Scout Prime at First Draft has asked bloggers to link to this piece in the Washington Post by John Barry, the author of Rising Tide, the story of the 1927 flood of the Mississippi River Valley.
I link it here because it's important, and because Grandmere Mimi asked us to.
Full text of the article follows:
Our Coast to Fix -- or Lose
By John M. Barry
Saturday, May 12, 2007; Page A15
There has been much debate in the past 20 months over protecting Louisiana from another lethal hurricane, but nearly all of it has been conducted without any real understanding of the geological context. Congress and the Bush administration need to recognize six facts that define the national interest.
Fact 1: The Gulf of Mexico once reached north to Cape Girardeau, Mo. But the Mississippi River carries such an enormous sediment load that, combined with a falling sea level, it deposited enough sediment to create 35,000 square miles of land from Cape Girardeau to the present mouth of the river.
This river-created land includes the entire coast, complete with barrier islands, stretching from Mississippi to Texas. But four human interventions have interfered with this natural process; three of them that benefit the rest of the country have dramatically increased the hurricane threat to the Gulf Coast.
Fact 2: Acres of riverbank at a time used to collapse into the river system providing a main source of sediment. To prevent this and to protect lives and property, engineers stopped such collapses by paving hundreds of miles of the river with riprap and even concrete, beginning more than 1,000 miles upriver -- including on the Ohio, Missouri and other tributaries -- from New Orleans. Reservoirs for flood protection also impound sediment. These and other actions deprive the Mississippi of 60 to 70 percent of its natural sediment load, starving the coast.
Fact 3: To stop sandbars from blocking shipping at the mouth of the Mississippi, engineers built jetties extending more than two miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. This engineering makes Tulsa, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and other cities into ports with direct access to the ocean, greatly enhancing the nation's economy. The river carries 20 percent of the nation's exports, including 60 percent of its grain exports, and the river at New Orleans is the busiest port in the world. But the jetties prevent any of the sediment remaining in the river from replenishing the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts and barrier islands; instead, the jetties drop the sediment off the continental shelf.
Fact 4: Levees that prevent river flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi interfere with the replenishment of the land locally as well.
Fact 5: Roughly 30 percent of the country's domestic oil and gas production comes from offshore Louisiana, and to service that production the industry created more than 10,000 miles of canals and pipelines through the marsh.
Every inch of those 10,000-plus miles lets saltwater penetrate, and eat away at, the coast. So energy production has enormously accelerated what was a slow degradation, transforming a long-term problem into an immediate crisis. The deprivation of sediment is like moving a block of ice from the freezer to the sink, where it begins to melt; the effect of the canals and pipelines is like attacking that ice with an ice pick, breaking it up.
As a result, 2,100 square miles of coastal land and barrier islands have melted into the Gulf of Mexico. This land once served as a buffer between the ocean and populated areas in Louisiana and part of Mississippi, protecting them during hurricanes. Each land mile over which a hurricane travels absorbs roughly a foot of storm surge.
The nation as a whole gets nearly all the benefits of engineering the river. Louisiana and some of coastal Mississippi get 100 percent of the costs. Eastern New Orleans (including the lower Ninth Ward) and St. Bernard Parish -- nearly all of which, incidentally, is at or above sea level -- exemplify this allocation of costs and benefits. Three man-made shipping canals pass through them, creating almost no jobs there but benefiting commerce throughout the country. Yet nearly all the 175,000 people living there saw their homes flooded not because of any natural vulnerability but because of levee breaks.
Fact 6: Without action, land loss will continue, and it will increasingly jeopardize populated areas, the port system and energy production. This would be catastrophic for America. Scientists say the problem can be solved, even with rising sea levels, but that we have only a decade to begin addressing it in a serious way or the damage may be irreversible.
