They KNEW, Dammit They Knew.

Finally The Weather Channel rebroadcast the episode of It Could Happen Tomorrow, The Lost Episode.

The first episode was completed in April 2005.  It was scheduled to air later that fall.  Out of respect they did not air the episode until just a year or so ago, and in memory of the disaster that happened five years ago, they re-aired it again yesterday.  I missed the first airing, but DVR'd the late night episode.

Watching it again infuriates me. 

When it was apparent that Katrina was massive and heading for New Orleans, Mayor Nagin issued a "voluntary" evacuation.  The people in New Orleans had been warned so many times before, most ignored the voluntary evacuation.  The day before Katrina hit, the mayor finally issued a mandatory evacuation.  While there were still alot of people ignoring the warnings, those that did were now found themselves gridlocked on the highways exiting the city.

Idris Lewis lived in the ninth ward.  He waited for his son, who was to help him evacuate.  By then the authorities were not allowing anyone to enter the area.  Idris waited alone, recalling that waking the next morning, he found his bed floating in water.  Eventually he made his way to the rooftop where eventually a boat happened by that rescued him from being another statistic.Every aspect of the New Orleans' administration knew that Hurricane Katrina was inevitable.

The evacuation plan never seemed to consider the poor that lived in the ninth ward that could not possibly evacuate in such short notice. 


Fran Campbell, Executive Director of the East Jefferson Parish was one administration official that took pre-emptive action. She, along with all the others knew that the levees could not hold during a major hurricane. The difference was that she refused to gamble with her 250,000 people's lives.

"Due to lack of funding we were forced to come up with our own solutions to some of our problems. We had been asking for years for funding from the federal government."

In March 2005, Louis Armstrong Airport runway was being replaced. Ms. Campbell begged for the old runway and her staff worked overtime transporting the broken runway to the East Jefferson levee. "Her" levee held, while so many others did not. I've heard that the Army Corp of Engineers studied and copied some her ideas to re-enginneer the levees.

Watching the episode again, I am again struck by how many experts knew that it was only a matter of time.  They accurately predicted the "bowl" that New Orleans had become would eventually end up being a death sentence for those that could not escape. 

To blame one person, one mayor, one governor, one agency or one President is outrageous.  It was no one's fault and it was no one's failure.  It was everyone's fault and everyone's failure.  I am  reminded of the 15 year old that "stole" a school bus sitting among dozens of unused buses and collected a bus full of people and saved them from becoming another statistic. 

Hurricane Katrina was first a natural disaster that could never be stopped by any human and secondly a failure of humanity to stop gambling with human lives.  

But sadly, as we hear Hurricane Earl heading for the East Coast, I believe that New Orleans is no more prepared today than it was in 2005.  I wish that were not true, but I believe it is true.

God Bless New Orleans and it's people.  In this horrible anniversary, America still mourns for your unimaginable loss.

Beauty and Tragedy

I had been making a "play" for the trip for nearly a year.
The company I worked for held an annual meeting for the sales associates and certain staff members at the JW Marriott in Cancun.  The hotel was absolutely the most gorgeous place I have ever stayed, and we've stayed at some nice places.

Since I was "staff", I knew it unlikely I would get chosen to attend the meeting.  It was three days, including spouses with several meetings interrupting what would have been the perfect vacation.  Every time I handed in a project to one of the executives that held that purse string I jokingly told them to remember that when the annual conference was coming around. 

But then the economy started going south, especially for a mortgage company. 

My boss told me she had bad news and good news.

The bad news was that the conference was cancelled due to the financial condition of the company.

The good news was that they were still giving the qualifying sales associates three days at the hotel, $750 toward airfare at a time of their chosing.  And I was one of the staff that was allowed to go.  Three days with NO meetings and that was BAD NEWS?

I was one of the lucky ones that planned our trip around a time when I could actually find airfare for two for $752.  Oh and I forgot, they gave us $300 spending money on top of the hotel and grossed up the cost so that we were actually paid enough to compensate for the tax that we would have to pay for trip, since it was considered income.

Five years ago today we were packing for our trip.  We were to leave on Wednesday, August 31st.  We planned for 6 nights of which only three were on our dime.

Since we had seen the damage that Hurricane Charlie dealt to Fort Myers and Sanibel, we were worried as the reports of Katrina first came in.  Everyone was predicted disaster of Biblical proportions to the city of New Orleans and the media reports as the hurricane passed over initially sounded like NOLA had dodged a bullet. 

We left on Wednesday morning and arrived to a different, much improved Cancun than we have visited several years previously.

The Marriott lobby was gorgeous.  We asked to be upgraded to a premium room and the overly gracious hostess assured us we did not want to change from the 4th floor room we were already assigned.  She was absolutely right.

This was taken by my cell phone from our room.  What you can't see is to the left we also had full view of the bay.

We spent 6 glorious nights, if I had known how wonderful it was, I would have booked closer to 10.

We stayed right here the majority of the time.

It was the only time I can remember that Bob wanted to do absolutely nothing but relax in these chairs all day long.

