Katrina Evacuees Return Home to La. Suburb

[earth mom]

Katrina Evacuees Return Home to La. Suburb

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

METAIRIE, La. - Thousands of residents began returning to their homes in this New Orleans suburb on Sunday after local officials gave the all-clear, finding debris-strewn yards and homes without power or working sewers.

Gas stations were open, along with a handful of coffee shops and burger joints. One pharmacy was busy with residents stocking up on supplies before heading home for the first time since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29.

<snip>

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced plans to allow residents back into the city, neighborhood by neighborhood, starting Monday with Algiers, a residential area across the Mississippi River from downtown.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050919/ap_on_re_us/katrina_coming_home

[rocktivity]

1. But what about the water and air quality?

I haven't heard a peep about that. The floodwaters may be gone, but environmental impact isn't.

:headbang:
rocknation

[kestrel91316]

2. The floodwater is NOT being used in city water systems. What is coming

out of the tap, where any is, is city water (from wells or the river upstream, treated in theory, but I don't know the current status of the treatment plants). Some areas have potable water now (not in NOLA per se), some have a boil order in place, and some say water is not to be used for drinking or washing.

The air obviously is breathable, and given the lack of auto exhaust and the industries shut down, I suspect the air might be an IMPROVEMENT.

[rocktivity]

4. Obviously breathable? Not with all that oil/e-coli sludge around

which will dry into dust as the water receeds. Don't be surprised if there's a rash of respiratroy ailments crop up down the road--just as they did after 9/11.

:headbang:
rocknation

[kestrel91316]

33. Yes, obviously breathable. I see lots of peolpe walking around NOLA

breathing ang not gasping for oxygen. I did not say it was pure as the fresh air we have in the high Rockies.

Mold, yes. Petroleum product fumes, yes. E. coli dust like Mexico City, yes. Not pleasant, but breatheable. Obviously some areas are worse than others.

[rainbow4321]

27. Mold spores can go thru air currents.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3357472


When Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters poured into the Gulf Coast — saturating walls, shoes, sofas, floors and roofs — billions of dormant mold spores woke up. Now, fueled by moisture and temperature, those spores are growing furiously.


While debate continues over how dangerous household molds may be, people with allergies, asthma or weakened immune systems can suffer severe respiratory problems when they breathe in spores. Some fungal organisms feed on wood for their growth, leaving a gooey, structurally unsound beam behind.

After floods, federal agencies often urge homeowners to strip homes of wet carpets and furniture and dry the building out within 48 hours to stop mold infestation — but there are no guidelines for what to do with a house that has been partly submerged for weeks.

Within days, a few spores can produce millions more, which are then carried to other locations by air currents. By the time mold is visible — which can take from a day to several weeks after germination — it often has taken root in walls and may be impossible to get out. Scientists worry many poor homeowners will spend tens of thousands of dollars attempting to get rid of mold, only to find that their efforts have failed.

[earth mom]

3. There was a story on ABC news today about people going back to NOLA

but I couldn't find it so I posted the above thread. Here's another thread about it posted in GD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4815177

I'm glad people are going back! Less property for * Inc to steal and exploit from the middle class and poor! :grr:

[rainbow4321]

29. Except they are being guinea pigs for what is in the air/mud/water

Plus chimp is letting them be free labor..sure let them go clean up their houses, less work for chimps' people to do before they take over the area. He/Rove may be letting them back into clean up, but will they let them actually stay?

[earth mom]

5. Officials clash on people returning to New Orleans

September 18th, 2005 1:46 pm

Officials clash on people returning to New Orleans


By Matt Daily / Reuters

NEW ORLEANS - Federal and local authorities on Sunday clashed over whether New Orleans was ready for residents to return, putting in doubt efforts to quickly resettle the devastated city.

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the federal recovery efforts in New Orleans, said the city lacked most of the basic services -- such as drinkable water, sewage and electricity --- that residents would need.

Tens of thousands of New Orleans' residents ravaged by Hurricane Katrina nearly three weeks ago remain housed in temporary shelters across the country, with many poised to return home when officials permit.

Mayor Ray Nagin has been encouraging many to return this week, but Allen said he was far more cautious after consulting with the heads of the Environmental Protection Administration and the Centers for Disease Control.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-18T170402Z_01_DIT553296_RTRUKOC_0_US-KATRINA-WRAP.xml

[Gman]

6. With Karl Rove in charge of overseeing the operations in NOLA

I'm real suspicious why the feds are pushing back on bringing people back in. I feel real confident Nagin wouldn't put people in harm's way after what he's been through. So what's the real story here?

