also. please know that over 90% of the half million NOLA residents somehow managed to evacuate before the storm. you should have seen us on the road - everything from cadillacs with one driver to 30 year old pickup trucks with a dozen people stuffed in the bed. I left Sunday morning about 3am and it took me 13 hours to get to Houston. My family left 15 hours before me and they only arrived in Houston 8 hours before me. Normally it takes about six hours to get to Houston. I was worried this might be the big one and was concerned the levees might be topped and our homes flooded. I never imagined that the levees would fall down like cheap movie props without even being overtopped. Nearly everyone everywhere in the flood zones from Broadmore to gerttown, from lakeview ot mid city to gentilly, the upper nine the lower nine and the great expansive suburbia that was new orleans east - everyone, lost everything they ever owned as welll as there homes - it didn’t matter what color you were or how much money you had - everyone was wiped out. There were many many reasons why 10% of our people did not evacuate:
-transportation problem or no money to pay the many evacuation expenses (hotels, meals, gas, etc)
-to try to protect property or business
-their jobs required they stay & wok
-disabilities
-to care for pets - shelters and hotels turn you away
-elderly and too difficult to mobilize or too hard headed to leave because it never flooded before.
-if you leave, sometimes they will not let you return whenever you want.
& all kinds of other reasons.
Had the levees not failed, no one would have ever questioned those that did not leave.
Please forgive us for our mistakes, poverty, biases, or what have you. We’re just people. All kinds of people.
And, please forget about hat happened to us 2.75 years ago and instead focus on our inhumane treatment since then. And, understand it was an engineering catastrophe by the US Army Corps of Engineers that destroyed our property, disrupted our lives and killed over a thousand US citizens in NOLA. Please try to help us get home and recover and rebuild our city.
]]>