Despite all this and President Bush's pledge from New Orleans in September 2005 that "we will do what it takes" to help people rebuild, a draft White House cuts its own recommendation of $2 billion for coastal restoration to $1 billion while calling for an increase in the state's contribution from the usual 35 percent to 50 percent. Generating benefits to the nation is what created the problem, and the nation needs to solve it. Put simply: Why should a cab driver in Pittsburgh or Tulsa pay to fix Louisiana's coast? Because he gets a stronger economy and lower energy costs from it, and because his benefits created the problem. The failure of Congress and the president to act aggressively to repair the coastline at the mouth of the Mississippi River could threaten the economic vitality of the nation. Louisiana, one of the poorest states, can no longer afford to underwrite benefits for the rest of the nation.
John M. Barry is the author of "Rising Tide" and secretary of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday, May 7, 2007
NOLA story project--good news
I was instant-messaging last night with the priest we met there. I told him that my advisor said I could get cross-cultural credit (required) if I go back in January and do oral histories. I need to find funding--but what I most need is a place to crash for that month.
He was excited about it; he gave me names of people to contact, and told me that if those don't work, to talk again with him.
It was probably a five-minute IM session. It made this idea really feasible. I can cover food for myself, if I need to, and I can get cheap airfare--particularly if I fly out of Sacramento instead of Oakland. (Without yet asking the person I will ask, I'm sure she'd drive me.) Grant organizations don't often give funds for transportation, anyway. Housing can be really expensive. If I don't have to worry about that, then this is easy. Once I get there, I can use what remains of their public transit system, or rent a bicycle.
I really can do this, and I'm going to.
He was excited about it; he gave me names of people to contact, and told me that if those don't work, to talk again with him.
It was probably a five-minute IM session. It made this idea really feasible. I can cover food for myself, if I need to, and I can get cheap airfare--particularly if I fly out of Sacramento instead of Oakland. (Without yet asking the person I will ask, I'm sure she'd drive me.) Grant organizations don't often give funds for transportation, anyway. Housing can be really expensive. If I don't have to worry about that, then this is easy. Once I get there, I can use what remains of their public transit system, or rent a bicycle.
I really can do this, and I'm going to.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Go to New Orleans
Hi Folks,
I wrote this awhile back on my myspace profile, and Kirstin suggested I post it here, so...
Returned this weekend from New Orleans - it was an amazing experience, and I hope to return soon. Maybe you should think about it also.
Can you imagine block after block of destruction? A journalist, in a memoir, wrote that New Orleans now has a bathtub ring around it. That's an apt description - the water marks remain on many homes.
The damage is different, obviously, from that Katrina wrecked on the people of Mississippi. The storm surge and its waves destroyed the homes of those living close to the coast, and wind whipped against structures inland for many miles. In New Orleans, the homes still stand like tombstones on a city-wide graveyard. But in this graveyard is life, and it's rebuilding - resurrecting.
On my third day of work, I fell and got a gash in my leg. Unable to do some of the gutting and construction work, I ended up delivering meals to the volunteers on the worksites, spread across the city. I drove miles and miles, and every where I went, except in the tourist areas, there was the omnipresent water ring on houses.
The politics amaze me. It seems like human instict is get the job the done. When people need help, you help them. Why are politicians passing by on the other side of the street? Is it because they want a plan that makes them look good? They want to prejudice in favor of the wealthy, reclaiming land that can mean bigger bucks? The iillusion of power laps at the poor like hounds, but the people who are sticking to their land and holding their place are stronger than politicians could imagine. The only challenge is there are so many homes that need gutting.
It seems to me that the government should have organized a mass gutting of all homes, block by block, sweeping the city. A mass, organized gutting could have meant most if not all of the homes could have been gutted. Yet, here we are, still gutting houses in a piece mill fashion - not for want of gutting, but for a lack of will to restore people to their homes.
In spite of the politics and the frustrations of unintentional rebuilding, there is hope. I can't imagine the graciousness of people among whom we worked. One day, people drove by and it cherred us as they said, "Bless y'all! - Thank y'all so much!".
adios- mpb
I wrote this awhile back on my myspace profile, and Kirstin suggested I post it here, so...
Returned this weekend from New Orleans - it was an amazing experience, and I hope to return soon. Maybe you should think about it also.
Can you imagine block after block of destruction? A journalist, in a memoir, wrote that New Orleans now has a bathtub ring around it. That's an apt description - the water marks remain on many homes.