[rodeodance]

8. Nagin has been pushing since early on. Same as BushCo. Wonder

if this is a conincidence? Both are keen in getting NO back to business as usual --both their images depend on it.

Now the health depts are stepping in and saying it is dangerous.
Health and safe are important for all to consider.

[americanstranger]

9. Reminds me of Lower Manhattan after 9/11.

Remember how Christie Whitman announced that the air was safe to breathe? It wasn't.

'Nagin's plan' was cooked up with the help of the federal government - meaning Bush persuaded Nagin to put on the Big Push.

Every man has his price. What did Bush offer Nagin - or maybe, what did he threaten him with?

-as

[sattahipdeep]

25. What does Mayor Ray Nagin know and why does he fear the CIA?

The Great New Orleans Land Grab


by Ernesto Cienfuegos

September 13, 2005

There were numerous incidents that occurred during and immediately
after Katrina struck that point to the "unthinkable". It now appears
that a sophisticated plan was implemented that utilized the "cover of a hurricane"


http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050913&articleId=941

[Straight Shooter]

7. I know I would be torn between coming home and dealing with toxins.

Almost everyone wants to come back home after a natural disaster. It's instinctive. You want to see what's left, see what you can preserve and try to make the best of a bad situation. OTOH, when I think of the "toxic soup" that washed through there, ughh. I don't know if I would risk it.

It makes me wonder if there's something the feds know that they aren't telling people, so as to avoid a panic situation. :shrug:

[celestia671]

12. I don't see how it's possible...

The health experts have been warning of disease outbreaks, including Cholera. Add to the fact that there is no running water and electricity in most of the city. Plus there was a story today in my local paper that St. Bernard Parish would be uninhabitable for years due to the oil spill.

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/articles/2005/09/17/news/news67.txt

[lyonn]

10. Have you ever tried to live without

running water and electricity? I haven't heard that the city has much, if any, of either. Sounds like bush happy talk to me.

[Yupster]

11. It seems like ground contamination

would have to be a concern after they sai the water was a cesspool.

[rodeodance]

14. recall that Allen, the new Coast Guard Gen in charge at the Fed level

also said on Meet the Press today that the levees are in a weakened condition and any return to NO needs a detailed evacuation plan BEFORE repopulation!

But it is the mayor who makes the final decision.

[rainbow4321]

28. Lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium...per EPA report.

And if you look thru Nola.com's website/photo gallery, there are alot of people in direct contact with the mud and water <no gloves, masks, etc...> as they return home to clean up their houses/gather belongings..


http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1126995010871&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home


The Star brought back five water samples from New Orleans — scooped up at city hall, the Iberville projects and points along Canal St. — for testing at a Toronto lab. The results found E. coli levels between 5,600 and 42,000 per 100 ml of water and staph levels ranging from 9,800 to 32,000 per 100 ml of water.


To put the results in more significant context, it should be noted that Toronto's board of health posts no-swimming advisories for the city's public beaches when E. coli levels reach 100 per 100 ml because of the health risk.

There are at least five oil spills in the New Orleans area and 121 sites with known chemical contamination. At minimum, three of the city's poisonous "Superfund sites" — meaning they made the list of the nation's worst toxic sites — were flooded, including a landfill where residents dumped garbage for decades. That one remains underwater and inaccessible.

<snip>
The water — and the muck it's leaving behind — contains lead from paint and batteries; officials aren't even certain of the oozing sources. High levels of hexavalent chromium, which is used in industrial plating, and arsenic, used in treating wood, have also been found, the EPA reports.

[applegrove]

13. The fact is that if someone goes home, buys a pump & cleans up -

they may save their house. I don't think that is "up there" on the priority list of the corporations lining up to rebuild.

These are people's lives. And if they are prepared to get into the muck and pack lunches for a week and live it - they have a right to try.

[rodeodance]

15. any bad storm could cause another levee breech. They are weakened

right now--not fixed. just patched up.

[applegrove]

16. I am assuming they will have a solar radio with them. Perhaps drag

along a rubber raft. As long as they leave the kids at home - how can you stop someone from wanting to save their home. Or save items in their home.

[earth mom]

17. I'm for it because I think it will prevent * Co from putting their plans

for NOLA in place. Property owners will be in the way and they won't be able to seize land and cheat people out of it as they please.

Take that *Co! :evilgrin:

[loudsue]

18. I totally agree with that thought....

I think EVERYONE should try to get back "home", and start the clean-up themselves, before the government corporations get in and start declaring everyone's property "condemned -- government property".

We're dealing with corporatists here. Corporations do not make a house a home.

