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#401 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:07 pm

Hahnville band treks to D.C.

Community raised funds to pay costs

Saturday, July 01, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Sandra Barbier


About 150 members of the Hahnville High School Band and 30 teachers and chaperones will board buses today for a four-day trip to Washington, D.C., where the band will march in the National Independence Day Parade.

The trip comes with a price-tag of about $120,000 that band officials said couldn't have been matched without community support and the help of the St. Charles Parish School Board. "We never raised that kind of money in one year" before, band director David Rosenthal said.

The School Board allocated $60,000 to Hahnville High for its music program. The entire amount went to the trip, Rosenthal said.

Meanwhile, members of the Hahnville band booster club and band members themselves raised another $57,000.

Hahnville, along with two high schools in Lafayette, were recommended by the governor's office and the state Department of Education for an invitation to march. Money for the trip came from fund-raisers that began in February. There were a few large donations, but much of it was earned by parents and students through car washes, candy sales, bingo nights, band nights at businesses and plate lunches.

The River Region Arts Council gave the band a grant of $4,800, one of the biggest donations. The group typically gives the school system a grant to take all eighth-grade students to a performance of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, but since the orchestra wasn't offering young people's concerts, Rosenthal said he requested a grant for the trip instead.

One of the most popular events was a "debris sale," proposed by a booster club parent, she said.

Members created "debris" from wood and a refrigerator door and spray-painted it with pictures of musical instruments. It was placed in someone's yard, then that person had to pay to have it removed or taken secretly to someone else's yard, Jorgesen said.

"It did wonderfully," she said.

The parade, which won't be televised, is scheduled to take place Tuesday from 11:45 a.m. - 2 p.m. near the National Mall. The band will play a medley of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "Dixie," Rosenthal said. The arrangement was created by Hahnville teacher Jim Truant, a former assistant band director, who wrote the medley several years ago. Rosenthal said he was seeking original music and the medley was available.

Rosenthal said some people might object to "Dixie," music symbolic of the Confederacy. "Battle Hymn" was an anthem for the Union. He said he talked to the students and none objected to the music.

"It's mostly 'Battle Hymn of the Republic . . . We're not trying to portray one side or the other. We're just trying to portray patriotic music," Rosenthal said.

While in Washington, the students have a packed itinerary that includes war memorials, museums, Arlington National Cemetery and a Washington Nationals baseball game.
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#402 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:13 pm

Metro Briefing

Sewer spill prompts advisory

Mobile Press Register/AL.com
Saturday, July 01, 2006


The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System has reported that about 17,000 gallons of raw sewage overflowed at 4300 Mitsubishi Lane because of a break in a sewer main. The problem has been fixed, officials said.

Dr. Bernard Eichold of the Mobile County Health Department advises area residents to take precautions when using Eight Mile Creek for recreational purposes due to the release of untreated sewage.

All seafood harvested in this general area should be thoroughly cooked before consumption. Individuals should wash hands after cleaning fish or seafood and before preparing food.

Parmar receives firefighter award

Deputy Chief Charlie Parmar was selected as the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department's June firefighter of the month for entering a burning mobile home in an effort to rescue a girl, according to fire department spokesman Steve Huffman.

Parmar was headed to work when he came upon the burning mobile home near Higgins Road in south Mobile County, Huffman said in a news release.

"Two of the occupants advised him that the daughter of one of them was unaccounted for and may still be inside the burning trailer," Huffman said.

After entering the trailer and searching for the girl, Parmar discovered that she had already escaped without suffering any burns, Huffman said.

The Pleasant Valley Opportunity Club sponsors the firefighter of the month program.
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#403 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:24 pm

8 have died in crashes this week

Victim ID'd in Thursday truck accident

By ROBIN FITZGERALD
sunherald.com 7/1/06


Authorities on Friday identified the latest victim in a string of fatal crashes as state troopers beefed up patrols for holiday weekend duty.

Jorge Pineda-Vargas, 26, of Gulfport died at 5 p.m. Thursday in a single-vehicle crash two miles east of Long Beach on Interstate 10. He was a passenger in a pickup and was wearing a seat belt but was partially ejected from a window, according to Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove.

