From the Times-Picayune:
In June, the Army Corps of Engineers proudly announced that new gates and levee repairs meant residents returning to Lakeview and Old Metairie would see floodwaters reduced by up to 5 1/2 feet if the city were hit by a 100-year hurricane.
They were off by 5 feet.
The reason? The Lakeview data got fouled up when somebody put a minus sign in a calculation that called for a plus sign, Ed Link, leader of the corps-sponsored Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, said Friday. The Old Metairie errors stemmed from faulty assumptions about the way water would move into and out of the neighborhood from surrounding areas, Link said.
The result? There's been hardly any improvement at all in flood protection.
Minus signs instead of plus signs and "faulty assumptions about the way the water would move" will definitely affect flood projections. That's why when the US Corps of Engineers said that New Orleans was safer than before Katrina and the federal flood, I did not believe them.
Link blamed the rush to get as much information out to the public as quickly as possible for the release of the inaccurate draft maps in June, as well as the failure to correct them until this week.
The blame falls on "the rush" and "the failure". Isn't it convenient that actual people don't have to take responsibility for mistakes due to "the rush" and "the failure"? It just happened.
But wait!
Indeed, the report has not yet undergone peer review by the National Academy of Science.
So the projections could still change. What are people to do, if they want to move ahead with rebuilding?
Now I come to the good news part of the post, but it's of the "closing the barn door after the horse gets out" and "project far into the future" variety.
Also from the Times-Picayune:
The Army Corps of Engineers will recommend to Congress that the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet be closed with a rock dike at Bayou la Loutre, a project that would cost $24.7 million and could be completed 170 days after the start of construction.
"Thank goodness," said Sidney Coffee, chairman of the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. "This is what the state has advocated for quite some time."
The Corps completed the MR-GO channel in 1963, in order to shorten the trip to the mouth of the Mississippi for shipping, but the channel silted up and widened until it was three times its intended width. The Corps spent millions over the years dredging the channel, only to have to repeat the process over and over, as the channel continued to silt up. Recently, less than one ocean-going ship a day traveled the channel, which costs about $13 million a year to maintain.
The recommendation is only the first step in what looks to be a long process. There will be public hearings, Congress must appropriate the money for the closing, etc., etc., etc., as the king of Siam would say. It could be a long time before the project winds its way through many levels of bureaucracy and any actual work begins on closing the channel.
MR-GO has caused severe damage to the adjacent wetlands.
A separate corps study, Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration, aimed at providing protection from catastrophic hurricanes will also recommend a variety of efforts to restore wetlands and other features in the area along MR-GO.
Again, despite the studies and plans, I fear that it will be well into the future before any actual restoration work is done.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
On Ropes And Nooses
From the Times-Picayune:
Jefferson Parish will initiate disciplinary proceedings against seven supervisors after finding that a knotted rope and other items brought to light by a public works employee violated a parish policy forbidding offensive and harassing materials in the workplace.
....
The report ignores the question of who owns the objects. Rather, it says the seven supervisors were in the line of authority to uphold the parish policy prohibiting offensive materials.
"These individuals were in the position to ensure compliance with parish policy and work rules, but did not do so," the report says.
I can't see why the employees who own the objects won't be held to account, but at least those in charge will pay a price for not doing their jobs.
That news coupled with this story from Jena, Louisiana, give me a window of hope for a future of better race relations in Louisiana.
JENA, La. (AP) — Minorities outnumber whites on the committee set up to examine race relations in Jena, where 20,000 people marched in September to protest what they saw as bigotry and injustice.
"We have a cross-section of people, and we want them to see if what has been said about Jena is true," Mayor Murphy McMillin said when he introduced the new Community Relations Panel on Tuesday.
Three members are white, two are black and two are from the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians. The 2000 census showed the town as 86 percent white, 12 percent black and 0.7 percent American Indian.
....
"I would never use the words 'damage control,' but we want to know what problems are real and which are created by the media," McMillin said. "If we know that, then we will know what steps to take."
I don't care for McMillin's blaming the media for what happened in Jena, but at least he recognizes that race relations in the town might be a problem. The make-up of the membership of the committee seems not quite right to me, but it's better to have the group than not.
Jefferson Parish will initiate disciplinary proceedings against seven supervisors after finding that a knotted rope and other items brought to light by a public works employee violated a parish policy forbidding offensive and harassing materials in the workplace.
....
The report ignores the question of who owns the objects. Rather, it says the seven supervisors were in the line of authority to uphold the parish policy prohibiting offensive materials.
"These individuals were in the position to ensure compliance with parish policy and work rules, but did not do so," the report says.
I can't see why the employees who own the objects won't be held to account, but at least those in charge will pay a price for not doing their jobs.
