well...um...it's not his fault he's big boned.

His comments about the wisdom of rebuilding New Orleans were unwise and rocked the morale of a devastated people. I hope he likes gas at $4 a gallon and his farmers are happy having to eat all that corn they won't be shipping through New Orleans's port. The speaker's comments were far more hurtful than Majority Leader...sorry...EX-Majority Leader Trent Lott's platitudes about a 100 politician. Louisiana's GOP Congressmen could have a tough time explaining to voters that their first vote in the 2007 Congress will be to re-elect the "heel" wrestler.

The Louisiana Republican Party As a category 5 hurricane was briskly moving towards southeast Louisiana, the leadership of the state GOP decided to hold its quarterly meeting as scheduled. Despite that 90% of the New Orleans area's delegation was busy boarding up their homes and running for their lives, the show went on. An attempt to have the meeting adjourned immediately after convening was laughed off when an officer smugly said that "he wish he would have brought his clubs along to play golf later that day." Said member also did not live in an area where the hurricane was going. Holding the meeting was a slap in the face of the New Orleans area GOP leaders while those who faithfully and stupidly tended to their duties (Yo!), lost their life's possessions. So much for "compassionate conservatism."

Jesse Jackson, RFK, Jr, and Arriana Huffington Truly the morons of the storm. The reverend claimed that the storm was racist. The scion of the martyred American civil rights politician claimed the hurricane was just desserts for Mississippi. And the Hellenic golddigger, who gave Bobby-2 a forum on her "celebri-blog," followed that gem up with wheeling out an unknown though self-proclaimed civil rights leader from New Orleans who ludicrously told the world that black people were eating corpses, if it indeed happened, it was an isolated event. The reason why so many victims of the hurricane were black is academic (New Orleans is 70% minority). To use this tragedy as a platform to race-bait is shameful.

Blanco Piddles While New Orleans Burns

When the last waters are finally pumped out of the New Orleans area, the people of southeast Louisiana, and for that matter the world, will make an awful discovery, that a great deal of the damage in the city was caused not by the winds and waters of Mother Nature but by the hands of a berserk mob.

The death toll inflicted by Hurricane Katrina itself will be staggering as the number 10,000 no longer seems like to great of an exaggeration, with a good number of these fatalities caused by malnutrition, dehydration, and disease. Yet how many of these poor souls who perished would have survived had rescue operations not been hindered by armed maniacs firing on these saviors just because they could?

When Katrina's first squalls approached, the city of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes were in a fairly orderly state. Unfortunately, the destructive void left by the storm's departure was quickly filled by mob violence that could have been contained or greatly limited.

The reports of mass looting, wanton rapes, and murders are a disgrace to the community. In contrast to her neighbor to the east, Governor Kathleen Blanco seemed more interested in showing compassion than strength during a time when order needed to be maintained.

These intended havens of mercy quickly devolved into the lowest rings of Dante's Inferno as thousands of civilians were terrorized by their fellow evacuees. Within the temporary shelters of the Superdome and the Morial Convention Center, grisly crimes were committed against the most defenseless: the children and the elderly.

A story was published about the discovery of two children who were raped to death at the convention center. Other stories were circulated concerning racial strife within the Superdome that could be compared to present Zimbabwe.

A British newspaper reported the harrowing story of English tourists and expatriates caught in the storm and sent to the domed stadium were targeted for robbery by a black mob. Several were sexually harassed and threatened. As conditions worsened, the military had to remove the internationals for their own safety. I won't bother holding my breath for Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to condemn these hate crimes.

The thin sinews of civilization in New Orleans were stripped while the leader of Louisiana indecisively piddled between sending in the Louisiana militia to quell a situation that was clearly going over the brink and trying to not offend her core constituents who might object to looters being fired upon.

