Just finished Doug Brinkley's The Great Deluge, the first full work to deal with the minutiae of Hurricane Katrina and its effect on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. A pretty cool read, although Brinkley being a resident of New Orleans can't help but write in a pretty subjective manner quite a lot of the time. The history guy in me says, "Uh.... you can't pass judgements like that." The New Orleanian in me says, "You Go Girl!" or something like that. Summary: Mayor Nagin: BAD! Gov. Blanco: OK. President Bush: BAD! FEMA and Sec. Chertoff: Really, really BAD! NOPD: THE WORST! Oh yeah, and local first responders and the Coast Guard are GOOD! REALLY, REALLY GOOD! Brinkley is pretty scathing towards Mayor Ray and Mssrs. Chertoff and Brown, but I have no problem with that. Pretty compelling stuff, but I doubt it will turn out to be the definitive version of events, as its come out just too damn fast.While on the subject, I went to N.O. for a week or so last month. Let's just say there's a long way to go. My friends are making due, but they all have this glazed look about them. Services you once took for granted are not always there anymore (fried shrimp po' boy at 2 am on a Sunday? No problem! At least not in the past.....). I would say that 70% of the city is still mostly uninhabitable, and rebuilding is present, but not widespread. Don't forget about New Orleans guys, cause it still needs a lot of positive thoughts.
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When we were driving back from FLA, we got off in New Orleans and it was just devastating in its devastation. Just block after block after block of empty houses, businesses. I guess I knew it was still that bad, but seeing it firsthand was breathtaking -- especially being a year on from the hurricane.
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