D'Iberville ready to plan renewal
By QUINCY COLLINS SMITH
Sun Herald
D'IBERVILLE - Urban planners, city officials and community stakeholders will converge on City Hall this weekend to refine waterfront and redevelopment concepts created during the Renewal Forum.
An opening presentation Saturday will kick off the weeklong planning charrette and SmartCode workshop. The community is invited to presentations and design review.
As part of the charrette, the design and planning team with Miami-based Jaime Correa & Associates will study housing, retail and traffic needs as well as work with neighbors in devastated areas to create housing strategies that comply with new elevation requirements. Correa said the team wants to concentrate on delivering housing types to meet the community's needs.
"It isn't just a vision," Correa said. "It is something that is going to be implemented. We want to make it as realistic as possible."
During the Renewal Forum in October, Correa and his team, with help from city officials, drafted design concepts for green spaces, casino row and a French Quarter-like district with mixed-use and eclectic retail along the waterfront and adjacent area.
City officials and planners hope the concepts and master plan generated from the charrette will guide private developers.
City leaders say they are optimistic but practical in the plans to add new character to the city, and they have built some momentum on strategic plans by initiating traffic and population studies, mitigating its wastewater treatment plants and examining the potential to move it and seafood processing plants inland.
Like a child in a sandbox erecting an imaginary city, community stakeholders can mold the future appearance and potential, said City Manager Richard Rose.
"D'Iberville will be the place to live and shop," Rose said in a recent interview. "It's a dreamer's paradise right now. With the right tools, we can put those dreams to work. What the mind can conceive, it can achieve."
But as the community rebuilds, it faces challenges such as potential land speculation and new elevation requirements that could stall or reconfigure renewal plans. The need to replace destroyed or damaged residential rental properties is great and casino development pressure is unbelievable, said Correa, who has worked with disaster-stricken areas for 10 years.
"D'Iberville is becoming an economic engine in the minds of developers," Correa said, describing how developers are taking notice of the city's traffic counts, highway construction, higher ground and nearby retail. "In my opinion, what is changing is the character of the waterfront. It's no longer going to be that romantic waterfront that they had. The waterfront is going to change, I think, radically and for the best, if we can control (developers). That's the whole purpose of the charrette."
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Canals to close for only
5 feet of storm surge
SAFE WATER?
Only 5 feet of storm surge will be allowed before gates close
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By Sheila Grissett
East Jefferson bureau -- Times Picayune
No more than 5 feet of storm surge will be allowed into any part of the damaged 17th Street or London Avenue canals until a final round of test results are analyzed to determine whether the floodwalls can handle more water, Army Corps of Engineers officials said this week.
That level is 1 to 2 feet lower than corps engineers had initially hoped would be the "safe water" elevation in the two big canals for this hurricane season, but federal engineers said they are hopeful the level can be raised once soil analyses and hydrologic calculations are finished this summer.
The lower the safe-water level -- the maximum height engineers believe the deficient floodwalls can handle -- the greater the chance that canals will have to be closed against surges generated by tropical systems in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 17th Street and London Avenue canals, for example, have experienced a 5-foot surge four times in the past 75 years. The only greater surge was that of Katrina last August, at 101/2 feet, according to historical data provided by the corps.
History shows that in more than 150 years, a hurricane has never approached New Orleans in June, and only four tropical storms have hit the area in early summer. Activity picks up in July but, traditionally, the worst storms to rake Louisiana occur from mid-August to late September.
Col. Lewis Setliff III and other corps officials have said they hope to see the safe water elevation rise once all the facts are in, though Setliff said he doesn't expect it to increase beyond 7 feet until the floodwalls, which breached during Hurricane Katrina, are replaced or some other permanent method of protection is in place.
"Five feet will be our starting point because we know that by limiting it to 5, we're safe, that the people of this area will be protected against the possibility of another breach in the floodwalls," said Setliff, who commands the corps task force overseeing $800 million in repairs to the damaged hurricane protection system, including construction of floodgates to block surges in three outfall drainage canals.
He said the decision will be based solely on facts and science from a variety of sources, including the work by Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, or IPET, a 150-member team of scientists and engineers from the corps, academia and private industry, as well as from other independent investigations carried out primarily by teams populated with researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Louisiana State University.
Corps officials said the elevations were based on the findings of IPET, and they wouldn't speculate on when they might be raised.
The engineers also said the elevations would apply to the entire length of all canals, though final analyses might dictated varying levels in different sections of the canals.
The safe-water elevation was set considerably higher -- 9 feet -- for the Orleans Avenue Canal, which also was subjected to Katrina's surge, but its floodwalls didn't break. Forensic investigators said that of the three outfall drainage canals, Orleans was the best built.
Drop-dead elevation
The establishment of safe-water elevations are crucial numbers for residences and businesses situated in the basins that drain into the canals during heavy rain. Once the canals are closed against surges, pumping capacity is significantly reduced and less rainfall can be moved out of the basins and into the canals for disposal in Lake Pontchartrain.
The news that 5 feet is the drop-dead elevation for the two canals is triggering concern among distressed residents and elected officials who fear that closing the canals and reducing drainage capacity could result in more flooding.
Broadmoor resident and mechanical engineer Matt McBride said he and his neighbors, already slammed by deep Katrina floodwaters, stand to flood yet again if the gates diminish the ability of the 17th Street Canal to drain its 10,000-acre basin. He called the current plan "unconscionable" and said the corps should have bolstered all the floodwalls, as is being done to a 1,500-foot stretch of wall in Kenner, so that higher water levels could be maintained.
Jefferson Parish Council President John Young said he and other parish leaders are appalled by the corps's decision.
"At this point, we've got to live with the 5 feet," Young said Friday. "They tell us they hope to increase it. Problem is, the corps seems unwilling to commit to a definitive timetable on anything."
But safe-water elevations are only part of the information residents and government officials are thirsting for.
They also want details of a complex corps plan that spells out exactly when and how -- and on whose order -- the canals will be shut off in the face of storms that might bring buckets of rain, not just surge. The longer the gates are closed, the greater the risk that rainfall will begin to pool because closure greatly diminishes the amount of water that can be pumped out of neighborhoods via the London and 17th Street canals.
'Fish or cut bait'
Specific answers to those questions and more will be included in a lengthy operations manual that corps engineers are writing, then passing along to corps command, as well as drainage and engineering managers in Jefferson Parish and New Orleans for review and comment.
At least two drafts have been reviewed already, but 10 days into the storm season, there's been no finalized document. Once everyone can agree on a finished product, officials with the corps, the city of New Orleans, and Jefferson Parish must all sign a cooperative agreement obligating all parties to follow the plan.
So how close are the parties to signing, and what happens if a tropical system blows in before there is an agreement?
Young said if a storm blows up before the agreement is ready, all parties would simply have to sign on the dotted line.
"Everybody's working around the clock to get everything resolved, but if a storm comes, then necessity is the mother of invention. We'd have to fish or cut bait."
Jefferson Parish has spent at least $10 million on backup plans to mitigate reduced pumping capacity for its 2,500 acres of the 17th Street Canal drainage basin if gates are closed.
Still, Young said that won't be enough to keep low-lying areas of Old Metairie and Old Jefferson from flooding in heavy rain, because the corps says it can provide only a small portion of the normal drainage capacity this season.
For that reason, Young has proposed using the Interstate 10 underpass as a retention pond during a storm event, then draining it when the surge falls and the drainage canals reopen. The water would be gone by the time I-10 is needed by emergency vehicles, he reasons.
It is not a plan that everybody embraces, but Young said drainage engineers from the parish, the city of New Orleans, and the state Department of Transportation and Development are working to come up with a resolution.
Although not released yet, enough pieces and parts of the floodgate plan have come to light during public meetings, official briefings and private talks with corps employees that there is at least some indication of how things may work -- but the plan is not set in stone until an agreement is reached.
S&WB has big role
The corps will control opening and closing the gates and operating the structures' own drainage systems, the ones that can only move 10 to 30 percent of the water normally moved by the powerful New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board pumps.
Those big city pumps will also run during a storm, and will be operated by Sewerage & Water Board employees.
But the two pumping systems will be required to follow a carefully orchestrated plan from the time that floodgates begin to close until the storm surge drops and all the gates are again raised.
Corps engineers say they will work hand in glove with Sewerage & Water Board personnel to make sure that the big pumps don't move more water than the smaller pumps can handle, a situation that could damage the pumping system or, even more catastrophically, the canals
A corps employee will also be embedded with Sewerage & Water Board personnel in the city pump stations at all three outfall canals, one of many operational details that still needs approval from New Orleans District commander Richard Wagenaar.
"We call these people canal captains, one in each station, and they'll work side by side with pump station personal," said Chris Accardo, the corps' New Orleans District chief of operations whose office will maintain and operate the gates.
"We also plan to have a four-man crew assigned to each structure to raise and lower the gates, and they'll have the skill sets to make repairs if needed," he said.
Learning curve
Because each storm is a highly individual event that travels its own unique path and packs its own particular wind speeds and surges, engineers say it is impossible to predict just how far in advance of a storm that gates would begin to close, and how long they would remain closed.
For now, engineers are conservatively estimating that it would take from six to eight hours to completely close off the two larger canals, which have 11 individual gates each.
"We could close them in that period of time, one after the other, if need be," Setliff said. "But in some cases, you wouldn't have to shut them in that order. As part of your preparations, you can lower them from the outside in to keep a functional canal for as long as possible."
Accardo said he thinks that number can be improved once his crews get the chance to actually raise and lower the gates a few times.
"We'll go through a learning curve as soon as we can practice some, and I think we can beat that number. But until we actually get out there and do it, we won't know," he said.
Cranes for now
Once closed the gates wouldn't be reopened until the lake level falls low enough to ensure that safe water levels in the canal can be maintained. Estimates of that window have varied wildly, from eight to 24 hours, and actually are dependent on the weather system itself.
A plan to mechanically operate the gates probably won't be in place before next hurricane season, engineers said, and until then, the gates would be closed by cranes. And because it is dangerous to operate the huge machines in high wind, closures will have to be complete by the time wind speeds hit 30 mph.
"That's our thinking now, but again, this hasn't been approved," Accardo said. "What I can tell you is that we don't want to be in the crane business. We want winches in place to raise and lower them. But we've got the biggest cranes the structures will support to maximize the wind loads they can tolerate."
The gates and their pumping systems are tentatively expected to be operational at the London and 17th Street canals by about July 9. But if the rare early-season storm strikes before then, sheet piling will be driven at the bridges of the canals to stop a surge.
Accardo thinks that could be done in 24 hours.
Ultimately, it will be Wagenaar who pulls the trigger.
"We'll monitor a storm's approach like everyone else, and he'll be advised by weather (sources) and the hydraulics experts who will be predicting surge," Accardo said. "But he'll notify New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and the state DOTD before he gives the order to bring them down."
5 feet of storm surge
SAFE WATER?
Only 5 feet of storm surge will be allowed before gates close
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By Sheila Grissett
East Jefferson bureau -- Times Picayune
No more than 5 feet of storm surge will be allowed into any part of the damaged 17th Street or London Avenue canals until a final round of test results are analyzed to determine whether the floodwalls can handle more water, Army Corps of Engineers officials said this week.
That level is 1 to 2 feet lower than corps engineers had initially hoped would be the "safe water" elevation in the two big canals for this hurricane season, but federal engineers said they are hopeful the level can be raised once soil analyses and hydrologic calculations are finished this summer.
The lower the safe-water level -- the maximum height engineers believe the deficient floodwalls can handle -- the greater the chance that canals will have to be closed against surges generated by tropical systems in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 17th Street and London Avenue canals, for example, have experienced a 5-foot surge four times in the past 75 years. The only greater surge was that of Katrina last August, at 101/2 feet, according to historical data provided by the corps.
History shows that in more than 150 years, a hurricane has never approached New Orleans in June, and only four tropical storms have hit the area in early summer. Activity picks up in July but, traditionally, the worst storms to rake Louisiana occur from mid-August to late September.