The damage is different, obviously, from that Katrina wrecked on the people of Mississippi. The storm surge and its waves destroyed the homes of those living close to the coast, and wind whipped against structures inland for many miles. In New Orleans, the homes still stand like tombstones on a city-wide graveyard. But in this graveyard is life, and it's rebuilding - resurrecting.
On my third day of work, I fell and got a gash in my leg. Unable to do some of the gutting and construction work, I ended up delivering meals to the volunteers on the worksites, spread across the city. I drove miles and miles, and every where I went, except in the tourist areas, there was the omnipresent water ring on houses.
The politics amaze me. It seems like human instict is get the job the done. When people need help, you help them. Why are politicians passing by on the other side of the street? Is it because they want a plan that makes them look good? They want to prejudice in favor of the wealthy, reclaiming land that can mean bigger bucks? The iillusion of power laps at the poor like hounds, but the people who are sticking to their land and holding their place are stronger than politicians could imagine. The only challenge is there are so many homes that need gutting.
It seems to me that the government should have organized a mass gutting of all homes, block by block, sweeping the city. A mass, organized gutting could have meant most if not all of the homes could have been gutted. Yet, here we are, still gutting houses in a piece mill fashion - not for want of gutting, but for a lack of will to restore people to their homes.
In spite of the politics and the frustrations of unintentional rebuilding, there is hope. I can't imagine the graciousness of people among whom we worked. One day, people drove by and it cherred us as they said, "Bless y'all! - Thank y'all so much!".
adios- mpb
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Presentation at CDSP, May 3
HURRICANE KATRINA HIT THE GULF COAST IN 2005
FOR MANY THE REBUILDING HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN
WHAT STORM DOES THIS AROUSE IN YOU?
PLEASE JOIN THE SOLUTION
Come when you can for open dialogue, reflection and new beginnings
LISTEN TO STORIES FROM RECENT GULF COAST TRAVELERS
DISCOVER HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Conversation and multi-media presentation will be ongoing. Feel free to bring your lunch. Snacks and resources for action will be on hand.
Thank you,
Michael Barham, Joanna Hollis, Matt Knoll-Williams, Vivian Lam,
Judy Lebens, Kirstin Paisley and Michael Reid
FOR MANY THE REBUILDING HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN
WHAT STORM DOES THIS AROUSE IN YOU?
PLEASE JOIN THE SOLUTION
Come when you can for open dialogue, reflection and new beginnings
CDSP Denniston RefectoryTELL YOUR STORY
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
LISTEN TO STORIES FROM RECENT GULF COAST TRAVELERS
DISCOVER HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Conversation and multi-media presentation will be ongoing. Feel free to bring your lunch. Snacks and resources for action will be on hand.
Thank you,
Michael Barham, Joanna Hollis, Matt Knoll-Williams, Vivian Lam,
Judy Lebens, Kirstin Paisley and Michael Reid
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
What Is A Conspiracy?
For nearly two years, there has been talk of conspiracy related to the breaching of the levees and the poor response to the poor people of New Orleans. Conspiracy is something which makes me terribly uncomfortable, as I suppose it should. It is contrary to my nature and to my sense of the importance of unconditional humanitarian efforts. Having done other missions, I don't believe I walk through life looking through the proverbial rose colored glasses. I have seen the poorest of the poor; I know what it is to go to bed hungry; I have lived in a mud and dung house with no potable water. I believe in the basic good of mankind and have tried very hard to believe in my country and her commitment to the people she serves.
After experiencing only the surface issues in New Orleans, I am changed. I am disappointed in my government, and considering the Iraq war and the billions being spent there, I am ashamed. I am near to being embarrassed to be an American whose country has forsaken its innocent poor in the interest of what I have come to believe is power, industry, and taxation.