:kick::kick::kick:

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

20. you nailed it!! everyone get back before the carpetbaggers take it ALL!!

But not to worry--The Federal Carpetbagging operations don't stand a chance.

Many people, including the current Tycoons running the White House, and even most New Orleans residents don't understand how N.O works and has always worked--

New Orleans is a almost a nation unto itself-The city was impossible to control even during the Civil war occupation.
The Crescent City's nickname has always been:"The City that Care Forgot"
I grew up in N.O.----most people who live there don't even realize what "really" goes on.
I wouldn't call it corruption---more like "tradition"--
(a tradition which exists to a certain degree in most big cities, but to a much greater degree in N.O.)
I'll just put it this way--
Rumor has it that JFK and RFK pissed off certain New Orleaneans--
(Personally I loved JFK and RFK as did most of us and wish the conspiracy had been exposed and those people responsible punished)--


Like it or not, there are highly influential people in New Orleans who are not about to allow a bunch of Kellogg Brown & Root outsider$ take over real estate.

Let'm try !!,:sarcasm:
uhh, I mean "bring it own" !!-as our Commander in Chimp says---

Just sit back and watch what happens....they're so stupid that I'm sure they will actually attempt their Federal sponsored Halliburton Carpetbagging $chemes---and if they do I predict they will end up wishing they were back in Iraq ---where it'd actually be safer for them !!!

[Carolab]

19. Me too. And I think this might be Nagin's intention too. n/t

[expatriot]

21. Property owners will be just as much "in the way" if they are living in

some emergency shelter. BushCo has no well formulated plans yet for their reconstruction talk, they are still doing things on the fly. NOLA is a monkey on the chimpster's back not his ace in the hole.

I think if it is sound medical/scientific/environmental expertise that is saying there are dangers, then we should listen to it since that'd be the first time the BushFeds have listened to experts yet.

IMHO, we shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that is "Nagin's position good, federal position (because of Bush) bad" all the time.


Nagin's interests (even though I think him a very good guy who while may have been caught a little off gaurd with the preparations - did a damn good job after the stom) may be a bit short-sighted here in the way of wanting people to get back in the city asap so as to not lose more people to resettlement. I can see his concern with this but health and safety have to be number one.

[Piperay]

32. Good thought

I was thinking they shouldn't move back cause of the air but being there to stop the scum from taking the property is what is needed.

[Kailassa]

22. Nagin's the Man

It sounds to me as though Nagin is standing up to Bush-Co, trying to get the people back to protect New Orleans from corporate take-over.

I wish him courage and lots of support. I'd say he's been no angel in the past, but he's seen his people treated with contempt and left to die of thirst amid the black waters, and now he wants to be a real leader and get the people, the city, back together again.

[applegrove]

23. Can we work out the economics of someone returning home &

potentially saving their house? What does it mean to insurance companies? What does it mean to developers? What does it mean economically to the home-owner.

If developers plan on running around and buying up lots will they get a better price if the house is not salvageble?

I don't know. I have no experience. I don't own a home.

[wolfgirl]

24. I'm wondering if

Nagin wants to allow folks to come back so they can better protect themselves from the corporate raiders....the longer people are out of the way/gone, the more that can be taken from them...

Just a thought.

[rox63]

26. Also, the longer the people are gone

The longer the city will be without revenue. The longer it's without revenue, the easier it gets for * and his corporate cronies to take over the whole place.

[Laelth]

30. The city is an environmental nightmare.

I appreciate that people want to return to protect their homes and property. I'm sure I'd want to go back too, if only to look for family photos and other priceless treasures. But people can't live in that city right now, and it would be terribly irresponsible to allow people to try.

I suspect that many of those who return to the stench, rot, and poisonous mire that New Orleans has become will change their minds about staying and decide to leave for good. These desperate people, many of whom lost everything, will be willing victims of whatever carpetbagging scheme comes along and offers them something (anything) for their land.

I hope I'm wrong, of course, but NO is now the world's largest superfund site. You couldn't pay me enough to expose my family to that.

-Laelth

[sweetjake]

31. I, too, would want to protect my home

but not at the expense of my life or the lives of my family. The 911 emergency system is not working well. The news had a story on earlier saying they were days behind on calls. They hospitals are not functioning. I can't fathom the sicknesses that might happen due to what's in the water, ground and air. Those alone would keep me away. Then, just the worry over what types of accidents might occur while cleaning debris from my home. A broken arm, leg, something that might need stitches.

It just seems like such a volatile situation. I feel so bad for the people who live there and have to make these decisions.