Three years ago tomorrow, Hurricane Katrina steamed through the Gulf Coast and left a trail of human and environmental suffering that is still largely unhealed. As Gustav eyes the Big Easy this week, I can't help but think back on my time as a New Orleans resident. From 2001-2005, I maintained the naive idea that "the big one" would always miss the city. In 2004 I waited out Hurricane Ivan at Igor's on St. Charles Avenue, sipping Bloody Marys and playing pool.
Katrina was big enough to expose the shoddy engineering and poor planning that plagued southeastern Louisiana three years ago. It's easy to get mad when I think about everything that went wrong, but a book I'm reading now is helping put things into better perspective by acknowledging the countless heroes who helped save people's lives and sanity.
Historian Douglas Brinkley's The Great Deluge is a fantastic piece of non-fiction. I purchased the book when it was originally published in 2006 but only began reading it one month ago on a trip to New Orleans. It's an amazing collection of stories - both noble and nasty - woven together to allow the reader a more complete understanding of how events unfolded and how the important figures contributed (or didn't).
This weekend I plan on tracking Gustav and finishing the 600-page history -- I suggest anyone else interested in learning more about Katrina pick up a copy of their own. Whether or not you have a Bloody Mary while you read is up to you.
[Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune]
Sad but it’s true
Sad but it’s true. Hurricane has brought lots of dismaying damages. We can’t blame anyone for this happening this since, this is a natural disaster that can’t be anticipated and can’t be prevented to happen. Times of peril have a way of focusing peoples' priorities, like on their finances, which is the reason why payday loans are a great tool to have access to if you have a sudden emergency you need to deal with. You can get money quickly, so you can focus on the things that you need to prioritize and you don't have to worry about your wallet developing cobwebs. Some people have much grander things to worry about – like the citizens of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward. The people who inhabit the lower 9th Ward have still been waiting for their homes to be repaired in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and they haven't been offered the help more affluent neighborhoods were afforded by the state government and FEMA were offered in record time. However, the actor Brad Pitt has bellied up to the bar, and started a project called Make It Right. After seeing the devastation that has yet to be rectified in the area, Pitt decided that he was going to help out, and Make it Right has pledged to rebuild 150 homes by the end of summer 2009. It is a sad fact that these people have had to depend on Hollywood impresarios for help, but it is commendable that he took it upon himself to do something when those who should have done so failed to act. If you're facing a financial crisis, don't wait for the cavalry to arrive years after the fact – you can do something about it right away, and payday loans are one of the things you can do to ease your emergency burdens. Click to read more on Payday Loans.
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