Col. Lewis Setliff III and other corps officials have said they hope to see the safe water elevation rise once all the facts are in, though Setliff said he doesn't expect it to increase beyond 7 feet until the floodwalls, which breached during Hurricane Katrina, are replaced or some other permanent method of protection is in place.
"Five feet will be our starting point because we know that by limiting it to 5, we're safe, that the people of this area will be protected against the possibility of another breach in the floodwalls," said Setliff, who commands the corps task force overseeing $800 million in repairs to the damaged hurricane protection system, including construction of floodgates to block surges in three outfall drainage canals.
He said the decision will be based solely on facts and science from a variety of sources, including the work by Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, or IPET, a 150-member team of scientists and engineers from the corps, academia and private industry, as well as from other independent investigations carried out primarily by teams populated with researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Louisiana State University.
Corps officials said the elevations were based on the findings of IPET, and they wouldn't speculate on when they might be raised.
The engineers also said the elevations would apply to the entire length of all canals, though final analyses might dictated varying levels in different sections of the canals.
The safe-water elevation was set considerably higher -- 9 feet -- for the Orleans Avenue Canal, which also was subjected to Katrina's surge, but its floodwalls didn't break. Forensic investigators said that of the three outfall drainage canals, Orleans was the best built.
Drop-dead elevation
The establishment of safe-water elevations are crucial numbers for residences and businesses situated in the basins that drain into the canals during heavy rain. Once the canals are closed against surges, pumping capacity is significantly reduced and less rainfall can be moved out of the basins and into the canals for disposal in Lake Pontchartrain.
The news that 5 feet is the drop-dead elevation for the two canals is triggering concern among distressed residents and elected officials who fear that closing the canals and reducing drainage capacity could result in more flooding.
Broadmoor resident and mechanical engineer Matt McBride said he and his neighbors, already slammed by deep Katrina floodwaters, stand to flood yet again if the gates diminish the ability of the 17th Street Canal to drain its 10,000-acre basin. He called the current plan "unconscionable" and said the corps should have bolstered all the floodwalls, as is being done to a 1,500-foot stretch of wall in Kenner, so that higher water levels could be maintained.
Jefferson Parish Council President John Young said he and other parish leaders are appalled by the corps's decision.
"At this point, we've got to live with the 5 feet," Young said Friday. "They tell us they hope to increase it. Problem is, the corps seems unwilling to commit to a definitive timetable on anything."
But safe-water elevations are only part of the information residents and government officials are thirsting for.
They also want details of a complex corps plan that spells out exactly when and how -- and on whose order -- the canals will be shut off in the face of storms that might bring buckets of rain, not just surge. The longer the gates are closed, the greater the risk that rainfall will begin to pool because closure greatly diminishes the amount of water that can be pumped out of neighborhoods via the London and 17th Street canals.
'Fish or cut bait'
Specific answers to those questions and more will be included in a lengthy operations manual that corps engineers are writing, then passing along to corps command, as well as drainage and engineering managers in Jefferson Parish and New Orleans for review and comment.
At least two drafts have been reviewed already, but 10 days into the storm season, there's been no finalized document. Once everyone can agree on a finished product, officials with the corps, the city of New Orleans, and Jefferson Parish must all sign a cooperative agreement obligating all parties to follow the plan.
So how close are the parties to signing, and what happens if a tropical system blows in before there is an agreement?
Young said if a storm blows up before the agreement is ready, all parties would simply have to sign on the dotted line.
"Everybody's working around the clock to get everything resolved, but if a storm comes, then necessity is the mother of invention. We'd have to fish or cut bait."
Jefferson Parish has spent at least $10 million on backup plans to mitigate reduced pumping capacity for its 2,500 acres of the 17th Street Canal drainage basin if gates are closed.
Still, Young said that won't be enough to keep low-lying areas of Old Metairie and Old Jefferson from flooding in heavy rain, because the corps says it can provide only a small portion of the normal drainage capacity this season.
For that reason, Young has proposed using the Interstate 10 underpass as a retention pond during a storm event, then draining it when the surge falls and the drainage canals reopen. The water would be gone by the time I-10 is needed by emergency vehicles, he reasons.
It is not a plan that everybody embraces, but Young said drainage engineers from the parish, the city of New Orleans, and the state Department of Transportation and Development are working to come up with a resolution.
Although not released yet, enough pieces and parts of the floodgate plan have come to light during public meetings, official briefings and private talks with corps employees that there is at least some indication of how things may work -- but the plan is not set in stone until an agreement is reached.
S&WB has big role
The corps will control opening and closing the gates and operating the structures' own drainage systems, the ones that can only move 10 to 30 percent of the water normally moved by the powerful New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board pumps.
Those big city pumps will also run during a storm, and will be operated by Sewerage & Water Board employees.
But the two pumping systems will be required to follow a carefully orchestrated plan from the time that floodgates begin to close until the storm surge drops and all the gates are again raised.
Corps engineers say they will work hand in glove with Sewerage & Water Board personnel to make sure that the big pumps don't move more water than the smaller pumps can handle, a situation that could damage the pumping system or, even more catastrophically, the canals
A corps employee will also be embedded with Sewerage & Water Board personnel in the city pump stations at all three outfall canals, one of many operational details that still needs approval from New Orleans District commander Richard Wagenaar.
"We call these people canal captains, one in each station, and they'll work side by side with pump station personal," said Chris Accardo, the corps' New Orleans District chief of operations whose office will maintain and operate the gates.
"We also plan to have a four-man crew assigned to each structure to raise and lower the gates, and they'll have the skill sets to make repairs if needed," he said.
Learning curve
Because each storm is a highly individual event that travels its own unique path and packs its own particular wind speeds and surges, engineers say it is impossible to predict just how far in advance of a storm that gates would begin to close, and how long they would remain closed.
For now, engineers are conservatively estimating that it would take from six to eight hours to completely close off the two larger canals, which have 11 individual gates each.
"We could close them in that period of time, one after the other, if need be," Setliff said. "But in some cases, you wouldn't have to shut them in that order. As part of your preparations, you can lower them from the outside in to keep a functional canal for as long as possible."
Accardo said he thinks that number can be improved once his crews get the chance to actually raise and lower the gates a few times.
"We'll go through a learning curve as soon as we can practice some, and I think we can beat that number. But until we actually get out there and do it, we won't know," he said.
Cranes for now
Once closed the gates wouldn't be reopened until the lake level falls low enough to ensure that safe water levels in the canal can be maintained. Estimates of that window have varied wildly, from eight to 24 hours, and actually are dependent on the weather system itself.
A plan to mechanically operate the gates probably won't be in place before next hurricane season, engineers said, and until then, the gates would be closed by cranes. And because it is dangerous to operate the huge machines in high wind, closures will have to be complete by the time wind speeds hit 30 mph.
"That's our thinking now, but again, this hasn't been approved," Accardo said. "What I can tell you is that we don't want to be in the crane business. We want winches in place to raise and lower them. But we've got the biggest cranes the structures will support to maximize the wind loads they can tolerate."
The gates and their pumping systems are tentatively expected to be operational at the London and 17th Street canals by about July 9. But if the rare early-season storm strikes before then, sheet piling will be driven at the bridges of the canals to stop a surge.
Accardo thinks that could be done in 24 hours.
Ultimately, it will be Wagenaar who pulls the trigger.
"We'll monitor a storm's approach like everyone else, and he'll be advised by weather (sources) and the hydraulics experts who will be predicting surge," Accardo said. "But he'll notify New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and the state DOTD before he gives the order to bring them down."
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Tropical Depression One expected to move into Gulf
The National Hurricane Center has officially named the low pressure system currently off the coast of Cuba as a tropical depression. Tropical Depression One is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico later today or tonight. It is now moving North-Northwest near 9 MPH and is located about 45 miles west of Cabo San Antonio on the western tip of Cuba. Maximum sustained winds are 35 MPH with higher gusts.
Conditions appear to be favorable for the system to develop into a tropical storm later today or tonight as it moves toward the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters are alerting the southeastern Gulf Coast to keep an eye on the system.
Meanwhile, Louisiana's Homeland Security Office put some agencies on alert Friday, to be prepared for potential problems from the storm system.
The National Hurricane Center has officially named the low pressure system currently off the coast of Cuba as a tropical depression. Tropical Depression One is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico later today or tonight. It is now moving North-Northwest near 9 MPH and is located about 45 miles west of Cabo San Antonio on the western tip of Cuba. Maximum sustained winds are 35 MPH with higher gusts.
Conditions appear to be favorable for the system to develop into a tropical storm later today or tonight as it moves toward the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters are alerting the southeastern Gulf Coast to keep an eye on the system.
Meanwhile, Louisiana's Homeland Security Office put some agencies on alert Friday, to be prepared for potential problems from the storm system.
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Audrey2Katrina
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Hard-hit S&WB swamped in red ink
$50 million tab tied to city's water leaks
Saturday, June 10, 2006 New Orleans Times Picayune
By Michelle Krupa
Staff writer
Almost $200,000 worth of drinking water has been leaking out of New Orleans' water system every day since Hurricane Katrina, and even when partly offset by the water customers pay for, the Sewerage & Water Board is running a daily deficit of more than $80,000, officials said Friday.
One factor contributing to the losses is that the city has to pump more than twice as much water as residents need because it is the only way to keep water pressure high enough in its fractured pipes.
Though officials with the Sewerage & Water Board said they intend to ask FEMA to reimburse the cost of repairs to their ravaged infrastructure, it was unclear Friday whether the federal agency will pay for 85 millions gallons a day of wasted water, which has a value of at least $50 million since the Aug. 29 storm, based on market pricing.
Shunning what may seem like an obvious fix, the water board cannot save money by simply pumping less water, S&WB spokesman Robert Jackson said. Such a move would cause water pressure across the city to plummet -- perhaps even disappear in some neighborhoods.
"We have no choice," Jackson said. "The only alternative we have is shutting down the lines, and we can't do that because then we can't serve our customers."
As losses escalate, the water board is trying to get a handle on repairs. Officials said they have completed about 19,000 service requests since Katrina, but they still face a backlog of as many as 2,000 complaints. And the department that handles inspections and repairs has shrunk since the storm from 313 employees to 257.
S&WB officials also have hired a contractor to install sensors later this month along 80 miles of water pipes beneath the city. The detectors are designed to sense vibrations and pinpoint leaks hidden beneath the pavement.
Even after plugging a major water main fissure this week, the city's water system is leaking enough water every day to fill 129 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Altogether, it is pumping out 135 million gallons of water a day, compared with 120 million gallons a day before Katrina.
Big toll taken underground
Though gushing fire hydrants and leaking pipes, which seem to have cropped up in every corner of town, may appear to be the source of the problem, Jackson said most seepage is happening underground.
"What you see above the ground is not the majority of the water," Jackson said. "The majority of the major leaking is invisible. That's why the emphasis is put underground."
Indeed, while the most horrific images of Katrina's devastation showed the submerged city and residents stranded on rooftops, another story of ruin unfolded beneath the streets, where brackish water saturated the already fragile Louisiana soil and slowly rusted as much as 1,600 miles of subterranean water pipe.
Even in neighborhoods that did not sustain major flooding, such as the French Quarter, Bywater and parts of Uptown, Jackson said water likely poured into crevices beneath the streets.
"There was probably a tremendous amount of underground flooding, the way water travels underground," Jackson said. "You probably had a lot of damage with the saltwater.
"Pressure of the flow of water over the ground also can cause damage to the (water) lines," he said.
Buried pipes also have been damaged by the region's typical subsidence. Further, recent drought conditions have shriveled soil from its supersaturated post-Katrina state, causing pressure that can crack pipes at their joints, he said.
Leaky pipes can contribute to a slew of problems, including buckling asphalt, cracking sewer lines and threatening the structural integrity of buildings. Perhaps the basic frustration, however, is the simple waste of a product that is primed for sale, Jackson said.
"It's cheaper than bottled water and of a better quality," he said. "But obviously, you don't want to drink it off the sidewalk."
Jackson said residents will continue to be charged only for water use that registers on meters. He also said that despite the daily cash losses to the S&WB because of leaks, "there's currently no intent nor plan to increase the cost of water."