The pickup's driver lost control when the left-rear tire blew out, Hargrove said.

Thursday's crash brought the fatal traffic count since Sunday to seven deaths from five crashes in Jackson and Harrison counties. Four of the crashes were in Jackson County.

Friday afternoon, an eighth death was recorded in a single-vehicle accident in Jackson County. Sheriff Mike Byrd said Twyla Tillman, 21, of 5801 Tillman St., in Pascagoula, died when the SUV she was a passenger in flipped three times. See story on A-4.

"These crashes concern us, especially with the long holiday weekend coming up," said Master Sgt. Joe Gazzo, Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman. "We can stop drunk or reckless drivers to prevent accidents, but the wrecks we've had this week were just plain fluky."

The holiday-traffic period, which began at 6 p.m. Friday, ends at midnight Tuesday. MHP will hold safety checkpoints and roving roadblocks.

In Thursday's crash, Pineda-Vargas was a front-seat passenger in an eastbound 1991 Mazda carrying several construction workers home to Gulfport from a job site in Bay St. Louis.

When the driver lost control from the blow-out, Pineda-Vargas' upper body went out the window as the pickup flipped, authorities said.

A Highway Patrol report identifies the driver as Walter Vasil, 26, and the other passengers as Julio Saucebo, 18, and Rodolfo Riveria, 24, all of Gulfport. Riveria was airlifted to Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, where the others were taken by ambulance.

On Wednesday, a woman was partially ejected from a pickup on Mississippi 57 in Jackson County when she ran off the road and overcorrected, striking a tree near the George County line, MHP reports said. The pickup caught fire, but a passer-by pulled her from the truck before the flames reached her.

On Tuesday, a two-vehicle crash in Gautier killed a woman and her infant and injured her husband and their two toddlers. The collision occurred on Gautier-Vancleave Road north of I-10.

On Monday, an Augusta, Ga., woman was struck by an 18-wheeler on I-10 in Jackson County as she stood between two vehicles on the shoulder of the road near the Alabama state line. Gazzo said the truck driver tried to avoid them but his trailer jackknifed, striking the vehicles and the woman, who died a day later.

On Sunday, a man and woman from Pascagoula died after they were struck by a car on I-10 while the coupled argued and walked in a westbound lane near the Ocean Springs exit, according to the MHP. The man was thrown through the windshield of the car that hit them.
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#404 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:57 am

Street-level flooding is more likely

Closing gates for tropical storm would be culprit

Image
The Army Corps of Engineers says closing floodgates will increase flooding in parts of New Orleans.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006
By Mark Waller
East Jefferson bureau


Heavy rain from a tropical storm could fill more streets with water this year than residents were used to seeing before Hurricane Katrina, according to new government projections.

The Army Corps of Engineers has drawn up maps showing parts of Gentilly, Lakeview and Uptown that can expect rainwater accumulation this hurricane season even if they did not typically flood in previous tropical storms. Closing the floodgates under construction at the 17th Street, London Avenue and Orleans Avenue canals in advance of a tropical system is what would trigger the extra flooding from rain.

However, the likelihood of closing the gates is slim: Corps officials have estimated they would have closed them only three times in the past 45 years, based on a historical analysis of weather data. And the gates would not be closed for rain events unrelated to storms that bring a surge -- meaning even a record rainfall such as the one the New Orleans area received on May 8, 1995, would not trigger gate closures.

The problem will ease by next season because more repairs to the flood control system will add drainage capacity to the canals when the gates are closed.

While the maps do not specify depths, a Corps spokesman said they show areas that would see inches of water and not the several feet that could result from a levee failure.

"This is a lower amount of water that's not going to be standing there for weeks like we had in Katrina," said Todd Hornback, a Corps spokesman based in New Orleans.

While the gates at the canal mouths on Lake Pontchartrain might block a devastating surge from getting in, the complication is that they will also stop some rainwater from draining. But Washington-based Corps spokesman Gene Pawlik argued that rainwater flooding is a lesser evil than flooding from another catastrophic levee rupture.