Matters became so chaotic that "insurgents" began shooting at engineers repairing the breaks in 17th Street Canal levees that was the source of a portion of New Orleans's flooding problem. In a rare victory, the looters suffered casualties when the National Guard opened fire. Why would people attack the very men and women risking their lives to save the city and the very looters that (who is reserved for people, looters are soulless jackals) inhabit it?

I am certain charges will be proffered against the "murdering" National Guard soldiers shortly.

Blanco's later insincere demand that President Bush remove Louisiana soldiers from Iraq and send them home, a politically crass move that she knows (or does she really know anything at all) is impractical. New Orleans needed army rifles from anywhere on the streets Monday evening and not Louisiana guns on Friday. But then again, Governor Blanco has displayed throughout this entire catastrophe seems a greater concern for politics than people. I am sure the governor made some hacks at the DNC very proud with her anti-Bush tirades while displaying all the virtues of an inept parish Police Juror.

Because Governor Blanco refused to talk tough when it was still possible to scare off thugs itching to loot, the city burst at its seams; after the destruction began, Governor Blanco failed to back up her new posture with action, chaos reigned, buildings were destroyed and people died. Now after the fact, things have calmed down with the dispatch of troops not necessarily from Louisiana.

As we enter the 7th day since Katrina reached Louisiana, the smoldering ruins of New Orleans are a testament to Governor Blanco's incompetence and unwillingness to be firm with those who would use Katrina as a free pass to steal and kill at will, yet she appears angrier with the Bush Administration than the looters.

Legend has it when Rome burned, Emperor Nero, a musician and artist, played his lyre and sang. I wonder if Governor Blanco, known to be proud of her Cajun lineage, was playing a box accordion, a traditional Cajun-music instrument, at a time when New Orleans needed a Giuliani and got stuck with the anti-Rudy.

People who stayed in St. Bernard and have not been heard from...DO NOT POST hgere if you posted at SavingStBernard

It is impportant that all posts be addressed to people you know who stayed behind and not people who evacuated since and have not been heard from. There is NO direct medium to find out where evacuees were taken. This is for addresses to be checked on for survivors so please only post here if they are in the aforementioned group. Time is of the essence!

From Saturday's Front Page article in the Baltimore Sun

No precise hurricane casualty count has been made, but with corpses floating in fetid New Orleans flood waters, Louisiana state officials estimated the death toll in their state would be in the thousands. In Mississippi, the death toll was put unofficially at more than 180.

The disaster in New Orleans has overshadowed devastation in areas to the south and east in Louisiana.

Mike Bayham, a former councilman in St. Bernard Parish outside New Orleans, said the death toll in that area - largely cut off from media coverage - could exceed 1,000.


'Bodies everywhere'
"It's a catastrophe. We still have bodies floating everywhere," said Bayham, who evacuated to Phoenix, Ariz.

According to Bayham, much of the parish of 72,000 people is covered by water, and entire towns - Delacroix, Shell Beach, Hopedale and Yscloski - are gone. "They've ceased to exist," he said.

As floodwater grew increasingly toxic inside the city, the storm's impact on the environment outside New Orleans was becoming more evident.

The Coast Guard reported that two huge oil tanks, each holding up to 80,000 gallons, had ruptured during the storm and were leaking into the Mississippi River.

In all, state and federal officials reported 153 incidents linked to the storm that were potentially harmful to the environment: toppled oil drilling platforms, diesel fuel leaking from wrecked ships, overturned rail cars full of toxic chemicals.

Environmental technicians could not reach the affected areas to assess the damage or start cleaning things up, said Jean Kelly, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of the Environment.

A Message from Sheriff Jack A. Stephens

September 3, 2005; 11:00 AM CST



BY ORDERS OF THE SHERIFF:



Because of the total breakdown of law and order and the civil insurrection in the City of New Orleans:



No one, including residents, will be permitted to return to St. Bernard Parish until further notice. Please watch this web site for further orders.



The City of New Orleans appears to be in a state of civil insurrection which WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO MIGRATE IN TO ST. BERNARD PARISH.