A FEMA spokeswoman said Friday that the S&WB can apply to her agency's "public assistance" program for reimbursement for the cost of pipe repairs. Local governments also can apply for repayment for inventory lost to Katrina, but the spokeswoman said she did not know whether lost water would fit into that category.
Public's help sought
Meanwhile, water board officials are asking residents to report any leaks, including the sound of water running underground, by calling (504) 52-WATER on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., or anytime through the S&WB Web site, http://www.swbno.org.
Telephone operators are based in New Orleans and have access to a computer database of prior complaints, though frequently a lag occurs between an actual repair and a report of it in the system, Jackson said.
"Everybody at 52-WATER should have access to query the system, but there may not be any information in the system," he said.
Jackson said that when an initial complaint is made, an inspector generally visits the site within 24 hours. The water board prioritizes the jobs, in some cases putting off addressing small leaks on public property to handle major problems, such as broken hydrants, burst water mains and pipe fissures that leave whole blocks or neighborhoods with no water service.
He said S&WB employees cannot enter private property without the owner's permission to fix a leak, even if water has flowed onto public ground. And he said some problems that may appear to be water board issues, such as sinkholes, may actually be the responsibility of the city streets or public works departments; those are referred to City Hall.
$50 million tab tied to city's water leaks
Saturday, June 10, 2006 New Orleans Times Picayune
By Michelle Krupa
Staff writer
Almost $200,000 worth of drinking water has been leaking out of New Orleans' water system every day since Hurricane Katrina, and even when partly offset by the water customers pay for, the Sewerage & Water Board is running a daily deficit of more than $80,000, officials said Friday.
One factor contributing to the losses is that the city has to pump more than twice as much water as residents need because it is the only way to keep water pressure high enough in its fractured pipes.
Though officials with the Sewerage & Water Board said they intend to ask FEMA to reimburse the cost of repairs to their ravaged infrastructure, it was unclear Friday whether the federal agency will pay for 85 millions gallons a day of wasted water, which has a value of at least $50 million since the Aug. 29 storm, based on market pricing.
Shunning what may seem like an obvious fix, the water board cannot save money by simply pumping less water, S&WB spokesman Robert Jackson said. Such a move would cause water pressure across the city to plummet -- perhaps even disappear in some neighborhoods.
"We have no choice," Jackson said. "The only alternative we have is shutting down the lines, and we can't do that because then we can't serve our customers."
As losses escalate, the water board is trying to get a handle on repairs. Officials said they have completed about 19,000 service requests since Katrina, but they still face a backlog of as many as 2,000 complaints. And the department that handles inspections and repairs has shrunk since the storm from 313 employees to 257.
S&WB officials also have hired a contractor to install sensors later this month along 80 miles of water pipes beneath the city. The detectors are designed to sense vibrations and pinpoint leaks hidden beneath the pavement.
Even after plugging a major water main fissure this week, the city's water system is leaking enough water every day to fill 129 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Altogether, it is pumping out 135 million gallons of water a day, compared with 120 million gallons a day before Katrina.
Big toll taken underground
Though gushing fire hydrants and leaking pipes, which seem to have cropped up in every corner of town, may appear to be the source of the problem, Jackson said most seepage is happening underground.
"What you see above the ground is not the majority of the water," Jackson said. "The majority of the major leaking is invisible. That's why the emphasis is put underground."
Indeed, while the most horrific images of Katrina's devastation showed the submerged city and residents stranded on rooftops, another story of ruin unfolded beneath the streets, where brackish water saturated the already fragile Louisiana soil and slowly rusted as much as 1,600 miles of subterranean water pipe.
Even in neighborhoods that did not sustain major flooding, such as the French Quarter, Bywater and parts of Uptown, Jackson said water likely poured into crevices beneath the streets.
"There was probably a tremendous amount of underground flooding, the way water travels underground," Jackson said. "You probably had a lot of damage with the saltwater.
"Pressure of the flow of water over the ground also can cause damage to the (water) lines," he said.
Buried pipes also have been damaged by the region's typical subsidence. Further, recent drought conditions have shriveled soil from its supersaturated post-Katrina state, causing pressure that can crack pipes at their joints, he said.
Leaky pipes can contribute to a slew of problems, including buckling asphalt, cracking sewer lines and threatening the structural integrity of buildings. Perhaps the basic frustration, however, is the simple waste of a product that is primed for sale, Jackson said.
"It's cheaper than bottled water and of a better quality," he said. "But obviously, you don't want to drink it off the sidewalk."
Jackson said residents will continue to be charged only for water use that registers on meters. He also said that despite the daily cash losses to the S&WB because of leaks, "there's currently no intent nor plan to increase the cost of water."
A FEMA spokeswoman said Friday that the S&WB can apply to her agency's "public assistance" program for reimbursement for the cost of pipe repairs. Local governments also can apply for repayment for inventory lost to Katrina, but the spokeswoman said she did not know whether lost water would fit into that category.
Public's help sought
Meanwhile, water board officials are asking residents to report any leaks, including the sound of water running underground, by calling (504) 52-WATER on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., or anytime through the S&WB Web site, http://www.swbno.org.
Telephone operators are based in New Orleans and have access to a computer database of prior complaints, though frequently a lag occurs between an actual repair and a report of it in the system, Jackson said.
"Everybody at 52-WATER should have access to query the system, but there may not be any information in the system," he said.
Jackson said that when an initial complaint is made, an inspector generally visits the site within 24 hours. The water board prioritizes the jobs, in some cases putting off addressing small leaks on public property to handle major problems, such as broken hydrants, burst water mains and pipe fissures that leave whole blocks or neighborhoods with no water service.
He said S&WB employees cannot enter private property without the owner's permission to fix a leak, even if water has flowed onto public ground. And he said some problems that may appear to be water board issues, such as sinkholes, may actually be the responsibility of the city streets or public works departments; those are referred to City Hall.
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Audrey2Katrina
- Category 5
- Posts: 4252
- Age: 75
- Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Metaire, La.
Parents choosing charter schools
Early enrollment shows strong interest
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By Steve Ritea
Staff writer
Several charter schools are already filling up as they prepare to open for the first time in Orleans Parish since Hurricane Katrina, officials at those campuses said Friday, even as some await word on where their locations will be.
Although state officials say they're still nearly a month away from beginning registration at about 30 recovery district schools across the city, parents wanting to get a jump on enrolling their students at one of the new schools already have a number of choices.
In November, the Legislature voted to place 107 of 128 New Orleans public schools into a state-run recovery district because of their low performance. Although the state will operate many of those schools, several will be independently run charters overseen by the state. The local district also has chartered a number of the schools left from its former empire. Several of those are already open, and more will be reopening for the first time this fall.
State officials, meanwhile, have been working to help many of the schools locate buildings suitable for opening later this summer. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to meet next week to identify buildings for some of those charters.
Back to school
The charters about to open for the first time in New Orleans since the storm are:
-- The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science & Technology will be operating out of the former Colton Middle School building at 2300 St. Claude Ave., serving 630 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. The principal will be Doris Hicks, who headed the school at its original campus in the Lower 9th Ward before Katrina. Registration will be held every Friday through July 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Ave. For information, visit http://www.drkingcharterschool.org.
-- The International School of Louisiana, which has been operating out of trailers in Kenner, will reopen in August at the site of Andrew Jackson Elementary, 1400 Camp St., and serve 360 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. A Spanish- and French-language immersion school, it will accept students above first grade only if they have already received foreign language education. The school is headed by Tom and Karen Crosby, who served in their posts before the storm. Registration is at 2603 Florida Ave. in Kenner. More information is available at http://www.isl-edu.org or by calling (504) 464-7488.
-- The Knowledge Is Power Program, a well-known school operator with dozens of campuses around the nation, will run a school with a creative arts emphasis at the site of McDonogh No. 15 Elementary, 721 St. Philip St. It will be headed by Principal Gary Robichaux, who ran KIPP: Phillips Preparatory before the storm and has operated a school of New Orleans students in Houston since Katrina. Many of the 400 available spots in prekindergarten through eighth grade are filling up, but parents can register their children Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at 927 Royal St. Registration is scheduled to continue the following week at the school's site. For information, call (504) 782-4279.
-- The KIPP: Believe School is enrolling fifth-graders only for a school with 90 spots that will expand over the next few years to include grades six through eight. School Director Adam Meinig, who has worked at KIPP schools in Colorado and Washington, D.C., said the year will begin early, with a mandatory summer program starting July 10. The school will share space with the Priestley School at the site of McNair Elementary, 1607 S. Carrollton Ave. To register, call (504) 312-2420. Visit http://www.kippbelieve.org/06/ for more information.
-- The Priestley School, a charter focused on construction and architecture careers, will hold registration June 20-22 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Greater St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 8616 Hickory St., for 100 ninth-grade spots. The school plans to add additional high school grades in the years ahead. Officials expect to select a school director by the end of the month. Until the original Priestley campus on Leonidas Street is renovated, the school will operate out of McNair Elementary.
-- The Warren Easton Charter School, a selective admissions charter, has started registration for about 800 spots in its high school scheduled to reopen in its original building at 3019 Canal St. The principal will be Alexina Medley, who was an assistant principal at Easton and the principal at Thurgood Marshall Middle School before Katrina. Registration continues weekdays through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon at 1000 Howard Ave., Suite 400. Visit http://www.warreneastoncharterfoundation.com for information.
-- The grass-roots Choice Foundation will be working with Mosaica Education, another well-known school operator, to run Lafayette Academy out of the Lafayette School, 2727 S. Carrollton Ave. The school will be open to 650 students in kindergarten through seventh grade. Eileen Williams, former Agnes Bauduit Elementary principal, will head the school. For information about how to enroll, visit http://www.lafayetteacademyno.org.
Some schools still homeless
-- Although it is already full, spots are available on the waiting list for the Edward Hynes Charter School, which will offer a gifted prekindergarten program and serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Principal Michelle Douglas, who was a Hynes teacher and literacy facilitator before Katrina, said the University of New Orleans-affiliated school is still determining where the campus will be housed; its Lakeview campus was devastated by the storm. For information, visit http://www.hynesschool.org.
-- Although times and locations have yet to be announced, registration is tentatively scheduled to begin the week of June 19 for the still-homeless Moton Charter School, which will serve students in prekindergarten through sixth grade. Paulette Bruno, who served as principal of the year-round school before the storm and will continue in a similar role when it reopens, said the campus at 3000 Abundance St. is too damaged to reopen this year, but she is waiting for the district or the state to locate a building so she can begin classes as scheduled July 10. For information, call (504) 430-3143.
-- Another group, the Treme Charter School Association, is expecting to begin registration later this month after it determines which three campuses it will operate, said charter association board President Bernard H. Robertson III.
Early enrollment shows strong interest
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By Steve Ritea
Staff writer
Several charter schools are already filling up as they prepare to open for the first time in Orleans Parish since Hurricane Katrina, officials at those campuses said Friday, even as some await word on where their locations will be.
Although state officials say they're still nearly a month away from beginning registration at about 30 recovery district schools across the city, parents wanting to get a jump on enrolling their students at one of the new schools already have a number of choices.
In November, the Legislature voted to place 107 of 128 New Orleans public schools into a state-run recovery district because of their low performance. Although the state will operate many of those schools, several will be independently run charters overseen by the state. The local district also has chartered a number of the schools left from its former empire. Several of those are already open, and more will be reopening for the first time this fall.
State officials, meanwhile, have been working to help many of the schools locate buildings suitable for opening later this summer. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to meet next week to identify buildings for some of those charters.
Back to school
The charters about to open for the first time in New Orleans since the storm are:
-- The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science & Technology will be operating out of the former Colton Middle School building at 2300 St. Claude Ave., serving 630 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. The principal will be Doris Hicks, who headed the school at its original campus in the Lower 9th Ward before Katrina. Registration will be held every Friday through July 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Ave. For information, visit http://www.drkingcharterschool.org.