That news coupled with this story from Jena, Louisiana, give me a window of hope for a future of better race relations in Louisiana.
JENA, La. (AP) — Minorities outnumber whites on the committee set up to examine race relations in Jena, where 20,000 people marched in September to protest what they saw as bigotry and injustice.
"We have a cross-section of people, and we want them to see if what has been said about Jena is true," Mayor Murphy McMillin said when he introduced the new Community Relations Panel on Tuesday.
Three members are white, two are black and two are from the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians. The 2000 census showed the town as 86 percent white, 12 percent black and 0.7 percent American Indian.
....
"I would never use the words 'damage control,' but we want to know what problems are real and which are created by the media," McMillin said. "If we know that, then we will know what steps to take."
I don't care for McMillin's blaming the media for what happened in Jena, but at least he recognizes that race relations in the town might be a problem. The make-up of the membership of the committee seems not quite right to me, but it's better to have the group than not.
Friday, November 16, 2007
From Ray In The Comments
In the comments to my Sere Street post:
Ray said...
First, Grandmere, you were not inept, you did great that day. I was watching. Sometimes I had to get out of your way you were going so fast.
Second, as Karen pointed out in my blog comments, sometimes even though we don't get a family back into their house, our gutting it does help the rest of the neighborhood. A gutted house is less of a health hazard, less likely to harbor rodents, less of a blight on the neighborhood, and it makes it easier for those people who did move back in next door to live next to it and to feel better about their neighborhood.
Remember the neighbors who bought us all that fried chicken? They knew the chances of that house being reoccupied were slim, but they still could not stop heaping praise on us for what a wonderful thing we were doing.
We did good work there that day, and though it may not have the exact miraculous happy ending that we imagined in our heads, life seldom does. Good works are little micro things that nudge the world in the right direction a few inches at a time, and as a group we gave it a good shove back onto the path.
I want to share with you what has been my favorite quote since I moved back here. I first read it on a big banner at Ye Olde College Inn, an Uptown eatery that was destroyed by the flood and rebuilt and which still has the best oyster po-boy on earth. It's Teddy Roosevelt, but it could be anybody who has worked in New Orleans:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. "
You did good. You should be proud. This city will come back.
Ray, cher, thank you for your kind words. We knew that day that the house we worked on probably was not salvageable. It was riddled with termites, for one thing. It's true. The next-door neighbors were grateful for our work, very grateful, and that, in itself, is reason enough to have done the work.
I want to cry, not so much for that house, but for the whole city, my home town, still the home of my heart. I know New Orleans will recover and be more beautiful than ever, despite the abuse and neglect she has suffered since the great tragedy. You can't kill the spirit of the people of the city.
Ray said...
First, Grandmere, you were not inept, you did great that day. I was watching. Sometimes I had to get out of your way you were going so fast.
Second, as Karen pointed out in my blog comments, sometimes even though we don't get a family back into their house, our gutting it does help the rest of the neighborhood. A gutted house is less of a health hazard, less likely to harbor rodents, less of a blight on the neighborhood, and it makes it easier for those people who did move back in next door to live next to it and to feel better about their neighborhood.
Remember the neighbors who bought us all that fried chicken? They knew the chances of that house being reoccupied were slim, but they still could not stop heaping praise on us for what a wonderful thing we were doing.
We did good work there that day, and though it may not have the exact miraculous happy ending that we imagined in our heads, life seldom does. Good works are little micro things that nudge the world in the right direction a few inches at a time, and as a group we gave it a good shove back onto the path.
I want to share with you what has been my favorite quote since I moved back here. I first read it on a big banner at Ye Olde College Inn, an Uptown eatery that was destroyed by the flood and rebuilt and which still has the best oyster po-boy on earth. It's Teddy Roosevelt, but it could be anybody who has worked in New Orleans:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. "
You did good. You should be proud. This city will come back.
Ray, cher, thank you for your kind words. We knew that day that the house we worked on probably was not salvageable. It was riddled with termites, for one thing. It's true. The next-door neighbors were grateful for our work, very grateful, and that, in itself, is reason enough to have done the work.
I want to cry, not so much for that house, but for the whole city, my home town, still the home of my heart. I know New Orleans will recover and be more beautiful than ever, despite the abuse and neglect she has suffered since the great tragedy. You can't kill the spirit of the people of the city.
Compline
COLLECTING
At the turning of the year
At the wheeling of the stars
At the ending of the day
We pause in silence
[silence]
In the quiet time
In the fallow time
In the resting time
We rest in silence
[silence]
For the dark hour
For the still hour
For the changing hour
We seek silence
[silence]
Candles and lamps may now be lit
Excerpt from Compline at the Still Time by Paul at Byzigenous Buddhapalian.
Sunset photo by me.