"A surge from Lake Pontchartrain is a bigger risk overall than rainfall inundation," Pawlik said.

The Corps will close the floodgates at the 17th Street and London Avenue Canals in the unlikely event a 5-foot surge threatens to invade the damaged canals from the lake, officials said. The Orleans Avenue Canal, which proved sturdier than the others in Katrina, can take up to 9 feet of surge before the gates close.

Corps officials said they issued the projections of rainwater accumulation to keep residents in New Orleans and parts of East Jefferson informed about the changed conditions they will likely see in tropical storms.

"It's really to make people aware, so they have a chance to prepare," Pawlik said. "In some areas where they have not traditionally had severe rainfall inundation, there is that chance now."

As time passes and the Corps adds more capacity to pump out water despite the closed gates, the amount of flooding from rain will decrease, the projections show. By next year's hurricane season, pumping capacity should be back to a level where an intense rain would have no greater impact than before Katrina, the Corps said.

Some areas will still suffer street flooding, but the vulnerable areas will be smaller than they are now.

"It's a system in progress," Pawlik said. "It's a work in progress."
Last edited by Audrey2Katrina on Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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#405 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:05 am

Katrina forecasters are lauded

Sharp, powerful warnings cited

Tuesday, July 04, 2006 Times Picayune/NOLA.com
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer


The urgent message issued by the Slidell office of the National Weather Service a day before Hurricane Katrina hit was chilling in its harsh detail of the potential devastation as it bore down on New Orleans:


"Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks . . . perhaps longer," "all wood-framed, low-rising apartment buildings will be destroyed," "persons . . . pets . . . and livestock exposed to the winds will face certain death if struck," "water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards."

Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cited the decision to issue that message as "a significant moment for the National Weather Service" in a report praising both the service's Slidell office and the National Hurricane Center for their efforts in predicting Katrina's fury and explaining its hazard to the public.

"Due to the unprecedented detail and foreboding nature of the language used, the statement helped reinforce the actions of emergency management officials as they coordinated one of the largest evacuations in U.S. history," said the report written by David Johnson, NOAA assistant administrator for weather services.

Johnson recommended that a template be written based on the Slidell warning, which was based in part on one developed during the 1990s by a Tampa weather service office, and be made available in software to field offices facing similar hurricane threats.

Michael Koziara, science and operations officer for the Slidell office, said there was no debate over issuing the urgent weather message, which was broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio and released to the media at 10:11 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, a day before Katrina hit.

"Considering the grave threat that was posed to us, to New Orleans," he said. "The contents were quite appropriate."

Koziara said the message had been developed long before Katrina, part of an electronic "tool box" full of special weather statements available for unusual events.

"It is sort of like the doomsday scenario you don't want to use, but you have ready just in case," he said.

The Slidell office also was praised for the speed in which it issued a warning of the breach of the Industrial Canal levee adjacent to the Lower 9th Ward.

At 8:12 a.m. on Aug. 29, Lake Borgne Levee District Manager Bob Turner radioed officials in Slidell that the levee had breached on the canal's east side at Tennessee Street.

Two minutes later, the warning was issued:

"A LEVEE BREACH OCCURRED ALONG THE INDUSTRIAL CANAL AT TENNESSEE STREET. 3 TO 8 FEET OF WATER IS EXPECTED DUE TO THE BREACH. LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO ARABI AND 9TH WARD OF NEW ORLEANS. IF YOU ARE IN THE WARNING AREA MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY."

Just 50 minutes later, Slidell meteorologists issued a final warning before their communications were knocked out, this one warning of catastrophic winds with gusts of 135 mph in St. Tammany Parish and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The National Hurricane Center was praised for accurately predicting Katrina would make landfall in New Orleans and a second landfall at the Louisiana-Mississippi line 56 hours in advance, providing enough time for south Louisiana's emergency preparedness officials to evacuate an estimated 80 percent of the area's residents.

In its ensuing forecasts 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours prior to landfall, the center's landfall predictions were off by only 19, 24, 32 and 56 nautical miles, improving by 31 to 44 percent its average of track errors in the previous 10 years.