-- The International School of Louisiana, which has been operating out of trailers in Kenner, will reopen in August at the site of Andrew Jackson Elementary, 1400 Camp St., and serve 360 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. A Spanish- and French-language immersion school, it will accept students above first grade only if they have already received foreign language education. The school is headed by Tom and Karen Crosby, who served in their posts before the storm. Registration is at 2603 Florida Ave. in Kenner. More information is available at http://www.isl-edu.org or by calling (504) 464-7488.
-- The Knowledge Is Power Program, a well-known school operator with dozens of campuses around the nation, will run a school with a creative arts emphasis at the site of McDonogh No. 15 Elementary, 721 St. Philip St. It will be headed by Principal Gary Robichaux, who ran KIPP: Phillips Preparatory before the storm and has operated a school of New Orleans students in Houston since Katrina. Many of the 400 available spots in prekindergarten through eighth grade are filling up, but parents can register their children Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at 927 Royal St. Registration is scheduled to continue the following week at the school's site. For information, call (504) 782-4279.
-- The KIPP: Believe School is enrolling fifth-graders only for a school with 90 spots that will expand over the next few years to include grades six through eight. School Director Adam Meinig, who has worked at KIPP schools in Colorado and Washington, D.C., said the year will begin early, with a mandatory summer program starting July 10. The school will share space with the Priestley School at the site of McNair Elementary, 1607 S. Carrollton Ave. To register, call (504) 312-2420. Visit http://www.kippbelieve.org/06/ for more information.
-- The Priestley School, a charter focused on construction and architecture careers, will hold registration June 20-22 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Greater St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 8616 Hickory St., for 100 ninth-grade spots. The school plans to add additional high school grades in the years ahead. Officials expect to select a school director by the end of the month. Until the original Priestley campus on Leonidas Street is renovated, the school will operate out of McNair Elementary.
-- The Warren Easton Charter School, a selective admissions charter, has started registration for about 800 spots in its high school scheduled to reopen in its original building at 3019 Canal St. The principal will be Alexina Medley, who was an assistant principal at Easton and the principal at Thurgood Marshall Middle School before Katrina. Registration continues weekdays through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon at 1000 Howard Ave., Suite 400. Visit http://www.warreneastoncharterfoundation.com for information.
-- The grass-roots Choice Foundation will be working with Mosaica Education, another well-known school operator, to run Lafayette Academy out of the Lafayette School, 2727 S. Carrollton Ave. The school will be open to 650 students in kindergarten through seventh grade. Eileen Williams, former Agnes Bauduit Elementary principal, will head the school. For information about how to enroll, visit http://www.lafayetteacademyno.org.
Some schools still homeless
-- Although it is already full, spots are available on the waiting list for the Edward Hynes Charter School, which will offer a gifted prekindergarten program and serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Principal Michelle Douglas, who was a Hynes teacher and literacy facilitator before Katrina, said the University of New Orleans-affiliated school is still determining where the campus will be housed; its Lakeview campus was devastated by the storm. For information, visit http://www.hynesschool.org.
-- Although times and locations have yet to be announced, registration is tentatively scheduled to begin the week of June 19 for the still-homeless Moton Charter School, which will serve students in prekindergarten through sixth grade. Paulette Bruno, who served as principal of the year-round school before the storm and will continue in a similar role when it reopens, said the campus at 3000 Abundance St. is too damaged to reopen this year, but she is waiting for the district or the state to locate a building so she can begin classes as scheduled July 10. For information, call (504) 430-3143.
-- Another group, the Treme Charter School Association, is expecting to begin registration later this month after it determines which three campuses it will operate, said charter association board President Bernard H. Robertson III.
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Audrey2Katrina
- Category 5
- Posts: 4252
- Age: 75
- Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Metaire, La.
Pleas for money going unheard
Coast counties face shortfalls, or worse
By RYAN LaFONTAINE
sun-herald news June 10, 2006
HANCOCK COUNTY - Coast leaders are in a dogfight, trying to secure enough funding to maintain their cities and counties while they claw their way loose from Katrina's lingering stranglehold.
The uphill battles playing out in city halls and county boardrooms in South Mississippi could have a lasting effect on the future of Coast governments.
Hancock County faces at least a $12 million shortfall in the next two years, and Harrison County has cut its annual budget by 15 percent and adopted a hiring freeze.
Boards of supervisors of the three Coast counties formed an alliance this week on the premise that three voices will be louder than one when screaming for help.
Billions of federal dollars have been designated to help rebuild the Katrina-clobbered South, but most of that money is being funneled to homeowners or is earmarked for infrastructure repairs.
Some funds have gone to help local governments operate. Bay St. Louis received a $1.9 million grant to help with lost revenues, but still the city is about $13 million short of staffing a full police and fire department, or hiring enough workers to run public services.
Joe Adams, a municipal-budget expert at the Stennis Institute of Government, said the struggles facing Coast governments could be vital to their futures.
"Right now, they have to find a way to balance the funding until the construction boom begins," Adams said. "Closing out this year will be tough, but the first quarter of the following year is when they are really going to have to pinch pennies."
The Stennis Institute is working with New York's Rockefeller Institute of Government on a three-year study in the state to determine Katrina's effect on local governments, and their budgets.
The study is expected to offer tips on how to save local entities from bankruptcy, but the tri-county alliance can't wait that long. It began offering eleventh-hour suggestions this week.
Harrison County Supervisor Connie Rockco wants a percentage of the locally generated sales tax to go back to Katrina-battered counties along the Coast. Mississippi counties do not collect sales tax.
"If the state would give just a small portion back to the affected counties, it would help out a bunch," Rockco said.
Some have criticized local leaders for pouting when so many volunteers have come to help, but officials say most of the faith-based and nonprofit groups are helping individuals, not governments.
Jackson County Supervisor John McKay, who agreed with Rockco's plan, said it's a matter of survival.
"It's not whining," McKay said. "The Coast has been the financial engine for this state for years, and now we need some of that money back."
However, Hancock supervisors already have lobbied the state for similar legislation with no luck and government experts say a sales-tax move is unlikely.
At least $750 million in federal loans are available to local governments, but many Coast entities are hardly in a position to repay borrowed money.
There's been talk of allowing the loans to be forgiven, or turned into grants, but no firm decision has been made, and the lingering uncertainty is beginning to wear on Coast leaders, who are leery about applying for the federal funds.
What's more, deadlines for funding, debris removal, housing and other assistance have been extended many times since August, and the fickle federal cutoff dates are making local planning nearly impossible.
Local leaders are rapidly growing angry over federal inconsistencies. Harrison Supervisor Marlin Ladner said the government is playing "mind games" that are hampering recovery.
"That's the biggest problem," he said. "You can't say you're going to end 100 percent funding and then at the last minute extend it; these are the kind of games that are causing our counties to suffer."
Coast counties face shortfalls, or worse
By RYAN LaFONTAINE
sun-herald news June 10, 2006
HANCOCK COUNTY - Coast leaders are in a dogfight, trying to secure enough funding to maintain their cities and counties while they claw their way loose from Katrina's lingering stranglehold.
The uphill battles playing out in city halls and county boardrooms in South Mississippi could have a lasting effect on the future of Coast governments.
Hancock County faces at least a $12 million shortfall in the next two years, and Harrison County has cut its annual budget by 15 percent and adopted a hiring freeze.
Boards of supervisors of the three Coast counties formed an alliance this week on the premise that three voices will be louder than one when screaming for help.
Billions of federal dollars have been designated to help rebuild the Katrina-clobbered South, but most of that money is being funneled to homeowners or is earmarked for infrastructure repairs.
Some funds have gone to help local governments operate. Bay St. Louis received a $1.9 million grant to help with lost revenues, but still the city is about $13 million short of staffing a full police and fire department, or hiring enough workers to run public services.
Joe Adams, a municipal-budget expert at the Stennis Institute of Government, said the struggles facing Coast governments could be vital to their futures.
"Right now, they have to find a way to balance the funding until the construction boom begins," Adams said. "Closing out this year will be tough, but the first quarter of the following year is when they are really going to have to pinch pennies."
The Stennis Institute is working with New York's Rockefeller Institute of Government on a three-year study in the state to determine Katrina's effect on local governments, and their budgets.
The study is expected to offer tips on how to save local entities from bankruptcy, but the tri-county alliance can't wait that long. It began offering eleventh-hour suggestions this week.
Harrison County Supervisor Connie Rockco wants a percentage of the locally generated sales tax to go back to Katrina-battered counties along the Coast. Mississippi counties do not collect sales tax.
"If the state would give just a small portion back to the affected counties, it would help out a bunch," Rockco said.
Some have criticized local leaders for pouting when so many volunteers have come to help, but officials say most of the faith-based and nonprofit groups are helping individuals, not governments.
Jackson County Supervisor John McKay, who agreed with Rockco's plan, said it's a matter of survival.
"It's not whining," McKay said. "The Coast has been the financial engine for this state for years, and now we need some of that money back."
However, Hancock supervisors already have lobbied the state for similar legislation with no luck and government experts say a sales-tax move is unlikely.
At least $750 million in federal loans are available to local governments, but many Coast entities are hardly in a position to repay borrowed money.
There's been talk of allowing the loans to be forgiven, or turned into grants, but no firm decision has been made, and the lingering uncertainty is beginning to wear on Coast leaders, who are leery about applying for the federal funds.
What's more, deadlines for funding, debris removal, housing and other assistance have been extended many times since August, and the fickle federal cutoff dates are making local planning nearly impossible.
Local leaders are rapidly growing angry over federal inconsistencies. Harrison Supervisor Marlin Ladner said the government is playing "mind games" that are hampering recovery.
"That's the biggest problem," he said. "You can't say you're going to end 100 percent funding and then at the last minute extend it; these are the kind of games that are causing our counties to suffer."
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Audrey2Katrina
- Category 5
- Posts: 4252
- Age: 75
- Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Metaire, La.
Fireworks hang on county OK of street lights
By MICHAEL NEWSOM
SUN HERALD
OCEAN SPRINGS - The fate of a July 4 fireworks show could be decided at Monday's Jackson County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Ocean Springs wants to use federal money and help from Mississippi Power Co. to replace 27 lights destroyed by Hurricane Katrina on Front Beach. The lights are needed, in part, for the city's upcoming fireworks show. The county, which controls the sand beach, must sign off on the plan.
City officials say the fireworks display is held in high esteem and the show draws in visitors from across the area, but the lack of adequate lighting would make it too dangerous.
Supervisor John McKay, who was present at Tuesday's meeting of the board of aldermen, said he believed his board would vote to support the measure Monday. "I don't see how we can turn this down," he said.
Ocean Springs Public Works Director Andre Kaufman and Mayor Connie Moran will present their plan to the supervisors Monday.
Kaufman had tried to present the plan at last Monday's supervisors' meeting. However, District 4 Supervisor Frank Leach said the board would not hear the plan without the mayor, so the board tabled the vote.
Moran expressed frustration over the supervisors' inaction, saying "our citizens deserve more than bickering. We need to work together and move on."
Leach did not return a phone call Friday.
Moran said if the lighting plan is not approved Monday, the city will cancel its July 4 festivities.
If the plan is approved, some officials fear the vote delay will cause the power company to go down to the wire on completing the lights in time for the fireworks. But a Mississippi Power representative said if the power company is notified Monday, the $78,000 worth of lights should be burning by July 4.
Mississippi Power would maintain the lights, and change the bulbs at no cost to the city. The work is to be funded by FEMA, Moran said.
The $14,000 fireworks show, which is to be done by Artisan Pyrotechnics, will be shot from a barge this year because Hurricane Katrina knocked out most of the pier space.
By MICHAEL NEWSOM
SUN HERALD
OCEAN SPRINGS - The fate of a July 4 fireworks show could be decided at Monday's Jackson County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Ocean Springs wants to use federal money and help from Mississippi Power Co. to replace 27 lights destroyed by Hurricane Katrina on Front Beach. The lights are needed, in part, for the city's upcoming fireworks show. The county, which controls the sand beach, must sign off on the plan.
City officials say the fireworks display is held in high esteem and the show draws in visitors from across the area, but the lack of adequate lighting would make it too dangerous.
Supervisor John McKay, who was present at Tuesday's meeting of the board of aldermen, said he believed his board would vote to support the measure Monday. "I don't see how we can turn this down," he said.