Although I have travelled far and wide, I have never experienced the deep south and what seems to be the absolute disdain that society there has for its poor people of color. I have had many questions since my return. Why are there thousands of FEMA trailers standing empty behind locked chain link fences? Whose bright idea was it give those trailers only to those who own homes? Why doesn't the school district find it economically prudent to bus 26, or so, kids from the lower ninth to schools in the upper wards? How would I advocate for my grandchildren if they had been kept out of school because of bus fare...out of school longer than they had been in school? How would I ever have the possibility of returning home if, after two years, no effort had been made in my neighborhood to restore power, water, and sewer? If I were the mayor, what would I do about the casinos which send payday buses with a free round trip ride and the gift of twenty bucks to the lower ninth, so desperate poor folk can gamble away their grocery money with the promise of doubling it? For me, the questions go on and on. My only logical answer is conspiracy. The state of Louisiana, New Orleans, and the United States government want their poor people to disappear...to become invisible. They're bad for business. If they aren't provided with services, homes, or an infrastructure, they will be forced to move on. In doing so, they will remove the blight from the "Big Easy". The land will become available for casinos, industry, the port, the refinery. State coffers will grow with more tax revenue and less demand on the welfare system. Why would they want the poor folks when they can have all of this?
Did I return a more cynical person? Or, did I return with the kind of righteous anger which has the potential for change? If the latter is the case, who has the time, money, energy, voice, and faith to pitch in and help? As Christians, let us not forget, "Blessed are the poor..." "...what you do for the least of these, you do for me..."
After experiencing only the surface issues in New Orleans, I am changed. I am disappointed in my government, and considering the Iraq war and the billions being spent there, I am ashamed. I am near to being embarrassed to be an American whose country has forsaken its innocent poor in the interest of what I have come to believe is power, industry, and taxation.
Although I have travelled far and wide, I have never experienced the deep south and what seems to be the absolute disdain that society there has for its poor people of color. I have had many questions since my return. Why are there thousands of FEMA trailers standing empty behind locked chain link fences? Whose bright idea was it give those trailers only to those who own homes? Why doesn't the school district find it economically prudent to bus 26, or so, kids from the lower ninth to schools in the upper wards? How would I advocate for my grandchildren if they had been kept out of school because of bus fare...out of school longer than they had been in school? How would I ever have the possibility of returning home if, after two years, no effort had been made in my neighborhood to restore power, water, and sewer? If I were the mayor, what would I do about the casinos which send payday buses with a free round trip ride and the gift of twenty bucks to the lower ninth, so desperate poor folk can gamble away their grocery money with the promise of doubling it? For me, the questions go on and on. My only logical answer is conspiracy. The state of Louisiana, New Orleans, and the United States government want their poor people to disappear...to become invisible. They're bad for business. If they aren't provided with services, homes, or an infrastructure, they will be forced to move on. In doing so, they will remove the blight from the "Big Easy". The land will become available for casinos, industry, the port, the refinery. State coffers will grow with more tax revenue and less demand on the welfare system. Why would they want the poor folks when they can have all of this?
Did I return a more cynical person? Or, did I return with the kind of righteous anger which has the potential for change? If the latter is the case, who has the time, money, energy, voice, and faith to pitch in and help? As Christians, let us not forget, "Blessed are the poor..." "...what you do for the least of these, you do for me..."
Thursday, April 12, 2007
NOLA liturgy at CDSP - Monday 4/16
Y'all are invited to an experimental evening prayer at CDSP this Monday 4/16 at 5:30PM!
We're offering this liturgy as a way to share something of what the 4 of us have experienced of the incredible resurrection hope amidst vast devastation that we found in New Orleans and its people.
Weather permitting, we will gather at 5:30pm at CDSP outside in St. Margaret's courtyard (if it rains, we'll be in the chapel).
Please bring an umbrella--even if it's not raining!--and feel free to don any New Orleans-related accoutrements you might have (i.e. Mardi Gras beads, funky hats, feather boas, etc.).
We hope you will join us!
We're offering this liturgy as a way to share something of what the 4 of us have experienced of the incredible resurrection hope amidst vast devastation that we found in New Orleans and its people.
Weather permitting, we will gather at 5:30pm at CDSP outside in St. Margaret's courtyard (if it rains, we'll be in the chapel).
Please bring an umbrella--even if it's not raining!--and feel free to don any New Orleans-related accoutrements you might have (i.e. Mardi Gras beads, funky hats, feather boas, etc.).