SERE STREET
The First Draft Gutting Krewe, of which I was a rather inept member, and a group of college students from North Carolina gutted this house in the Gentilly area of New Orleans. The picture shows the house as it looks today. I could cry.
From Scout at First Draft:
A word from Scout, who does not live there, to the rest of us who do not live there:
Scout is from Wisconsin, but she has made it her mission to tell the story of enormity of the destruction wreaked by Katrina and the federal flood and the meager and shameful response by government officials to the plight of the people in the area that was destroyed.
Thanks to Ray in New Orleans for the use of the picture. You can find tales and pictures of the many houses Ray has gutted here.
From Scout at First Draft:
The facts of Katrina have been recounted many times over--90,000 square miles of damage and destruction, 300,000 homes damaged or destroyed, 80% of New Orleans flooded, over 1700 dead--a breadth and depth of sorrow and suffering that when viewed first hand leaves most to recall the scenes of bombed out WWII Germany and think only a Marshal Plan could begin to bring healing and rebirth.The people of the Gulf Coast have not had a Marshall Plan to help their recovery. The money dribbles in very slowly to the homeowners - if at all. A great deal of the progress that has been made is due to the determination and work of local people and to volunteers, who come from everywhere to help out. In the richest country in the world, is this the best we can do?
Perhaps it is harsh but when members of the UK show Top Gear traveled through the Gulf Coast and saw the shocking devastation they asked: "How can the rest of America sleep at night knowing that this is here?"
A word from Scout, who does not live there, to the rest of us who do not live there:
For not only should we know but we should care and we should act. It's quite a responsibility to say the least. One which we each try to strive to meet in our own way. Mine has become to write of New Orleans and I harbor no illusions on that front. Most days I don't know that it does a bit of good but I could no more stop than I could stop being an American. For it is in New Orleans that I have truly realized the meaning of America.You can continue to read Scout's "A Tale of Two Blocks--Part 2" at the link above.
Scout is from Wisconsin, but she has made it her mission to tell the story of enormity of the destruction wreaked by Katrina and the federal flood and the meager and shameful response by government officials to the plight of the people in the area that was destroyed.
Thanks to Ray in New Orleans for the use of the picture. You can find tales and pictures of the many houses Ray has gutted here.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
"Strategic Drift"
From a column by John Podesta, Lawrence J. Korb and Brian Katulis Washington Post:
With apparent disregard for the opinion of the American people, the debate over whether the large U.S. military presence in Iraq threatens our national security has been put on hold. Both political parties seem resigned to allowing the Bush administration to run out the clock on its Iraq strategy and bequeath this quagmire to the next president. The result is best described as strategic drift, and stopping it won't be easy.
Strategic drift is not a plan. We don't get out of Iraq, because the leadership on neither side is motivated to get us out.
President Bush claims that his strategy is having some success, but toward what end? He argued that the surge would provide the political breathing space needed to achieve a unified, peaceful Iraq. But its successes, which Bush says come from a reduction of casualties in certain areas, have been accompanied by massive sectarian cleansing. The surge has not moved us closer to national reconciliation.
Casualties are down among Iraqis, although the counts may not be somewhat suspect. Still, nearly 1000 die a month. Deaths and wounded numbers of US troops are down, too, but to what purpose? What is the vision of the end game? The numbers of refugees within and outside Iraq continues to grow, week by week, month by month.
Similarly, the presence of a large U.S. combat force contributes to regional instability. Since the surge began, the number of internally displaced Iraqis has more than doubled. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has said that more than 2 million Iraqis have left the country, and tens of thousands flee every day, often to squalid camps in Syria and Jordan.
What is the "freedom" that we have brought to the Iraqis? The freedom to flee their unsafe homes, freedom from electricity and drinking water, freedom from safe roads to travel, freedom from jobs? Are these the reasons why we stay? To prolong these conditions?
There is one sure way to stop this drift. The United States must set a firm withdrawal date. It is the only way Iraqis and regional leaders will make the compromises necessary to stabilize Iraq and the entire Middle East. This withdrawal can be completed safely in 12 to 18 months and should be started immediately.
Yes! Absolutely! Set a date. We're drifting, but it's not an innocuous drift down a stream in a canoe. We're in a war. We simply cannot allow ourselves the luxury of drifting for years upon years in what appears to be a war without end that is killing, maiming, and making refugees of large numbers of the population and destroying a country.
With apparent disregard for the opinion of the American people, the debate over whether the large U.S. military presence in Iraq threatens our national security has been put on hold. Both political parties seem resigned to allowing the Bush administration to run out the clock on its Iraq strategy and bequeath this quagmire to the next president. The result is best described as strategic drift, and stopping it won't be easy.