Ocean Springs Public Works Director Andre Kaufman and Mayor Connie Moran will present their plan to the supervisors Monday.
Kaufman had tried to present the plan at last Monday's supervisors' meeting. However, District 4 Supervisor Frank Leach said the board would not hear the plan without the mayor, so the board tabled the vote.
Moran expressed frustration over the supervisors' inaction, saying "our citizens deserve more than bickering. We need to work together and move on."
Leach did not return a phone call Friday.
Moran said if the lighting plan is not approved Monday, the city will cancel its July 4 festivities.
If the plan is approved, some officials fear the vote delay will cause the power company to go down to the wire on completing the lights in time for the fireworks. But a Mississippi Power representative said if the power company is notified Monday, the $78,000 worth of lights should be burning by July 4.
Mississippi Power would maintain the lights, and change the bulbs at no cost to the city. The work is to be funded by FEMA, Moran said.
The $14,000 fireworks show, which is to be done by Artisan Pyrotechnics, will be shot from a barge this year because Hurricane Katrina knocked out most of the pier space.
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Audrey2Katrina
- Category 5
- Posts: 4252
- Age: 75
- Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Metaire, La.
Tropical Depression One forms in northwestern Caribbean Sea
Last Update: 6/10/2006 10:00:36 AM Mobile Ala. NBC15 News
MIAMI (AP) - The first tropical depression of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season formed Saturday in the northwestern Caribbean Sea, prompting tropical storm warnings for parts of Cuba, forecasters said.
The depression had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and could develop into the first named storm of the season later in the day, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Tropical storms have top sustained winds of at least 39 mph. The first named storm of the season would be Alberto.
The depression was expected to move through the Yucatan Channel into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.
At 9 a.m., the depression's center was located about 50 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Antonio on the western tip of Cuba. It was moving north-northwest about 12 mph.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
Last Update: 6/10/2006 10:00:36 AM Mobile Ala. NBC15 News
MIAMI (AP) - The first tropical depression of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season formed Saturday in the northwestern Caribbean Sea, prompting tropical storm warnings for parts of Cuba, forecasters said.
The depression had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and could develop into the first named storm of the season later in the day, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Tropical storms have top sustained winds of at least 39 mph. The first named storm of the season would be Alberto.
The depression was expected to move through the Yucatan Channel into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.
At 9 a.m., the depression's center was located about 50 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Antonio on the western tip of Cuba. It was moving north-northwest about 12 mph.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
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Audrey2Katrina
- Category 5
- Posts: 4252
- Age: 75
- Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Metaire, La.
ConocoPhillips pulls bid for open loop LNG site off Alabama coast
Last Update: 6/9/2006 10:13:39 PM NBC15-Mobile News
(MOBILE, Ala.-AP) June 9 -- ConocoPhillips is withdrawing its bid for a liquefied natural gas terminal off the Alabama coast that would use technology that critics say could cause massive harm to gulf fisheries and marine life.
Gov. Bob Riley said Friday the Texas-based company was withdrawing its application in a letter to the federal Maritime Administration.
A spokesman with the company at Houston headquarters did not immediately return a call for comment.
Riley had a Sunday deadline to veto or permit the application for an LNG terminal south of Dauphin Island using what is known as an "open loop" vaporization system. Riley had indicated he opposed that kind of system and would veto the application in an announcement at Mobile on Friday.
"We've been having conversations with them for the last few weeks," Riley said Friday. "I was prepared to veto that. They made the decision they wanted to withdraw the application."
Riley has said he would not allow "any activity that I believe may adversely impact our marine resources if I have the power to stop it."
Environmental and conservation groups urged Riley to veto the project, as Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco did last month on a McMoRan Exploration Co. application. Riley had publicly supported Blanco's veto.
Critics of the "open loop" vaporization system say it could harm marine life, particularly fish eggs and larvae, as it uses massive amounts of warm waters to reheat the gas.
The LNG industry, which defends the technology, says the proposed Compass Port terminal off Dauphin Island would be capable of vaporizing up to 1 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day. Federal officials say the system would require 136 million to 177 million gallons per day of seawater.
Environmentalists have fewer objections to a closed loop system at LNG terminals.
While ConocoPhillips had no immediate comment, Riley said he believes the company is "going to look at some different technologies now."
"I think they are going to go back and look at a closed loop system that is a lot more environmentally senstive. I think it's going to give them an opportunity to reassess their whole LNG structure," he said.
A ConocoPhillips spokesman said Thursday the process of gaining regulatory approval for the project is lengthy and expensive and the company would have to review whether it wants to start over, proposing a closed loop system for the Compass Port terminal, which was projected to create 600 jobs.
"I'm not saying what we're going to do. We would have to think about it," ConocoPhillips spokesman Steve Lawless said Thursday.
Last Update: 6/9/2006 10:13:39 PM NBC15-Mobile News
(MOBILE, Ala.-AP) June 9 -- ConocoPhillips is withdrawing its bid for a liquefied natural gas terminal off the Alabama coast that would use technology that critics say could cause massive harm to gulf fisheries and marine life.
Gov. Bob Riley said Friday the Texas-based company was withdrawing its application in a letter to the federal Maritime Administration.
A spokesman with the company at Houston headquarters did not immediately return a call for comment.
Riley had a Sunday deadline to veto or permit the application for an LNG terminal south of Dauphin Island using what is known as an "open loop" vaporization system. Riley had indicated he opposed that kind of system and would veto the application in an announcement at Mobile on Friday.
"We've been having conversations with them for the last few weeks," Riley said Friday. "I was prepared to veto that. They made the decision they wanted to withdraw the application."
Riley has said he would not allow "any activity that I believe may adversely impact our marine resources if I have the power to stop it."
Environmental and conservation groups urged Riley to veto the project, as Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco did last month on a McMoRan Exploration Co. application. Riley had publicly supported Blanco's veto.
Critics of the "open loop" vaporization system say it could harm marine life, particularly fish eggs and larvae, as it uses massive amounts of warm waters to reheat the gas.
The LNG industry, which defends the technology, says the proposed Compass Port terminal off Dauphin Island would be capable of vaporizing up to 1 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day. Federal officials say the system would require 136 million to 177 million gallons per day of seawater.
Environmentalists have fewer objections to a closed loop system at LNG terminals.
While ConocoPhillips had no immediate comment, Riley said he believes the company is "going to look at some different technologies now."
"I think they are going to go back and look at a closed loop system that is a lot more environmentally senstive. I think it's going to give them an opportunity to reassess their whole LNG structure," he said.
A ConocoPhillips spokesman said Thursday the process of gaining regulatory approval for the project is lengthy and expensive and the company would have to review whether it wants to start over, proposing a closed loop system for the Compass Port terminal, which was projected to create 600 jobs.
"I'm not saying what we're going to do. We would have to think about it," ConocoPhillips spokesman Steve Lawless said Thursday.
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Audrey2Katrina
- Category 5
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Audrey2Katrina
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Council to revisit Walgreens issue
Batt's successor wants a closer look at plans
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By Bruce Eggler
Staff writer
Just when it seemed the long-running battle over plans to build a Walgreens drugstore at a heavily trafficked Carrollton corner had finally been settled, an action this week by newly elected Councilwoman Shelley Midura could reignite the conflict.
In a highly unusual move, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday approved a request by Midura to rescind approval by the previous council of plans for the drugstore near the corner of South Claiborne and South Carrollton avenues.
On May 25, at the urging of lame-duck Councilman Jay Batt, the council unanimously approved plans for a 14,700-square-foot Walgreens at the site. Although the store would face Carrollton, it would be built far back in the block, next to Claiborne and near Dublin Street, with a large parking lot in front.
But on Thursday, with Midura having replaced Batt in the District A seat and three other new members on board, the council voted 7-0 to reconsider the previous action and then to defer a decision on Walgreens' plans until its June 22 meeting.
Midura said she wants a chance to study the issues and meet with all the parties involved in the controversy, which centers around many neighbors' desire to get a supermarket built in the block. The block formerly contained a Canal Villere grocery and a Rite Aid drugstore, but both closed several years ago.
Justin Schmidt, an attorney for Walgreens, said Friday he was surprised by Midura's action. But he said he understood her reasons and is optimistic that she will end up supporting plans for both the Walgreens and a Robért Fresh Market proposed for the same block.
The delay "will give her a chance to get up to speed on these two projects," Schmidt said. "She made it clear in her campaign she wanted the neighbors to be involved in the planning process, and this will give them a further chance to do just that."
On May 17, three days before the runoff in which Midura defeated Batt, Batt and Marc Robért II, owner of the local grocery chain, announced plans to build a 15,900-square-foot grocery, including a 2,700-square-foot mezzanine, next to the Walgreens.
Many Carrollton residents and neighborhood groups have been pushing for years to get a supermarket built at the site, and Batt promised in his 2002 council campaign to get a grocery built somewhere along South Carrollton, which once had three major supermarkets but now has none.
Walgreens has been trying to build a drugstore in the block since 2000, but the project has been repeatedly thwarted by neighborhood opposition. Some nearby residents have opposed allowing a drugstore at the site at all, wanting to keep the entire tract available for a supermarket. Others said they would accept a drugstore but only with the assurance a grocery also would be built.
In December 2004, Winn-Dixie agreed to build a grocery in the block, but two months later the chain filed for bankruptcy protection, killing those plans. Several other grocery chains looked at the site but decided it was too small for a store to be viable.
Late in 2005, Walgreens decided to make another push to get its plans approved by the city, and the City Planning Commission approved them in February. In April, before the council could act on them, the logjam that had long blocked a grocery was broken when the owner of the property at 2424 S. Carrollton, which is in the same block, agreed to sell it, creating a tract large enough for two new stores. A fire station will remain at the corner of South Carrollton and Nelson Street.
During her campaign Midura called Batt's last-minute announcement of the Robért Fresh Market "a political stunt" that was "a year late and many dollars short," but she gave no indication Thursday that she opposes plans for the two stores.
Because a drugstore is permitted at the site under the zoning law, the issue before the council is not whether to allow the store but whether to let Walgreens build it 143 feet back from Carrollton, with a large parking lot between the store and the street. Although a setback of that size is several times larger than allowed by design regulations, the Planning Commission approved it, provided that the developers plant several trees, landscape the parking lot and meet other provisos.
Turning down the setback waiver now probably would kill the project because Walgreens officials have made clear they don't want to build a store with little or no front parking.
Schmidt, who represents Robért as well as Walgreens, said the drugstore setback is crucial to the grocery as well because it would make the grocery visible to motorists traveling toward Jefferson Parish on Claiborne.
Schmidt said the grocery also will need a waiver from normal design regulations because it too would be built far back from Carrollton, near the corner of Dublin and Nelson, though the main entrance would face Carrollton.
In addition, in a move that could touch off a new controversy, Robért will seek permission to use three vacant lots at Claiborne and Dublin, across Dublin from the planned stores, as parking for its employees. The lots, zoned for residential use, would accommodate 27 parking spaces, Schmidt said.
Midura will meet "in the near future" with officials of the companies involved and with leaders of nearby residential associations, Schmidt said.
"I am optimistic that she will basically approve the same plans" the council approved at Batt's behest, and "at the end of the day there will be both a Walgreens and a Robért's on that block," Schmidt said.
. . . . . . .
Batt's successor wants a closer look at plans
Saturday, June 10, 2006
By Bruce Eggler
Staff writer
Just when it seemed the long-running battle over plans to build a Walgreens drugstore at a heavily trafficked Carrollton corner had finally been settled, an action this week by newly elected Councilwoman Shelley Midura could reignite the conflict.
In a highly unusual move, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday approved a request by Midura to rescind approval by the previous council of plans for the drugstore near the corner of South Claiborne and South Carrollton avenues.
On May 25, at the urging of lame-duck Councilman Jay Batt, the council unanimously approved plans for a 14,700-square-foot Walgreens at the site. Although the store would face Carrollton, it would be built far back in the block, next to Claiborne and near Dublin Street, with a large parking lot in front.
