We all know that since Katrina, New Orleans has been a hard place to live. Now some researchers have quantified how much harder. According to this study by Dr. Kevin U. Stephens Sr. and others, the death rate in post-K New Orleans is up 47%. The primary culprit: lack of health care.
Today the Kaiser Family Foundation released the results of a house-to-house survey of people living in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes documents the impact of Hurricane Katrina and the failure to respond quickly and effectively to it on the economic well-being, physical and mental health, and personal lives of the people of the New Orleans area. The result: 81% of respondents have seen the quality of their lives deteriorate in at least one of seven critical aspects of their lives. More than 55% of respondents in the four-parish area and 67% of respondent in New Orleans reported problems in more than one area. The particulars:
Me, I’ll admit to numbers 2, 3, 4 (increased alcohol use), and 7 (judging by number of visits to a psychiatrist and a therapist). And that comes from someone who’s been relatively blessed.
More than 500 years ago, the only trace of the lost colony of Roanoke was the word “Croatoan,” carved into a tree in the center of the abandoned settlement. Today, in another abandoned settlement — Tennessee Street in the Lower Ninth Ward — you can find “Croatoan” marked on dead oak trees. (Hat tip to Suspect Device.)
As I’ve written before, my wife and I have been pretty lucky with this Katrina thing, compared to most of our fellow Orleanians. This week furnishes a fine example: we’ve had a contractor at our house repairing our interior storm damage. The biggest item was the big hole in our bedroom ceiling, formerly covered with plastic sheeting, now gone. There were also various other spots of water damage that have been repaired. Still to do: repainting the bedroom ceiling, the kitchen ceiling, and other repaired spots. Also, we will get rid of the shabby shag carpet upstairs (partially damaged by water intrusion) and re-paint the wooden floors there.
I consider myself lucky because my house, though ugly in spots, has been livable and comfortable since late 2005. Also I had minimal damage compared to most of the city (i.e. no flooding), I haven’t had to fight my insurance company, and in any event I have the cash to make the repairs happen. Nevertheless, it’s taken from October 2005 until April 2007 to complete the repairs. Why? Not enough contractors. The city-wide damage is so massive that it takes someone like me, with money to get the job done, 1½ years to get a relatively small amount of damage fixed.
If you want to know why the recovery is so slow, I can assure you of this: it’s not due to a lack of will on our part. The problem is lack of resources. Trying to repair the damage with the resources available is like trying to fill a lake with a garden hose.
One year ago today was my first full day back home after Katrina. Back then, the roof was covered with a blue tarp, an Igloo cooler served as a refrigerator, most restaurants and other businesses had not yet re-opened, and those that had re-opened operated on limited hours. Today, the roof is fixed, the house is re-painted, there's a real refrigerator in the kitchen, traffic is busy on Magazine Street, and my little neighborhood is relatively normal. Most of the city beyond my little neighborhood remains desolate.
One little thing I did today: I moved my prescriptions from a national chain to my neighborhood pharmacy. That's one of the great things about my neighborhood: we have an actual neighborhood pharmacy. We also have a neighborhood hardware store, the kind of place you can go with your broken thingamajig and ask, "Do you have one of these?" and the nice man or nice lady will point you to a a bin full of them. When you pick one up and take it to the counter, they ring up your sale on an adding machine and say, "That'll be 79¢." It almost makes you wish that something around the house would break, just so you'll have an excuse to visit the hardware store.
Tom Burka's headline says, "Bush Vows To Keep Making Speeches Promising To Fix New Orleans."
If the anniversary of you-know-what makes you want to do something to help, here's your chance. Two Xavier University professors have taken on the challenge of raising $1 million by the end of the year for a public library to be opened in Mid City. To induce people to contribute, they are letting contributors vote on whether they must give up drinking for 2007. That's democracy—I mean boozocracy—in action.
As of just now (8/27/06, 3:27 p.m.), they've raised $844, which leaves them $999,156 shy of their goal. Fortunately, there's plenty of time left before the end of the year. So wherever you're sitting, stand up for boozocracy (figuratively I mean—no need to get up from your chair), cast your vote, and help the New Orleans Public Library system. (Via Your Right-Hand Thief.)
Justice Traylor, for a unanimous court, writes, "We exercise our supervisory authority in an expedited manner to determine whether Acts 2006, Nos. 739 and 802, which extend the prescriptive period under which certain insurance claims arising from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita may be filed and which may alter the insurance contractual provisions regarding the time period in which to bring a claim, are constitutional. After review of the relevant state and federal law, we find that the legislative acts at issue are constitutional." State v. All Property and Casualty Insurers Authorized and Licensed to Do Business in the State of Louisiana, No. 2006-CD-2030 (La. 8/25/06).
If we make it through September,
Everything's gonna be alright, I know.
It's the season of the hurricanes.
And I worry that what's left could all just go.
If we make it through September,
We've got plans to make our town a town that shines.
We can't take one more Katrina.
But if we make it through September we'll be fine.
We all try not to remember
The hell that came to our town just last year.
But if we make it through September,
We'll feel better about making our home here.
I don't mean to fear September.
But the big storms always come this time of year.
If we just make it through September,
Those worries that we have will disappear.
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1 Apologies to Merle Haggard.
If you want to do some good for the Gulf Coast's Katrina victims and your own pair of ears, then buy Our New Orleans. Listen to NPR's story about this record; the first thing you'll hear in the background is an instrumental cut on this record: Allan Toussaint's minor-key rendition of Professor Longhair's Tipitina.1
Everything on this record is great, but my two favorites are a pair of songs written years ago. One is Back Water Blues, first recorded by Bessie Smith and performed here by Irma Thomas, an R&B singer who proves she can also sing straight blues. The other is Louisiana 1927, written and performed by Randy Newman, a former Orleanian who, after this song, will always be an honorary Orleanian. I will never hear either song again without remembering what happened on August 29, 2005. If you lived through Katrina, then you won't either.
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1 You can also hear this instrumental line on Toussaint's and Elvis Costello's record, The River in Reverse; it forms the melody for the ninth cut, Ascension Day. That album will be the subject of a future entry. I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but I've heard enough to add it to the sidebar at right.
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