The room was so beautiful and was equipped with all the latest amenities of that time, including satellite TV.

We unpacked, took a cab to a Walmart to get some drinks and snacks, which was interesting to say the least and had a quick bite at the McDonalds located inside Wally World.

Back to the hotel and out we went to enjoy the sun, sea and infinity pool.  When we arrived back at our room, a note was slipped under the door.  A $100 gift certificate from my boss  for the upscale and expensive Italian restaurant inside the hotel.  Life doesn't get any better than that.

I turned on the TV and found the first English speaking news station.  And the reports started coming in.

New Orleans may have dodged a hurricane bullet only to have a nuclear blast come through with the breaking of the levees.  I would sit on the end of the luxurous bedding with my hand covering my mouth for hours at a time as I watched the horror grow with each passing day.

Coming in from the infinity pool each day, I could barely turn away from the news reports and remember thinking, how in the name of God does this happen in America.  I felt guilt over sitting out on the balcony looking over the sea and knowing there were people drowning in New Orleans. 

Shepard Smith was on site and his frustration and anger grew with each passing hour.  He reported the bodies floating by the bridge overpasses.

Each time we came back to the room, I would find that I could not leave the TV for hours, shaking my head knowing that New Orleans would never be the same.

We had been there several times and loved the city, the music, the food, the atmosphere.  We rang in the new millenium right on Bourbon Street staying at the beautiful Royal Sonesta. 

Then the blame game started.  It was FEMA's failure, it was Ray Nagin's failure, it was Governor Blanco's failure, it was the Army Corps of Engineer's failure, it was George Bush's failure. 

There was enough failure to go around.  In disasters of epic proportions, the real truth is that we are no match against the sheer power of nature.  We would all like to believe that we have to power to protect everyone, even the poorest of our communities.  We would feel safer to believe that we can control what nature delivers and it is someone's fault if tragedy overwhelms.  Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, floods. 

People drowning in the ninth ward was not because some administration was racist or didn't care about the poor.  They drowned because we cannot control nature.  Maybe....Maybe....if the funds to strengthen the levees had not been redirected for years there would have been less death and destruction.  The funds were gambled in the most reckless way possible, they bet human lives and the loss was worse than anything imaginable.

The resulting looting and crime should have not been a surprise to anyone who had ever spent more than 5 minutes in the city.  Long before Katrina, it was well known you did not walk north of Bourbon Street at night and you did not go to Louis Armstrong's park at any time, day or night.

My niece had visited NOLA just a couple weeks before Katrina hit.  I talked to her right before she went out to Bourbon Street.  I told her to have fun, but to not carry a purse and not put anything in her back pocket.  Luckily she heeded my warniing, putting her ID and money in her front pocket.  When she went back to her hotel that evening, her hotel key card, buttoned in her back pocket was gone.  She never felt the pickpocket.  

Selfishly I was relieved to hear that Bourbon Street did not bear the brunt of the flooding.  But I wonder what became of the street musicians that made New Orleans what it was.  I wonder if it's returned to any of it's former atmosphere.

One of my best friend's father is a huge jazz fan, Pete Fountain being his favorite.  He had collected massive amounts of jazz records and jazz fans from around the county will sometimes come and visit him to see his collections.  Over the years he had become friends with Pete.

Sadly the great jazzist lost everything in the flood.  My friend's father finally located Pete and packed up his entire Pete Fountain recordings and shipped them to him.  After all, he said, the recordings should belong to Pete.  The collection had to have been priceless.

One day we will go back and stay on Bourbon Street again.  I hope against hope it has the same feel as it did before Katrina's unwelcome arrival.

And just a few weeks later, Hurricane Wilma hit Cancun with a devasting force, leaving the Marriott closed for over a year.  

Money does not protect anyone or anything from nature's wrath.

Charlie

One afternoon in August 2004, I took a nap with my grandson fascinated by the current news story.  I had muted the bedroom TV when I had drifted off and awoke to feeling badly for the people in the path of the news.

Category 5.  It had increased while I had napped.  I distinctly remember thinking about how badly Tampa, the projected path before I drifted off, would get hit.  THEN they also reported that the path had changed while I had been snuggling my favorite 2 year old. 

Fort Myers was the new target.

A mere ten months previously we had decided to go out on a limb and buy a vacation home four miles off the beaches of Sanibel Island and Fort Myers beach.

You might remember the hurricane season of 2004.  Three major hurricanes hit the state of Florida in 2004, Two hit in 2005. 

Most people might remember the news reports that Charlie had a direct hit on Punta Gorda, about a hour north of Fort Myers, where ten people lost their lives.  But the first path of the storm, a "reduced" category 4, was Fort Myers, Sanibel Island and Captiva.  North Captiva was actually split in two after the storm.  North Captival came into existence in the 1940's when another hurricane separated the island. 

Since the news focused primarily on Punta Gorda and phones and electricity were out in Fort Myers for days, we did not know if our new place was even still standing for 4 days.

A bit of damage in our community, but our property was safe and sound.  About three weeks later, we flew down to check it out for ourselves.