It is NOT SAFE for residents to travel through Orleans Parish to get home



REPEATING – IT IS NOT SAFE TO TRAVEL THROUGH ORLEANS PARISH TO GET HOME



You will not be allowed into St. Bernard Parish so do not risk your life by traveling through Orleans Parish to get home.



If you attempt to enter St. Bernard at a barricade – turn around and leave immediately. Anyone attempting to evade any barricades will be dealt with severely, including being shot on site.



Please be assured that St. Bernard Parish is safe and secure and we will make every effort to maintain same during this emergency.

Parish Update, 9-3 10:48 AM CST

A contingent of health inspectors made their way this morning to the flooded parish of St. Bernard and declared that Rocky and Carlos was the cleanest they've ever seen it...
OK...we all needed a laugh or a smirk. On to the real news.

1) The Mobil Center will have communications restored to it by Sunday, Monday at the latest.

2) More medical drops are being planned for the various points of concentration, including EBI, the Court House, the New Jail, and the Chalmette Slip.

3) The evacuation is running more smoothly now and there have been no reports like that of the Chalmette Slip tragedy of the other day.

4) 160 ARMED National Guards will be deployed to St. BErnard today. This contingent will be augmented by 57 deputies from around the state. Order has been restored to the parish and lootings have dropped significantly.

5) Search and Rescue Efforts have stepped up with the addition of the south Alabama crew, who are heavly involved in the coordination of the effort.

6) And finally,the rumors concerning the collapse of the courthouse and the snipers at BellSouth are false.

Will try to update again before 2 PM. MikeBayham@yahoo.com

The New Jersey Saints?

Well it appears the domeless New Orleans Saints will play their first "home" game in New Jersey when they play the Giants of New York (you'll have to have seen Coming to America to get that joke) at the Meadowlands. It beats getting them too comfortable in San Antonio.

Latest on St. Bernard, 9-2, 11:37 AM CST

Here's the news:
1) Congressman Melancon has reported that the "court house collapse" story is a rumor and not to be believed.

2) Hovvercraft from FL and IL are en route to St. Bernard within 24 hours

3) A military camp will be established at Algiers Point to protect relief workers and evacuated citizens

4) Problems with Chalmette Ferry landing ramp is hampering rescue operations as relief teams are confined to the west bank and are unable to make it over. DOTD has been alerted and are working on it.

5) Encouraging all to keep raising hell with the governor about the death toll from St. Bernard and calling attention to the media about the forgotten and forsaken parish.

6) Walt Leger's buses will be sent to the west bank to pick up St. BErnard evacuees and sent up river. Please encourage family members waiting to leave to board the buses.

Really sums it up from a St. Bernard point of view

From NOLA.com St. Bernard Forum...

Sittin' at home watching T.V.,Wondering what's going to happen to me.Looking at that big swirl in the sky,Wondering if we're going to die.Never to drink at Kats again,Can't order tamales or pizza from Ben's.Can't run to Rocky's to order Veal P.,Water , Water as far as we could see.Wondering what we're livin' for,Whatever it was, it ain't there no more.
The man said we had to leave town,We had to run for higher ground.Evacuation, is what they said,Wondering where we'd lay our head.Seperation is what we knew,Wondering what our friends would do.Goin' home, we're yearning for,But why do that, it ain't there no more.

Phoned and roamed to our fingers bleed,But 504, the lines were dead.Worrying and worrying, we had no choice,All we got was that recording voice.It said our lines couldn't get through,It reminded us of what water could do.Red beans, poorboys, their what we live for,We watch T.V., and it ain't there no more.

We hope and pray that what we see,Won't make us live the life of a refugee.Possessions we lost, faded from our minds,Its the freinds and places we left behind.Those are the things that will not fade,Our memories and friendships we'll fight to save.We will come back stronger than before,Don't tell me it ain't there no more.