But on Thursday, with Midura having replaced Batt in the District A seat and three other new members on board, the council voted 7-0 to reconsider the previous action and then to defer a decision on Walgreens' plans until its June 22 meeting.
Midura said she wants a chance to study the issues and meet with all the parties involved in the controversy, which centers around many neighbors' desire to get a supermarket built in the block. The block formerly contained a Canal Villere grocery and a Rite Aid drugstore, but both closed several years ago.
Justin Schmidt, an attorney for Walgreens, said Friday he was surprised by Midura's action. But he said he understood her reasons and is optimistic that she will end up supporting plans for both the Walgreens and a Robért Fresh Market proposed for the same block.
The delay "will give her a chance to get up to speed on these two projects," Schmidt said. "She made it clear in her campaign she wanted the neighbors to be involved in the planning process, and this will give them a further chance to do just that."
On May 17, three days before the runoff in which Midura defeated Batt, Batt and Marc Robért II, owner of the local grocery chain, announced plans to build a 15,900-square-foot grocery, including a 2,700-square-foot mezzanine, next to the Walgreens.
Many Carrollton residents and neighborhood groups have been pushing for years to get a supermarket built at the site, and Batt promised in his 2002 council campaign to get a grocery built somewhere along South Carrollton, which once had three major supermarkets but now has none.
Walgreens has been trying to build a drugstore in the block since 2000, but the project has been repeatedly thwarted by neighborhood opposition. Some nearby residents have opposed allowing a drugstore at the site at all, wanting to keep the entire tract available for a supermarket. Others said they would accept a drugstore but only with the assurance a grocery also would be built.
In December 2004, Winn-Dixie agreed to build a grocery in the block, but two months later the chain filed for bankruptcy protection, killing those plans. Several other grocery chains looked at the site but decided it was too small for a store to be viable.
Late in 2005, Walgreens decided to make another push to get its plans approved by the city, and the City Planning Commission approved them in February. In April, before the council could act on them, the logjam that had long blocked a grocery was broken when the owner of the property at 2424 S. Carrollton, which is in the same block, agreed to sell it, creating a tract large enough for two new stores. A fire station will remain at the corner of South Carrollton and Nelson Street.
During her campaign Midura called Batt's last-minute announcement of the Robért Fresh Market "a political stunt" that was "a year late and many dollars short," but she gave no indication Thursday that she opposes plans for the two stores.
Because a drugstore is permitted at the site under the zoning law, the issue before the council is not whether to allow the store but whether to let Walgreens build it 143 feet back from Carrollton, with a large parking lot between the store and the street. Although a setback of that size is several times larger than allowed by design regulations, the Planning Commission approved it, provided that the developers plant several trees, landscape the parking lot and meet other provisos.
Turning down the setback waiver now probably would kill the project because Walgreens officials have made clear they don't want to build a store with little or no front parking.
Schmidt, who represents Robért as well as Walgreens, said the drugstore setback is crucial to the grocery as well because it would make the grocery visible to motorists traveling toward Jefferson Parish on Claiborne.
Schmidt said the grocery also will need a waiver from normal design regulations because it too would be built far back from Carrollton, near the corner of Dublin and Nelson, though the main entrance would face Carrollton.
In addition, in a move that could touch off a new controversy, Robért will seek permission to use three vacant lots at Claiborne and Dublin, across Dublin from the planned stores, as parking for its employees. The lots, zoned for residential use, would accommodate 27 parking spaces, Schmidt said.
Midura will meet "in the near future" with officials of the companies involved and with leaders of nearby residential associations, Schmidt said.
"I am optimistic that she will basically approve the same plans" the council approved at Batt's behest, and "at the end of the day there will be both a Walgreens and a Robért's on that block," Schmidt said.
. . . . . . .
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Audrey2Katrina
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NO Faces Little Threat From Gulf Storm
By Gordon Russell
Times-Picayune staff writer
The first potential tropical storm of the young hurricane season was inching northwestward past the western tip of Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico late Saturday, holding to a track forecasters said should send the poorly organized system toward eventual landfall along the Florida Panhandle.
That said, state and local officials were keeping a wary eye on the storm, to be christened Alberto if its sustained winds reach 35 mph, the minimum level for a tropical storm. As of late Saturday, the system was still being referred to as “Tropical Depression One.”
Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said that the official forecast keeps the storm “well to the southeast” of New Orleans, a model that could result in slightly higher waves and tides at the mouth of the Mississippi River and in the Chandeleur Islands.
“We’re not really looking for any strong winds,” Stewart said.
Stewart said the storm was expected to continue on its north-by-northwesterly track until it reaches the central Gulf, and then turn to a northeasterly track.
By Gordon Russell
Times-Picayune staff writer
The first potential tropical storm of the young hurricane season was inching northwestward past the western tip of Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico late Saturday, holding to a track forecasters said should send the poorly organized system toward eventual landfall along the Florida Panhandle.
That said, state and local officials were keeping a wary eye on the storm, to be christened Alberto if its sustained winds reach 35 mph, the minimum level for a tropical storm. As of late Saturday, the system was still being referred to as “Tropical Depression One.”
Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said that the official forecast keeps the storm “well to the southeast” of New Orleans, a model that could result in slightly higher waves and tides at the mouth of the Mississippi River and in the Chandeleur Islands.
“We’re not really looking for any strong winds,” Stewart said.
Stewart said the storm was expected to continue on its north-by-northwesterly track until it reaches the central Gulf, and then turn to a northeasterly track.
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Biloxi at nine months, post-Katrina
From City of Biloxi News: 5/29/2006
Mayor A.J. Holloway, who participated in two morning Memorial Day observances, says he’s encouraged by the positive signs he’s seeing on the nine-month mark after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
Holloway made the observation after attending a morning Memorial Day observance at the U.S. National Cemetery in Biloxi, where a day before it took 15 minutes for hundreds of volunteers to place 16,000 small American flags at each gravesite in the west Biloxi cemetery.
"Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the start of the summer season," Holloway said. "Our three operating casino resorts are continuing to do nearly three-quarters of the business that nine were doing before the storm. We have only about 5,500 of our pre-Katrina 20,000 hotel rooms back online and they're booked solid. So that means we're seeing a tremendous amount of daytripping from neighboring states, which is helping fuel our recovery."
Holloway said he anticipates even greater business as Aug. 29, the first anniversary of the storm, draws near.
This week, the city will help welcome 10 east Biloxi families in homes that were restored by Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia, and Lt. Gen. Clark Griffith, chairman of the Reviving the Renaissance initiative is expected to present the formal recommendations of 200 volunteers who have been working on the project.
"We're seeing tangible signs of the recovery every day," Holloway said. "And I couldn't be prouder of our citizens and the determination and resolve they've shown."
The Biloxi resovery is scheduled to be highlighted tonight at 6 on WDSU-TV in New Orleans. Reporter Ed Reams paid a Memorial Day visit to the Katrina Memorial on the Biloxi Town Green to update the city's progress.
And for those who missed the recent "Scarborough Country" program from Biloxi:
Gov. Haley Barbour also provides a nine-month perspective on the recovery effort in an eight-minute segment from the MSNBC program “Scarborough Country,” which was beamed live to a national audience from Biloxi on May 22.
From City of Biloxi News: 5/29/2006
Mayor A.J. Holloway, who participated in two morning Memorial Day observances, says he’s encouraged by the positive signs he’s seeing on the nine-month mark after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
Holloway made the observation after attending a morning Memorial Day observance at the U.S. National Cemetery in Biloxi, where a day before it took 15 minutes for hundreds of volunteers to place 16,000 small American flags at each gravesite in the west Biloxi cemetery.
"Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the start of the summer season," Holloway said. "Our three operating casino resorts are continuing to do nearly three-quarters of the business that nine were doing before the storm. We have only about 5,500 of our pre-Katrina 20,000 hotel rooms back online and they're booked solid. So that means we're seeing a tremendous amount of daytripping from neighboring states, which is helping fuel our recovery."
Holloway said he anticipates even greater business as Aug. 29, the first anniversary of the storm, draws near.
This week, the city will help welcome 10 east Biloxi families in homes that were restored by Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia, and Lt. Gen. Clark Griffith, chairman of the Reviving the Renaissance initiative is expected to present the formal recommendations of 200 volunteers who have been working on the project.
"We're seeing tangible signs of the recovery every day," Holloway said. "And I couldn't be prouder of our citizens and the determination and resolve they've shown."
The Biloxi resovery is scheduled to be highlighted tonight at 6 on WDSU-TV in New Orleans. Reporter Ed Reams paid a Memorial Day visit to the Katrina Memorial on the Biloxi Town Green to update the city's progress.
And for those who missed the recent "Scarborough Country" program from Biloxi:
Gov. Haley Barbour also provides a nine-month perspective on the recovery effort in an eight-minute segment from the MSNBC program “Scarborough Country,” which was beamed live to a national audience from Biloxi on May 22.
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Audrey2Katrina
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North Charleston responders turn tables on Biloxi
6/10/2006 - City of Biloxi
The North Charleston Police and Fire departments on Saturday presented a shadowbox featuring a photograph, patches and coins to commemorate their relief efforts in Biloxi for more than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina.
“A contingent of 16 police officers and 15 firefighters from North Charleston arrived in Biloxi on Sept. 1, and the Biloxi police and firefighters made us feel like we were part of the family,” Sgt. Al Hallman of the North Charleston Police Department said during a brief ceremony in the Lopez-Quave Public Safety Center. “They took us in and made us feel like WE were the victims. We’re just here today to say thank you. We created this display to let you know that you are still in our thoughts and if you need help, we’re just a phone call away.”
During their 16-day stay in Biloxi, North Charleston responders worked alongside Biloxi firefighters in search and recovery efforts, while police officers helped traffic control during the day and patrolled city streets enforcing curfews at night.
“When we got here, it was like ‘Wow,” said Hallman, who is on the Mississippi Coast for a family reunion at the home of his aunt, Jo Grierson of Pascagoula. “Before we got here, they tried to prepare us for what we would see, but there’s no way you can prepare for this type of devastation and destruction. That first night, we just sat around the camp just staring at each other.”
Hallman said a second contingent of responders was enroute to Biloxi from North Charleston, a city of nearly 90,000, but all were ordered home when North Charleston faced its own hurricane threat.
The display, which will hang in the Lopez-Quave center, features a photograph of the North Charleston responders, along with “Biloxi” a stranded dog that was adopted by one of the responders.
The presentation was made to a group of Biloxi police officers and firefighters, led by Biloxi Assistant Police Chief Rodney McGilvary and Fire Chief David Roberts.
“Can you imagine?” McGilvary said after the ceremony. “All the help they gave us, and they’re back to thank us. It’s incredible. We’ll be forever grateful to the men and woman in the police and fire departments in North Charleston, and to all the people in their community.”
6/10/2006 - City of Biloxi
The North Charleston Police and Fire departments on Saturday presented a shadowbox featuring a photograph, patches and coins to commemorate their relief efforts in Biloxi for more than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina.
“A contingent of 16 police officers and 15 firefighters from North Charleston arrived in Biloxi on Sept. 1, and the Biloxi police and firefighters made us feel like we were part of the family,” Sgt. Al Hallman of the North Charleston Police Department said during a brief ceremony in the Lopez-Quave Public Safety Center. “They took us in and made us feel like WE were the victims. We’re just here today to say thank you. We created this display to let you know that you are still in our thoughts and if you need help, we’re just a phone call away.”
During their 16-day stay in Biloxi, North Charleston responders worked alongside Biloxi firefighters in search and recovery efforts, while police officers helped traffic control during the day and patrolled city streets enforcing curfews at night.
“When we got here, it was like ‘Wow,” said Hallman, who is on the Mississippi Coast for a family reunion at the home of his aunt, Jo Grierson of Pascagoula. “Before we got here, they tried to prepare us for what we would see, but there’s no way you can prepare for this type of devastation and destruction. That first night, we just sat around the camp just staring at each other.”
Hallman said a second contingent of responders was enroute to Biloxi from North Charleston, a city of nearly 90,000, but all were ordered home when North Charleston faced its own hurricane threat.