Strategic drift is not a plan. We don't get out of Iraq, because the leadership on neither side is motivated to get us out.
President Bush claims that his strategy is having some success, but toward what end? He argued that the surge would provide the political breathing space needed to achieve a unified, peaceful Iraq. But its successes, which Bush says come from a reduction of casualties in certain areas, have been accompanied by massive sectarian cleansing. The surge has not moved us closer to national reconciliation.
Casualties are down among Iraqis, although the counts may not be somewhat suspect. Still, nearly 1000 die a month. Deaths and wounded numbers of US troops are down, too, but to what purpose? What is the vision of the end game? The numbers of refugees within and outside Iraq continues to grow, week by week, month by month.
Similarly, the presence of a large U.S. combat force contributes to regional instability. Since the surge began, the number of internally displaced Iraqis has more than doubled. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has said that more than 2 million Iraqis have left the country, and tens of thousands flee every day, often to squalid camps in Syria and Jordan.
What is the "freedom" that we have brought to the Iraqis? The freedom to flee their unsafe homes, freedom from electricity and drinking water, freedom from safe roads to travel, freedom from jobs? Are these the reasons why we stay? To prolong these conditions?
There is one sure way to stop this drift. The United States must set a firm withdrawal date. It is the only way Iraqis and regional leaders will make the compromises necessary to stabilize Iraq and the entire Middle East. This withdrawal can be completed safely in 12 to 18 months and should be started immediately.
Yes! Absolutely! Set a date. We're drifting, but it's not an innocuous drift down a stream in a canoe. We're in a war. We simply cannot allow ourselves the luxury of drifting for years upon years in what appears to be a war without end that is killing, maiming, and making refugees of large numbers of the population and destroying a country.
Desmond Tutu Again
If you'd like more of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, here's another video from the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Archbishop Tutu, the renowned cleric, activist and author spoke on “The Spirituality of Reconciliation.”
If that link doesn't work, go to the home page of the National Cathedral and click on "Archbishop Desmond Tutu Address" on the right, above his picture.
If that link doesn't work, go to the home page of the National Cathedral and click on "Archbishop Desmond Tutu Address" on the right, above his picture.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Our Friend TheMe Needs Help
Themethatisme at Conscientisation wants help on a paper that he must write. He is having a hard time finding a topic that will interest him and inspire him. Perhaps some of you who know more than I, some of you theological types, could pop over to his blog and see what you can do for him.
Feast Of The Consecration Of Samuel Seabury
Samuel Seabury was the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. During the colonial period and after the end of the Revolutionary War, the church in the United States had no bishops. Candidates for the priesthood had to travel to England to be ordained before the war, an arduous journey. After the war, the situation was the same, and the requirement that all candidates for ordination swear an oath of loyalty to the British crown became an impediment to sending American candidates to England for ordination. The church in the United States needed a bishop.
Samuel Seabury was chosen to be the first bishop, but, again, because of the oath of loyalty, he went to Scotland, rather than to England, to be consecrated bishop by two bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, which was no longer the established church, and therefore did not include the loyalty oath to the British crown in the ceremony.
James Kiefer at the Lectionary has more information on Seabury.
READINGS:
Psalm 133 or 33:1-5,20-21
Acts 20:28-32
Matthew 9:35-38
PRAYER
We give you thanks, O Lord our God, for your goodness in bestowing upon this Church the gift of the episcopate, which we celebrate in this remembrance of the consecration of Samuel Seabury; and we pray that, joined together in unity with our bishops, and nourished by your holy Sacraments, we may proclaim the Gospel of redemption with apostolic zeal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Samuel Seabury was chosen to be the first bishop, but, again, because of the oath of loyalty, he went to Scotland, rather than to England, to be consecrated bishop by two bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, which was no longer the established church, and therefore did not include the loyalty oath to the British crown in the ceremony.
James Kiefer at the Lectionary has more information on Seabury.
READINGS:
Psalm 133 or 33:1-5,20-21
Acts 20:28-32
Matthew 9:35-38
PRAYER
We give you thanks, O Lord our God, for your goodness in bestowing upon this Church the gift of the episcopate, which we celebrate in this remembrance of the consecration of Samuel Seabury; and we pray that, joined together in unity with our bishops, and nourished by your holy Sacraments, we may proclaim the Gospel of redemption with apostolic zeal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Blog Reading Level
Thanks (or no thanks) to Paul at Byzigenous Buddhapalian for the link to the quiz. Paul tests out at College (undergraduate level) for his blog, and he uses Latin and big words. I don't get it. The test can't be accurate.
Honestly, it's embarrassing, but I put it up for laughs. That's what the quizzes are about - giving us a few laughs.
Paul, you could have picked out a name for your blog that was easier to spell. Just sayin'.
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