We hope you will join us!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
What You Can Do
Nineteen months after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, there is still tremendous need for financial donations and volunteer labor. This resource list will be updated periodically. Please click these links, learn what is out there, and give in the ways that are best for you.
Please continue to pray for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We saw conditions there that shook us to the core. There are rebuilding efforts, and many signs of hope, but they cannot do it alone. Please pray for strength, healing, and wise leadership. Pray for the healing of emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual wounds. Pray for strong communities. I am writing this on Easter morning; please pray for resurrection.
If you can, please go to New Orleans. I can’t stress this strongly enough. Go for a day, a week, a semester, a season. Go and see the city; if you can, volunteer. You may not think that your brief presence makes a difference—but we found out that it does. Even if you can’t stay long enough to see the fruits of your labor, the experience of serving in this city will change you. You will not see the world, or your place in it, the same way again.
Educational Resources
Indymedia, Katrina page
National Geographic, Katrina Photo Page
National Geographic Special Edition: Katrina (includes "How You Can Help" list of resources)
New Orleans Times-Picayune, Katrina Archive
NPR: Six Months After Katrina
NPR: Katrina, One Year Later
NPR: Katrina and Recovery
"Immigrants and Hurricane Katrina," ImmigrationProf Blog 4-12-07
"New Orleans Rebirth Depends on Marshes," Dallas Morning News 12/10/05
Donation information and volunteer resources
Many of these organizations welcome volunteers. All welcome financial contributions.
Tulane University School of Social Work, Hurricane Assistance Links
The NOAH Project (Loyola New Orleans Alliance for Hope)
Mercy Corps, Gulf Coast Recovery page (also click the tabs on the left)
Oxfam America, Hurricane Katrina Page
Habitat for Humanity, New Orleans
Episcopal Relief and Development, Hurricane Response Center
Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, volunteer page
St. Anna’s Episcopal Church, New Orleans
St. Anna's Mission to Musicians, Summary and Outcomes Statement (2006)
We visited while we were there. This church hosts a benefit for musicians every Wednesday night, and has several other free services, including legal and crisis counseling. When I asked the rector what he would have me take back to California, he said, "Peace. Hope. And send us money."
Please continue to pray for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We saw conditions there that shook us to the core. There are rebuilding efforts, and many signs of hope, but they cannot do it alone. Please pray for strength, healing, and wise leadership. Pray for the healing of emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual wounds. Pray for strong communities. I am writing this on Easter morning; please pray for resurrection.
If you can, please go to New Orleans. I can’t stress this strongly enough. Go for a day, a week, a semester, a season. Go and see the city; if you can, volunteer. You may not think that your brief presence makes a difference—but we found out that it does. Even if you can’t stay long enough to see the fruits of your labor, the experience of serving in this city will change you. You will not see the world, or your place in it, the same way again.
Educational Resources
Indymedia, Katrina page
National Geographic, Katrina Photo Page
National Geographic Special Edition: Katrina (includes "How You Can Help" list of resources)
New Orleans Times-Picayune, Katrina Archive
NPR: Six Months After Katrina
NPR: Katrina, One Year Later
NPR: Katrina and Recovery
"Immigrants and Hurricane Katrina," ImmigrationProf Blog 4-12-07
"New Orleans Rebirth Depends on Marshes," Dallas Morning News 12/10/05
Donation information and volunteer resources
Many of these organizations welcome volunteers. All welcome financial contributions.
Tulane University School of Social Work, Hurricane Assistance Links
The NOAH Project (Loyola New Orleans Alliance for Hope)
Mercy Corps, Gulf Coast Recovery page (also click the tabs on the left)
Oxfam America, Hurricane Katrina Page
Habitat for Humanity, New Orleans
Episcopal Relief and Development, Hurricane Response Center
Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, volunteer page
St. Anna’s Episcopal Church, New Orleans
St. Anna's Mission to Musicians, Summary and Outcomes Statement (2006)
We visited while we were there. This church hosts a benefit for musicians every Wednesday night, and has several other free services, including legal and crisis counseling. When I asked the rector what he would have me take back to California, he said, "Peace. Hope. And send us money."
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