Much of this is already known, however, I'm posting a message from a friend who is volunteering in the relief effort in New Orleans. I'll simply share with you what his email to me said verbatim and let you decide for yourself if this is exemplary of the "richest and most powerful country in the world."
PS I'm not a regular poster, so please forgive any formatting weirdness.
Dear Friends:
I'm here in New Orleans, dealing with the reconstruction and relief effort. It's amazing how much still needs to be done here almost a year after Katrina. The richer areas of town are getting much more attention from the government than the poor areas are. Racism here is a major influence on both the people and law enforcement. We are still under martial law and the National Guard has
been called back to deal with the violence that predominates the city.
Murders happen almost every day. It's a sad situation, to put it mildly. My friend had one of her friends murdered just yesterday. Crime is rampant and opportunities are limited.
It's taken me several days to understand the severity of the suffering and how some people still have nothing. Many families are still not allowed to return to their homes, in order to gut them, thus avoiding bulldozing. Almost all the houses and apartments here in the 9th Ward are condemned. There is spray paint on all the homes. It states on the left the date and who searched the property, on the right the number of people evacuated, and on the bottom the number of dead found in the premises. It's disturbing when it is every house that is marked.
I'm working with an organization called Common Ground (www.commonground.org). It's made up of volunteers from all over the US and the City. It is instrumental in the relief effort, providing medical treatment, legal advice, temporary shelter, transportation, house reclaiming (via gutting), and now green energy (my project). I'm fabricating a biodiesel processer to provide biodiesel to the many vehicles that are moving both people and supplies. My second project is designing a passive solar system for the Woodlands housing development (the
"projects"). The Woodlands have no hot water and only partial electricity. The apartments that haven't been cleaned have feces and debris all over. Green mold extends from the floor to the ceiling. I wasn't able to stay in there for more than a minute or two before I couldn't breath anymore.
The cleaning crews use HazMat suits that cover the entire body and face. Organic respirators are used to reduce the amount of mold inhaled by the volunteers, mold still gets through them due to the intensity in the rooms. Respitory problems are the prevalent. Bacteria is used to kill the mold via starving them out, these are called Efficient Microbials (EM). It's an excellent alternative to bleach, which would cover the city with chlorine. EM is not harmful to humans and is used both topically and internally to treat mold infections.
Disease is also a major issue here, staph and other nasties have often broken out. Medical treatment is now available and thus the problem is less than it was before I arrived.
The water system is not to be trusted either. Although it's now "safe" to drink, there are still many toxins and heavy metals. We have a water filtration system were I stay, but I can still taste the minerals and metals in the water, even though it's safe to drink. I must remind you, most people don't have a filtration system and are left to drinking tap water... not a good idea or situation.
Simple materials are still hard to get here. I was looking for lye yesterday and it wasn't to be found. I need to leave the city and go to the neighboring one to get what I needed, even a year after the storm.
I hope to get the biodiesel prototype up and running before my departure in a little over a week.
The mood here is dark with lots of hope, although there is much concern over the coming hurricane season. The levees and pumping stations are not adequate and much worse than before Katrina hit. Another serious storm could still level the city. The levees are really a joke. From appearances, they look about 5 feet thick, maybe. They're also only a few feet above the normal water line. The engineer that approved them should be charged with negligence, public endangerment or something.
This whole catastrophy has united much of the city. For instance, where I stay in the Woodlands and the 9th Ward, a white person wandering in before the storm would be unlikely to come out alive. Now people are working together as best they can. It's not perfect - as I mentioned the continuous string of murders above. Hopefully NOLA can recover and there won't be a serious storm this season, b/c I'm not sure if it'd be able to survive.
Hope everyone elsewhere is doing great,
Much love and heart,
Eric