By Mike, Mike , Brent, and Framin

St. Bernard Update, 9-2 1:05 AM CST

1;05 AM Chalmette Standard Time

1) 100 dead at Chalmette Slip from tardy rescues that came too late and a dearth of supplies.

2) Water level still dropping...3 ft on Paris Rd. north of JP.

3) Parish officials are in bad need of supplies...keep the heat on Blanco please...they need clothes and medicine.

4) Rescues continue. Localk efforts will be augmented with 6 search and rescue boat teams from Mobile, AL. Bless our neighbors.

5) Village Square Shopping Center is no more. The apartment buildings are also mostly rubble according to a deputy.

6) Please continue posting addresses and names at savingstbernard.blogspot.com for places that SHOULD be checked.

7) All CMC employees have been evacuated for a long time...they are no longer in the parish. Await word from them later personally.

8) All gov't personnel are present and accounted for. (cops, workers, firemen, etc).

9) Shootings have gone down. Orders have been given that looters will be fired up in St. Bernard.

10) Please be patient and continue to pray. More news tomorrow.

Chalmette Massacre: The forsaken city

US Representative Charlie Melancon has announced that 100 people at the Chalmette Slip had died due to a lack of essentials sent to the embarkation site in St. Bernard Parish.

Coupled with the loss of thirty physically handicapped, elderly people at a St. Bernard nursing facility, this is by far the most troubling week of news ever for this Chalmette native.

People in the lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish are dead right now, murdered by politicians driven by self-interest in terms of protecting the financially generous shipping industry and a lack of utter concern for the well-being of a parish that apparently does not vote the right way.

St. Bernard Parish received no aid whatsoever from the state in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In fact, when boats were sent to the area to assist in the rescue, they were kept within New Orleans to work operations there. I can understand the logic of reserving the lion's share of rescue resources for New Orleans, but to totally cut off St. Bernard and Plaquemines, the latter being assisted by Iberia Parish more so than the state, is unconscienable.

St. Bernard was totally leveled by the storm; there is virtually no land visible from the air. Unlike parts of New Orleans, such as the French Quarter, downtown, and uptown areas that were spared, not a single acre of St. Bernard was above water, not counting the levees.

The fishing communities of Hopedale, Shell Beach, and Ysclosky are no more as the waters of Lake Borgne have overtaken everything outside the levee protection system.

Why was food and water not distributed in a safe area like the Chalmette Slip? All of those assembled at the St. Bernard Port were people removed from rooftops waiting to be transfered. These were not looters but scared, dehydrated, and hungry people.

You hear the media reporting the "killing fields" of a few homeless people outside of the Convention Center downtown, yet what of the mortuary we have on the side of the Mississippi River in St. Bernard?

St. Bernard Parish has yet to receive urgent medicines for diabetics and anbtibiotics. Why is the state dragging its feet? Why should there even be a rescue if the state is going to starve its people like a bunch of Nazis running a death camp.

And what of the cause of this? Hurricane Katrina cannot be totally blamed. The wind damage in St. Bernard was relatively light. The killer was the storm surge that came up the expressway for hurricanes known as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a mostly obselete shipping channel that is used mostly by politically favored companies. Less than 2 ships per day use the canal and it costs the US Army Corps of Engineers over 10 million a year to maintain this deadly shipping pathway.

The MRGO has been the source of salt-water intrusion that has eradicated St. Bernard's once lush swampland and destroyed trapping in the parish, once an industry so valuable that rival trapper groups literally fought a war over it. Not long ago I was at Shell Beach in eastern St. Bernard and saw porpoises playing...a lovely sight, yet also terrifying in that the presence of marine mamals that close to land indicates the salinity of the water.

While shipping a handful of shipping executives have profited immensely off this tax-payer boondoggle and enviromental disaster, the parish of St. Bernard has suffered, hearing perpetual excuses such as the necessity of widening locks and the need for additional studies by Congress. When it comes time to do a study, I'll fax over to the committee the pages of obituaries from this hurricane.