Back then it was less expensive to fly into Tampa.  I-75 takes a direct path from Tampa through Port Charlotte (Punta Gorda's neighbor) and into Fort Myers in an easy two hour drive.   At Port Charlotte we could see where the path of the Hurricane proceeded across the state. 

The radio playing as we were driving south.  Between the music, we began to hear the reports.  We had ignored them previously.  I mean, who would believe that another hurricane was heading for the state of Florida three weeks after Charlie?

The first reports were that Hurricane Frances might hit the Atlantic side of the state.  At that time Bob's sister lived on the east coast.  We decided to call them and tell them they were welcome to come to Fort Myers to avoid the storm.  They were already in Atlanta getting the hell out of the state, while we continued south.

As I set up our new computer and internet connection, Bob went to the insurance company to get flood insurance just "in case" after Charlie gave us a scare.  When I was plugging in the cables, Bob came back and said, "We may not be taking this seriously enough."  The path of Frances was still not certain and there was talk of it swinging around and coming ashore on the Gulf side.  The ladies at the insurance company were evacuating.

Bob wondered what we should do.  I told him that we were so far south if we decided to try to leave we would likely be stuck on an interstate in the middle of the state and probably in the path no matter which coast Frances would hit.  We decided to stick it out.

We filled the bathtubs with water, ran to Radio Shack to get a battery powered radio, bought flashlights, candles, canned tuna, crackers and whatever else we might be able to eat if we were stranded for days.

Wanna know what's in short supply on the threat of a hurricane?  Batteries and gasoline.  Bob went to many stores to find batteries and they were virtually non-existent.   The shelves of the nearby KMart were empty.  He said the customers were looking everywhere for precious batteries.  He finally spotted a box just dumped at the end of an aisle filled with batteries.  He made sure he had an armload before he found the ladies that were looking for some and told them all where they were.  We placed our emergency supplies inside a storage closet and waited.

Hurricane Frances came ashore on the east coast as a category 2 about 45 miles from my sister in law's home.  The roofing was gone and the accompanying squalls allowed the rain to pour onto the ceiling, which gave way in several rooms.  Before they had time to repair the damage, Hurricane Ivan entered the Florida/Alabama panhandle, whipped around the US emerging back out into the Atlantic and traveled back down into the path of southeast Florida.  They were hit again.

Frances traveled across Florida during the five days we stayed in Fort Myers, going out into the Gulf somewhere close to Tampa.  Fort Myers experienced significant, but not damaging winds from the backside of the hurricane and I had to endure five days trapped inside a coach home with Bob, who cannot sit still for more than 5 minutes, much less 5 days.  Our supply equipment did not include a gun or I might have had to shoot him.

Since the electricity and the internet never went out I at least had an interesting outlet.  I found a webcam of the beach and with only 50 mph sustained winds we decided to trek out to to see for ourselves.  We had to lean against the incoming winds and watched as we saw complete idiots trek out on the pier and dive off with their surf boards riding the hurricane waves coming into shore. 

A few days before, we drove along Estero Boulevard and could see the watermarks left on the buildings.  The piles of rubbage from the watersoaked hotels were lined along the street at least one story high.  As we drove off the beach, we could see the clouds signalling Frances was on its way.

The devastating effect of Hurricane Charley on Sanibel Island ruined the beautifully draped Periwinkle Road.  All of the Australian pines were destroyed and although six years later first time visitors do not see it, the charm of the road is gone.  Sanibel has only one road leading out with (at that time) a drawbridge with a limited tonage capacity.

Nearly all of Captiva has only multi-million dollar homes and is where most of the damage occurred.   The only road leading to Captiva is from the north side of Sanibel. 

After the hurricane, the weight limit on the bridge was reduced, so any debris coming from Sanibel and Captiva was even more restricted.   Months later there were still empty lots in Fort Myers that were a staging dumping ground for the trucks to unload and head back over to the islands.

Even two years later, a trip to Captiva showed these multi-million dollar homes with "blue roofs" and debris.  With all the wealth of the owners on Captiva Island, it proved to me that there are just some things that are just simply physically limited, no amount of money or manpower can change that.

When Katrina overshadowed anything America could imagine, I along with millions of America couldn't believe such a thing could happen in the US.   But when two years later the media was lamenting the lack of progress, I was reminded of Captiva.  There are simply some things from which we humans are physically unable to recover in a "timely" capacity.  If the wealth of Captiva could not fix everything in two years, there was no remote possibility New Orleans could recover from the massive devastation even now.

And all this comes to mind with this horrible, horrible oil spill.  I don't believe BP wants this to continue, I don't believe the Obama administration wants this to continue.  I don't believe anyone wants it to continue.  We are again reminded that there are many things that are simply too great for us mere mortals to deal with quickly.

And I wait.  I hate that Louisiana has such devastation, I hate that it's now hitting the pristine beaches of the panhandle and I hate that I wonder when it will affect Fort Myers, Sanibel and Captiva.

There are no winners here.