The display, which will hang in the Lopez-Quave center, features a photograph of the North Charleston responders, along with “Biloxi” a stranded dog that was adopted by one of the responders.
The presentation was made to a group of Biloxi police officers and firefighters, led by Biloxi Assistant Police Chief Rodney McGilvary and Fire Chief David Roberts.
“Can you imagine?” McGilvary said after the ceremony. “All the help they gave us, and they’re back to thank us. It’s incredible. We’ll be forever grateful to the men and woman in the police and fire departments in North Charleston, and to all the people in their community.”
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Audrey2Katrina
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Disorganized System Expected to hit Florida
Tropical Storm Alberto becomes first named storm
Sundays Times Picayune, June 11, 2006
As of 4 p.m., Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm in 2006, is moving north near 7 m.p.h. and is located about 600 miles west of Key West and about 400 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida.
A tropical storm watch is in effect for parts of the western coast of Florida.
Maximum sustained winds are 45 m.p.h. with higher gusts.
The storm is expected to make a gradual turn towards the north-east with no significant increase in strenth. It is expected to drop a total of 5 to 10 inches of rain over the Florida Peninsula.
Tropical Storm Alberto becomes first named storm
Sundays Times Picayune, June 11, 2006
As of 4 p.m., Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm in 2006, is moving north near 7 m.p.h. and is located about 600 miles west of Key West and about 400 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida.
A tropical storm watch is in effect for parts of the western coast of Florida.
Maximum sustained winds are 45 m.p.h. with higher gusts.
The storm is expected to make a gradual turn towards the north-east with no significant increase in strenth. It is expected to drop a total of 5 to 10 inches of rain over the Florida Peninsula.
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Audrey2Katrina
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New Orleans grapples with its 'hurricane highway'
6/11/2006, 4:40 p.m. CT
By CAIN BURDEAU
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A "hurricane highway" blamed for flooding southeast Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina will likely become the subject of an intense debate in the coming months as commerce is pitted against the environment and public safety.
Under a spending bill President George Bush is expected to sign this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be given more than $3 million to study whether the Mississippi River- Gulf Outlet should be closed to ships.
The outlet, commonly known as the Mr. Go or MRGO, was built in the 1960s as a shortcut between the heavily industrialized eastern portions of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. At 76 miles, the channel is longer than the Panama Canal.
But since construction, the channel has turned into a monster, scientists say, by eating at the freshwater marsh and swamp forests that once thrived southeast of New Orleans. As the channel widened, it became a conduit for storm surge and acquired the nickname "hurricane highway."
"As long as it is there, New Orleans is not sustainable," said Carlton Dufrechou of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.
The channel has become the culprit for residents and politicians of St. Bernard Parish, which was wiped out by Katrina. Only four structures in the parish did not sustain damage, officials say.
"MRGO has caused us more devastation than we care to think about," said Larry Ingargiola, the parish's emergency preparedness director. Closing it, he said, has been "the No. 1 project on our agenda every year."
But the Corps remains reluctant to say the Mr. Go is a storm surge conduit.
Jim Ward, deputy director of a Corps task force rebuilding the region's flood defenses, called that notion "a popular myth."
He said studies have shown the channel does not increase storm surge.
The report to Congress — due in December — could go in many directions, and it could even recommend continuing to allow deep-draft vessels to run up and down the channel.
Shipping and commercial interests are likely to throw up the biggest road blocks to closing Mr. Go, which is the only lane to the sea for many businesses in New Orleans East.
"There are some businesses back there that can't, unfortunately, relocate to the (Mississippi) river," said Sean Duffy of the Steamship Association of Louisiana. If the channel is closed to ship traffic, he said, some businesses would move out of the state.
"We have members who would hate to see it close," he said.
Adam Sharp, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., acknowledged the dueling interests: Business vs. public safety.
"There is an urgent need to move forward with a closure plan, but there's also an urgent need to keep the gateway to American commerce functioning," the spokesman said.
Aaron Viles, campaign director for the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based environmental group, said officials are being forced into action because of a confluence of factors — a heap of bad press, Katrina's devastation and a growing awareness of Louisiana's wetlands losses.
But, he said, "the real question mark is what will that (Corps) plan look like."
For his part, Ingargiola remained skeptical. "Until I see it (closed), I don't believe it."
6/11/2006, 4:40 p.m. CT
By CAIN BURDEAU
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A "hurricane highway" blamed for flooding southeast Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina will likely become the subject of an intense debate in the coming months as commerce is pitted against the environment and public safety.
Under a spending bill President George Bush is expected to sign this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be given more than $3 million to study whether the Mississippi River- Gulf Outlet should be closed to ships.
The outlet, commonly known as the Mr. Go or MRGO, was built in the 1960s as a shortcut between the heavily industrialized eastern portions of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. At 76 miles, the channel is longer than the Panama Canal.
But since construction, the channel has turned into a monster, scientists say, by eating at the freshwater marsh and swamp forests that once thrived southeast of New Orleans. As the channel widened, it became a conduit for storm surge and acquired the nickname "hurricane highway."
"As long as it is there, New Orleans is not sustainable," said Carlton Dufrechou of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.
The channel has become the culprit for residents and politicians of St. Bernard Parish, which was wiped out by Katrina. Only four structures in the parish did not sustain damage, officials say.
"MRGO has caused us more devastation than we care to think about," said Larry Ingargiola, the parish's emergency preparedness director. Closing it, he said, has been "the No. 1 project on our agenda every year."
But the Corps remains reluctant to say the Mr. Go is a storm surge conduit.
Jim Ward, deputy director of a Corps task force rebuilding the region's flood defenses, called that notion "a popular myth."
He said studies have shown the channel does not increase storm surge.
The report to Congress — due in December — could go in many directions, and it could even recommend continuing to allow deep-draft vessels to run up and down the channel.
Shipping and commercial interests are likely to throw up the biggest road blocks to closing Mr. Go, which is the only lane to the sea for many businesses in New Orleans East.
"There are some businesses back there that can't, unfortunately, relocate to the (Mississippi) river," said Sean Duffy of the Steamship Association of Louisiana. If the channel is closed to ship traffic, he said, some businesses would move out of the state.
"We have members who would hate to see it close," he said.
Adam Sharp, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., acknowledged the dueling interests: Business vs. public safety.
"There is an urgent need to move forward with a closure plan, but there's also an urgent need to keep the gateway to American commerce functioning," the spokesman said.
Aaron Viles, campaign director for the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based environmental group, said officials are being forced into action because of a confluence of factors — a heap of bad press, Katrina's devastation and a growing awareness of Louisiana's wetlands losses.
But, he said, "the real question mark is what will that (Corps) plan look like."
For his part, Ingargiola remained skeptical. "Until I see it (closed), I don't believe it."
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Audrey2Katrina
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Audrey2Katrina
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NOPD accuses cops of robbing women
Incident took place in massage parlor
Sunday, June 11, 2006
By Michelle Krupa Times Picayune
Staff writer
An eight-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department has been arrested and booked with armed robbery and malfeasance in office in connection with the "shakedown" of five Asian women working at a downtown massage parlor, Police Superintendent Warren Riley said Saturday.
An arrest warrant was issued for a second officer allegedly involved in the same robbery.
Officer Joshua Burns, 28, resigned from the department after he was arrested late Friday on charges stemming from a Thursday armed robbery that police said involved Burns, officer Quincy Shelling and at least one other person. Police did not identify the massage parlor or say how much money was taken in the robbery.
Assistant Superintendent Marlon Defillo, who heads the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau, said Saturday morning that additional arrests in the case were "imminent," and later in the day the department issued an arrest warrant for Shelling, a six-year NOPD veteran, accusing him of the same crimes of armed robbery and malfeasance in office.
Defillo said Saturday night that arrangements were being made with Shelling's attorney for him to surrender to the Public Integrity Bureau.
The bureau also released a video and asked for assistance from the public in identifying the third suspect. Lt. Bruce Adams of the Public Integrity Bureau is in charge of the investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111 or toll-free at (877) 903-7867. A reward of up to $2,500 is offered. Callers do not have to give their names.
Both Burns and Shelling were assigned to the department's 8th District.
Riley said that as a result of Burns' arrest, NOPD investigators and the FBI have reopened the case of a similar, previously "unsubstantiated" complaint lodged against Burns a year ago.
Burns was arrested Friday about 11 p.m. at the 8th District headquarters in the French Quarter and was taken to Central Lockup. He was released on bail Saturday.
"This type of action is not and will not be tolerated under any circumstances," Riley said. "This is certainly not an incident we're proud of. We're actually embarrassed by it. We will do all that we can to ensure that this officer is prosecuted to the degree that he should be."
Most important, Riley said, Burns is no longer on the police force. "Right now, he is not an officer. Right now, he is a criminal," Riley said.
Without providing details, Defillo said investigators have "a very strong case" with "some very credible witnesses . . . and some indisputable evidence" to prove the charges against Burns. He said Friday's arrest came just hours after police took statements from the witnesses, adding that he was not certain whether the case would be handled in state or federal court.
Riley said "shakedown" roughly described the alleged crime.
"What makes it an armed robbery was the fact that he did have a pistol on him. Did he pull it or point it at anyone? No. But he was armed at the time," Riley said.
Riley said he was not sure whether the gun Burns was carrying was his police-issued weapon. He said Burns and Shelling were off-duty and not in uniform at the time at the time of the robbery.
Burns could not be reached for comment, and Riley offered few details on Burns' career with the department, saying only that he had never previously been arrested.
According to reports at the time, on Nov. 16, 2003, Burns shot and wounded a suspected crack cocaine dealer who pointed a loaded .357-caliber revolver at Burns and other officers after they chased the suspect on foot into a vacant lot in the 800 block of North Claiborne Avenue.
Police said at the time that 6 grams of crack cocaine were found in the unidentified suspect's pocket. The man was booked with aggravated assault with a firearm on police, possession of a firearm while in possession of narcotics, and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.
Incident took place in massage parlor
Sunday, June 11, 2006
By Michelle Krupa Times Picayune
Staff writer
An eight-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department has been arrested and booked with armed robbery and malfeasance in office in connection with the "shakedown" of five Asian women working at a downtown massage parlor, Police Superintendent Warren Riley said Saturday.
An arrest warrant was issued for a second officer allegedly involved in the same robbery.
Officer Joshua Burns, 28, resigned from the department after he was arrested late Friday on charges stemming from a Thursday armed robbery that police said involved Burns, officer Quincy Shelling and at least one other person. Police did not identify the massage parlor or say how much money was taken in the robbery.
Assistant Superintendent Marlon Defillo, who heads the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau, said Saturday morning that additional arrests in the case were "imminent," and later in the day the department issued an arrest warrant for Shelling, a six-year NOPD veteran, accusing him of the same crimes of armed robbery and malfeasance in office.
Defillo said Saturday night that arrangements were being made with Shelling's attorney for him to surrender to the Public Integrity Bureau.
The bureau also released a video and asked for assistance from the public in identifying the third suspect. Lt. Bruce Adams of the Public Integrity Bureau is in charge of the investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111 or toll-free at (877) 903-7867. A reward of up to $2,500 is offered. Callers do not have to give their names.
Both Burns and Shelling were assigned to the department's 8th District.
Riley said that as a result of Burns' arrest, NOPD investigators and the FBI have reopened the case of a similar, previously "unsubstantiated" complaint lodged against Burns a year ago.
Burns was arrested Friday about 11 p.m. at the 8th District headquarters in the French Quarter and was taken to Central Lockup. He was released on bail Saturday.
"This type of action is not and will not be tolerated under any circumstances," Riley said. "This is certainly not an incident we're proud of. We're actually embarrassed by it. We will do all that we can to ensure that this officer is prosecuted to the degree that he should be."
Most important, Riley said, Burns is no longer on the police force. "Right now, he is not an officer. Right now, he is a criminal," Riley said.
Without providing details, Defillo said investigators have "a very strong case" with "some very credible witnesses . . . and some indisputable evidence" to prove the charges against Burns. He said Friday's arrest came just hours after police took statements from the witnesses, adding that he was not certain whether the case would be handled in state or federal court.
Riley said "shakedown" roughly described the alleged crime.