St. Bernard would have had little water had the MRGO not been there as conduit for a killer storm surge that contributed to the breaking of the levee that was the primary source of the waters that wiped out a nursing home in seconds, taking with it 30 fragile lives. It is a sad irony that the same thing that allows certain shipping magnates to live in a nice mansion is the very source that I, and 72,000 plus people now have nowhere to live.

When the mass funerals are said, I hope the Port of New Orleans, the staunch advocate of the MRGO, sends flowers and that Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin send donuts for the mourners to make up for their failure to get food, water, and help to the forsaken parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines.

Thanks to greed and the politics of self-interest, I am sure many people I called friend during my life and who were constituents when I served as their councilman are now dead.

BASTARDS!!!

Help From Alabama

Just got off the phone with south Alabama search and rescue. They have offered to deploy 6 boats and teams to assist in the rescue operation in St. Bernard...if anyone reading this contacts the parish gov't please have them call me 504-258--67, 623-594-0873..trying to get through to them as we speak.

Day 6: Mogadishu On The River

Four days have now passed since Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and the surrounding areas, yet with the exception of the relative high rise of flood waters coming from breaks in the 17th Street Canal and the Industrial Canal, which has caused water in downtown to rise to 3 to 4 feet, the real threat to the citizenry are the human predators that have turned one of America's most fascinating cities into New Mogadishu.

While famed reporter A.J. Liebling like to compare Louisiana politics to that of 1960's Lebanon, what is transpiring at this very moment in New Orleans is savagery one would need to travel to third-world countries to see.

Charity Hospital, the primary trauma hospital in New Orleans, has been fired upon by snipers. Coast Guard rescue helicopters have also been shot at, as have boats deployed to save the stranded now going on their 5th day without clean water or food. A relief truck was intercepted by armed gunmen on the West Bank. Women have been raped at the New Orleans Convention Center by their fellow evacuees.

These terrible acts of violence are only hampering rescue efforts as more people die by the minute from the elements, disease, and dehydration.

I would wager that present-day Baghdad is a safer city than New Orleans is at the present time.

The delay in putting New Orleans under martial law has taken a toll. Wild looters who have already completely pillaged every place of commerce within sight are now locking their feasting eyes towards abandoned private residences. No doubt the more desperate ranks of the hellish banditti currently plaguing the city will have few reservations in invading occupied homes, leading to further bloodshed.

My question to Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco is this: how the hell could you not see this coming?

New Orleans has one of the highest crime rates in the nation. A recent spate of murders led the mayor into politically murky waters by suggesting a new tax to finance a more aggressive fight against criminals just prior to Katrina's arrival.

Did the mayor really think the criminal element, their twisted minds clouded in many cases with drugs, would all of a sudden reform themselves and lend a hand?

Is Governor Blanco so lacking in foresight and vision that it never occured to her that looting on a wide-scale was going to be a problem.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour never left any doubt that looters would be dealt with severely before the worst of Katrina hit the Magnolia State's fragile coastline, announcing to the world that such vermin would be dealt with ruthlessly.

Governor Blanco's after-the-fact tough-talk has not been heeded because the state and city have yet to truly take the gloves off.

What did we hear from the local leadership? Chasing looters would not be a priority they announced to the world, the equivalent of waving a Green Flag to thugs to begin stealing at will. Because they failed to recognize reality and anticipate the obvious, chaos has spread across the New Orleans area.

The city and state government should immediately cede control of New Orleans to military authorities so they can use all means at their disposal to establish law and order.

Shoot to kill orders must be promulgated and carried out. Fear alone is the only means to communicate to these human vultures that looters will pay a dire price for their activities. Once word gets out that looters have been fired on, through the same media outlets that unwittingly broadcast the ok to let the pillaging begin, the situation will become more tenable and more lives will be saved from the waters and the gun-toting vermin running the streets.

