Sunday, Mar. 4

Mike and I just got home Spent Sat. with Lanier in New Orleans. We had a chance to speak with Jed Horne, metro editor for Times-Picayune newspaper and Mark Newberg, who is chief of staff to Oliver Thomas, president of NO city council. Jed is author of "Breach of Faith" and oversaw article in today's (Sunday) Times-Picayune, "Last Chance." See www.nola.org. Due to canals, tearing up of the Delta by shipping interests and lousy leadership at all levels over the past decades, the cost of saving south Louisiana and indeed New Orleans are estimated to be astronomical.

We stayed at a B&B just outside the French Quarter. Floyd at the Lion's Inn couldn't have been nicer. It was great to shower in a tiled bath. Small luxuries. We also walked around quite a bit and then did a tour by car (see below).

BTW, I also recommend "The Great Deluge" by Doug Brinkley, which I'm reading now.

Our last day at Turkey Creek (Friday) was a lazy morning. Actually, I cleaned both the men's and women's bathrooms, which amazed the long-term volunteers. I think I may have become a best buddy of Lish's as a result! Eddie got held up so planned work on the huts at camp didn't start until the afternoon. By then we had to leave because we needed to stop in Biloxi to deliver the last of the Home Depot cards to the Interfaith Disaster Warehouse ($950 worth).

Kathy, the woman who received them from us, burst in to tears, and hugged us several times during our conversation with her---she declared that this money would be used to hire a truck and to buy and haul some sheet rock, which is in extreme short supply. She has been working at the warehouse for two months and she says it keeps her sane. She is living in a trailer with her 12 year old and recalled finding her home's roof two miles from where she lived, and other valuables strewn all around.

While in New Orleans, we drove through Lakeview, Gentilly (both suburbs next to Lake Pontchartrain) and the Lower Ninth Ward, which is huge, and it's accurate to say we were devastated by what our eyes saw. Lanier pointed out how the ruin on the Gulf Coast-Mississippi was due primarily to incredibly high winds (exceeding 175 mph) and hard rain so there is a randomness to the distribution of damage (some homes spared). Water receded relatively quickly. But in New Orleans, with waters at greater than 8 ft. in the Lower Ninth Ward and staying for weeks, a majority of homes collapsed and the damage is totally "equal opportunity" and consistently horrible. French Quarter as you may remember (and the Garden District) because built on higher ground, and due to fortress like architecture and layout, are still intact.

Bev