"What makes it an armed robbery was the fact that he did have a pistol on him. Did he pull it or point it at anyone? No. But he was armed at the time," Riley said.
Riley said he was not sure whether the gun Burns was carrying was his police-issued weapon. He said Burns and Shelling were off-duty and not in uniform at the time at the time of the robbery.
Burns could not be reached for comment, and Riley offered few details on Burns' career with the department, saying only that he had never previously been arrested.
According to reports at the time, on Nov. 16, 2003, Burns shot and wounded a suspected crack cocaine dealer who pointed a loaded .357-caliber revolver at Burns and other officers after they chased the suspect on foot into a vacant lot in the 800 block of North Claiborne Avenue.
Police said at the time that 6 grams of crack cocaine were found in the unidentified suspect's pocket. The man was booked with aggravated assault with a firearm on police, possession of a firearm while in possession of narcotics, and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.
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Audrey2Katrina
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MAKING ALL THINGS NEW
Churches find a way to rebuild homes, communities, lives
Sunday, June 11, 2006
By Bruce Nolan - Times Picayune
Staff writer
Beginning just days after Hurricane Katrina struck the city last August, some New Orleans churches began to mount relief operations that continue to this day.
Celebration Church in Metairie, First Baptist Church in Lakeview, Light City Church and St. Mary of the Angels, both in the 9th Ward, became relief centers or major bases housing hundreds of volunteers.
Many remain active in storm relief. And some have morphed into something more, becoming centers for planning, encouragement and help that have begun to nourish damaged neighborhoods.
Here are two examples of powerhouse churches filling that larger role:
Mary Queen of Vietnam
In a matter of days, families will start moving into 199 FEMA trailers lined up and ready for occupancy on Dwyer Road, opposite the eastern New Orleans church that drives the heart of the area's Vietnamese community. The church will select the tenants; the culture's famously cooperative, communitarian spirit will keep good order, said the Rev. Vien Nguyen.
When the trailers are gone in a year and a half to two years, the church plans to build a 300-unit retirement community on the site, he said.
Like many church congregations, members of Mary Queen of Vietnam groped to find each other in exile in the first weeks after the storm.
But they succeeded quickly. Through the Internet, cell phones and a Vietnamese radio station in Houston, Nguyen and the parish's lay leaders found each other. "Within two weeks, the parish council was talking about recovery," he said.
As Vietnamese residents returned to eastern New Orleans, the church became more than just a relief center. Scores of homeowners encamped at the church and its buildings, which had remained dry. They slept on floors, cooked together, dispersed each day to gut their homes, then returned to the church grounds for the night.
Today, many families are back in their unfinished homes. But even now a homeowner alerted by an odd noise at night is as likely to call one of the church's three priests as to call the police, Nguyen said.
Nguyen re-established worship early. The first Mass on Oct. 9 attracted 300 by word of mouth; the next Sunday, 800. Now attendance is 2,300 at three Masses, and there is talk of adding a fourth.
Nguyen said the church's ballast these days is the hard-won wisdom of its elders -- parishioners driven from their homes in North Vietnam decades ago, then driven again from their homes in the south to an alien culture, and now lashed a third time by the experience of Katrina.
"I'm part of the younger generation. I relied on the older generation to give me guidance," he said. "For them, this is minor, very minor. They were joking they were putting on weight eating MREs."
In the months after the storm, Mary Queen of Vietnam became a center where homeowners met with professional planners to sketch their visions of a rebuilt Vietnamese community, with a cultural center, common garden and a farmers market. More urgently, Nguyen has become one of the community's key political voices in opposing a new 88-acre landfill the city wants to open in eastern New Orleans.
The engine that runs the parish is faith and the Vietnamese community's sense of family and community -- a self-reliant network so strong that Nguyen said he carefully considers every government offer of aid. "It encourages a welfare mentality," he said.
And while it heals, the church keeps abreast of news from Vietnam. When parishioners learned recently that a powerful typhoon struck the country, bursting dikes that ruined rice fields with saltwater, they took up a collection for their former countrymen and sent it back through church channels.
The take, said Nguyen: $37,000.
Church of the Annunciation
Less than a year after taking over his new congregation in Broadmoor, the Rev. Jerry Kramer, a hyperactive former African missionary, returned to it in a canoe last September, floating cleanly over its 4-foot wrought-iron fence.
His 162-year-old Episcopal church on South Claiborne Avenue was drowned; looters had based themselves in the second floor of its education building for forays into the neighborhood. His congregation was gone; his own family's home of three months was filled with 9 feet of water.
Nine months later, the Church of the Annunciation crackles with activity.
With aid from the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, from donors, and with loans against a previously untapped income stream from a church-owned building downtown, the congregation has begun hauling mobile homes onto its property and buying up surrounding homes as ministry centers.
A trailer serves as the church's worship space. As soon as a Sunday Mass is over, it switches back to an all-purpose community center. Another trailer next door has become the permanent home of the Broadmoor Improvement Association, one of the most sophisticated neighborhood planning groups in the city.
"The church has let us have the run of the place. They have yet to say no," said Rusty Berridge, an association volunteer. "They just keep telling us, 'God will find a way.' "
"For the first time in a long while, we're relevant," Kramer said. "It's really exciting to get tied into the neighborhood. We're the capital of Broadmoor."
The church serves a community reaching beyond Broadmoor. Kramer says 40 percent of its residents live below the poverty line; 40 percent of adults are not high school graduates; and only 20 percent of the area's children live with both parents.
Annunciation's ministries still dispense emergency supplies several days a week. Recently, Kramer offered a little patch of open space on church property for yet another trailer belonging to Heart to Heart, a medical ministry.
Since spring, an after-school center on church grounds for the few neighborhood children in the area has morphed into a free summer day camp.
Kramer said he and members of his congregation have no carefully developed, long-range plan. "We do all this by listening. The whole idea is to be nimble, be flexible, to have low overhead and make things happen where before nothing was happening."
So it is that members of Annunciation diagnosed their next efforts: Coming soon, a community laundry area and a church-based coffee shop for neighbors to meet and swap the crucial off-the-radar information that helps build community.
"We're a neighborhood resource with worship at its center," Kramer said.
Remarkably, Kramer said, he and his congregation have no immediate plans to rehabilitate their church building. They expect to replace the worship-trailer with a modular home and worship there for about 10 years.
"We'll put our resources elsewhere, where it's more needed," he said. "We're doing front-line kingdom-building work here. God has turned us out of our church and dropped us on our butts in the parking lot.
"That's OK. In Africa, we used to do church outdoors under the trees. It was wonderful."
Churches find a way to rebuild homes, communities, lives
Sunday, June 11, 2006
By Bruce Nolan - Times Picayune
Staff writer
Beginning just days after Hurricane Katrina struck the city last August, some New Orleans churches began to mount relief operations that continue to this day.
Celebration Church in Metairie, First Baptist Church in Lakeview, Light City Church and St. Mary of the Angels, both in the 9th Ward, became relief centers or major bases housing hundreds of volunteers.
Many remain active in storm relief. And some have morphed into something more, becoming centers for planning, encouragement and help that have begun to nourish damaged neighborhoods.
Here are two examples of powerhouse churches filling that larger role:
Mary Queen of Vietnam
In a matter of days, families will start moving into 199 FEMA trailers lined up and ready for occupancy on Dwyer Road, opposite the eastern New Orleans church that drives the heart of the area's Vietnamese community. The church will select the tenants; the culture's famously cooperative, communitarian spirit will keep good order, said the Rev. Vien Nguyen.
When the trailers are gone in a year and a half to two years, the church plans to build a 300-unit retirement community on the site, he said.
Like many church congregations, members of Mary Queen of Vietnam groped to find each other in exile in the first weeks after the storm.
But they succeeded quickly. Through the Internet, cell phones and a Vietnamese radio station in Houston, Nguyen and the parish's lay leaders found each other. "Within two weeks, the parish council was talking about recovery," he said.
As Vietnamese residents returned to eastern New Orleans, the church became more than just a relief center. Scores of homeowners encamped at the church and its buildings, which had remained dry. They slept on floors, cooked together, dispersed each day to gut their homes, then returned to the church grounds for the night.
Today, many families are back in their unfinished homes. But even now a homeowner alerted by an odd noise at night is as likely to call one of the church's three priests as to call the police, Nguyen said.
Nguyen re-established worship early. The first Mass on Oct. 9 attracted 300 by word of mouth; the next Sunday, 800. Now attendance is 2,300 at three Masses, and there is talk of adding a fourth.
Nguyen said the church's ballast these days is the hard-won wisdom of its elders -- parishioners driven from their homes in North Vietnam decades ago, then driven again from their homes in the south to an alien culture, and now lashed a third time by the experience of Katrina.
"I'm part of the younger generation. I relied on the older generation to give me guidance," he said. "For them, this is minor, very minor. They were joking they were putting on weight eating MREs."
In the months after the storm, Mary Queen of Vietnam became a center where homeowners met with professional planners to sketch their visions of a rebuilt Vietnamese community, with a cultural center, common garden and a farmers market. More urgently, Nguyen has become one of the community's key political voices in opposing a new 88-acre landfill the city wants to open in eastern New Orleans.
The engine that runs the parish is faith and the Vietnamese community's sense of family and community -- a self-reliant network so strong that Nguyen said he carefully considers every government offer of aid. "It encourages a welfare mentality," he said.
And while it heals, the church keeps abreast of news from Vietnam. When parishioners learned recently that a powerful typhoon struck the country, bursting dikes that ruined rice fields with saltwater, they took up a collection for their former countrymen and sent it back through church channels.
The take, said Nguyen: $37,000.
Church of the Annunciation
Less than a year after taking over his new congregation in Broadmoor, the Rev. Jerry Kramer, a hyperactive former African missionary, returned to it in a canoe last September, floating cleanly over its 4-foot wrought-iron fence.
His 162-year-old Episcopal church on South Claiborne Avenue was drowned; looters had based themselves in the second floor of its education building for forays into the neighborhood. His congregation was gone; his own family's home of three months was filled with 9 feet of water.
Nine months later, the Church of the Annunciation crackles with activity.
With aid from the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, from donors, and with loans against a previously untapped income stream from a church-owned building downtown, the congregation has begun hauling mobile homes onto its property and buying up surrounding homes as ministry centers.
A trailer serves as the church's worship space. As soon as a Sunday Mass is over, it switches back to an all-purpose community center. Another trailer next door has become the permanent home of the Broadmoor Improvement Association, one of the most sophisticated neighborhood planning groups in the city.
"The church has let us have the run of the place. They have yet to say no," said Rusty Berridge, an association volunteer. "They just keep telling us, 'God will find a way.' "
"For the first time in a long while, we're relevant," Kramer said. "It's really exciting to get tied into the neighborhood. We're the capital of Broadmoor."
The church serves a community reaching beyond Broadmoor. Kramer says 40 percent of its residents live below the poverty line; 40 percent of adults are not high school graduates; and only 20 percent of the area's children live with both parents.
Annunciation's ministries still dispense emergency supplies several days a week. Recently, Kramer offered a little patch of open space on church property for yet another trailer belonging to Heart to Heart, a medical ministry.
Since spring, an after-school center on church grounds for the few neighborhood children in the area has morphed into a free summer day camp.
Kramer said he and members of his congregation have no carefully developed, long-range plan. "We do all this by listening. The whole idea is to be nimble, be flexible, to have low overhead and make things happen where before nothing was happening."
So it is that members of Annunciation diagnosed their next efforts: Coming soon, a community laundry area and a church-based coffee shop for neighbors to meet and swap the crucial off-the-radar information that helps build community.
"We're a neighborhood resource with worship at its center," Kramer said.
Remarkably, Kramer said, he and his congregation have no immediate plans to rehabilitate their church building. They expect to replace the worship-trailer with a modular home and worship there for about 10 years.
"We'll put our resources elsewhere, where it's more needed," he said. "We're doing front-line kingdom-building work here. God has turned us out of our church and dropped us on our butts in the parking lot.
"That's OK. In Africa, we used to do church outdoors under the trees. It was wonderful."
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