Instead of allowing people to loiter around the Superdome, they should be forced on to buses and driven to an area where the potential for a riot would be easily quelled. Anyone found walking the streets should be sent to a location to be sent off as well. The city needs to become a ghost town ASAP so those who are barely clinging on to their lives can avoid becoming ghosts themselves.

The National Guard must be allowed to step in where the state and city political leadership have failed. Good intentions and harsh words have done nothing to stem the violence as the parts of New Orleans that have not been consumed by the waters of Lake Pontchatrain slip into a Mogadishu-like abyss.
==================================================================
Mike Bayham is a former St. Bernard Parish Councilman and can be contacted at mikebayham@yahoo.com.

Parish Update, 9-1 6:26 PM CST

6:26 CST

According to deputies, Paris Rd is dry between St. Bernard Hwy and JP. North of JP requires a boat.

Rescues to continue so long as there is light.

Parish Update, 9-1, 4:27 PM

All posts are in CST time...Chalmette Standard Time

Just got off the horn with my mother and Councilmen Melerine. The gov't complex is virtually empty...only Kim OWens, Kathy Bayham, Charlie Ponstein, and John Metzler are holding down the fort. HEre is the news:

1) St./ Bernard is in bad need of medical supplies...diabetes medicine, thyroid medicene and anti-biotic. This is urgent, please call the governor and others.

2) Water continues to recede but slowly...10 ft of water on JP by complex.

3) Looting is happening in the parish. Wlamrt, AK Food Store, Walgreens hit. Kill the SOBs! There have been shootings throughout the parish, reportedly by locals.

4) Charlie Reppel has left the parish and is the gov't rep in BR where he is needed

5) 400 rescues were made yesterday and they are continuing

6) An estimated 1,000-1,500 people may have been lost in the parish.

This information will be posted on savingstbernard.blogspot.com

Day 5: The Disaster Widens; St B Forgotten; Favoritism Shown to NO

Anyone who believed that the dearth of fatality reports coming out of New Orleans was a sign of hope that many would escape physical harm can retire their optimism.

One chilling example alone is enough to truly put the toll of Katrina into perspective. This evening I learned that a New Orleans area nursing facility was caught by surprise with the rush of water and that an estimated 30 elderly people perished. If there could be a silver lining to this grim story, 30 residents of the facility were rescued.

My heart and my prayers go out to all of those who have lost family and friends or are furiously trying to get information on them.

Flooding is still a problem in New Orleans and on the east bank of densely populated though largely evacuted Jefferson Parish.

St. Bernard Parish is still under water, though the government has taken refuge in an office building near the river. Efforts to retrieve people from flooded homes continues though I was disheartened to learn that a contingent of Wildlife and Fisheries boats that were to be apportioned to the parishes in need were hogged up in total by New Orleans.

Why should New Orleans take precedent over St. Bernard Parish? I hope and pray it has nothing to do with the politics of the governor and New Orleans administration.

St. Bernard does not have a single dry speck of dirt anymore and considering the parish;s size of 72,000 prior to Katrina's arrival, merits attention. As does the forgotten parish of Plaquemines that has disappeared from the map in terms of news and reality. A report got back to me that the sheriff felt abandoned by the almost exclusive focus on New Orleans.

There are lots of people suffering across the board and favrotisim should not come into play when allocating resources, which at a minimum should be done pro rata if not by judging total damage (under the latter category St. Bernard would command half of the boat fleet.)

As I write this, there are families, old and young that are living on their rooftop or attic without nourishment or potable water for their fourth or fifth day, waiting to be rescued. Forget reality-TV on CBS; these tormented souls are the true survivors/

The death and destruction that has visited Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama is unprecedented. Katrina is not just the biggest disaster in state history, it may very well turn out to be the most terrible disaster in American history.

The body count could easily eclipse out total casualties in Iraq and the damage done to New Orleans's all important bridge system has left the city almost isolated.

August 29th, 2005 was our tsunami...it was our 9-11.