The center also was cited for forecasting 32 hours before Katrina's landfall that storm surge accompanying the hurricane would reach 15 to 20 feet with some areas seeing surge as high as 25 feet, and raising those estimates to as high as 28 feet the day before landfall.

The report also singled out Center Director Max Mayfield for personally calling Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Saturday evening, Aug. 27, to warn them of Katrina's intensity and its potential to cause a large loss of life.

"These calls had a profound effect on these officials and each mentioned it the following day during various press conferences," the report said. "The following morning, the mayor of New Orleans declared a state of emergency and ordered the first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city."

The report did recommend several other improvements in forecasting and coordination for future storms, however.

For instance, there was no procedure in place to notify local National Weather Service forecast offices when storm surge modelers at the National Hurricane Center had posted updated model runs on an internal Web page for their use. The report recommends establishing such a procedure.

The report noted that the loss of a variety of communications networks in New Orleans because of flooding affected the ability of local forecasters passing on important weather information to first responders and others participating in rescue and recovery efforts. It recommends that the National Weather Service work closely with the various telecommunications service providers to develop alternative networking capability.

It also recommends local offices be provided with alternative communications equipment, such as satellite telephones.

In Key West, a computer antivirus program disabled the forecast office's e-mail just as Katrina unexpectedly moved more southward as it emerged into the Gulf of Mexico, making it difficult for forecasters there to send out information about the storm. The report recommends such software be routinely reviewed for problems.
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#406 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:09 am

Nagin says New Orleans is recovering

7/3/2006, 3:26 p.m. CT
By KRISTIE RIEKEN
The Associated Press


HOUSTON (AP) — New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday his city is recovering and that people have been "hoodwinked and bamboozled" into believing it won't be rebuilt.

Nagin spoke at the Essence Music Festival's empowerment seminars, being held outside New Orleans for the first time because of lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina.

"We are moving forward," he said. "New Orleans is a city that is in recovery, and it is coming back."

He said he wanted to let people know "what is really going on," that New Orleans is ahead of schedule on rebuilding and that 98 percent of the city's utilities have been restored. He said 225,000 people are back in the city, and he expects that number to reach 300,000 in the coming months.

He didn't say who is sending what he called untrue messages about New Orleans, just that they are collectively misleading.

"I think that it's just evolved to this point, and I just want people to have clarity on what the opportunities are and what they can and cannot do," Nagin said.

He said that billions of dollars will be invested into the rebuilding effort and urged the audience to "buy some dirt in New Orleans."

"New Orleans is getting ready to be the biggest job site in the world," he said.

While touting the positives of the city, Nagin also said the wait continues for delivery of money the government has approved for homeowners. He acknowledged the biggest issue still facing the city is inadequate housing.

"We are waiting for the state to release that money," he said. "It is said that $100 billion in governmental aid has been given to the Gulf Coast region, but most of that money has gone to big companies."

He continues to encourage people to return and assess their situations to see if it is time for them to move back and said that currently renters are having more difficulty returning than are homeowners.

Nagin said he is working with Houston Mayor Bill White to establish an office in Houston where New Orleans residents can get information concerning their move back to the city.

Speaking of the slow response time after the hurricane, he said blacks must work together to assure it never happens again.

"We have a lack of unity and a lack of strategy," he said. "We need a clear agenda for moving on as this next presidential election approaches."

Nagin thanked Houston for its efforts to take in evacuees in the wake of Katrina and applauded its hospitality in hosting the festival, but that doesn't mean he'd like to see it remain in the city.

"You have done a fantastic job. But we want this festival back in New Orleans next year," he said to thunderous applause.

Event organizers haven't addressed whether they will return to New Orleans next year, but called the move to Houston temporary.
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#407 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:11 am

Avondale residents protest open landfill

They want tests on debris before dump

Tuesday, July 04, 2006 Times Picayune/NOLA.com
By Meghan Gordon


Worried that dump trucks rolling into their community are carrying future health hazards in their loads, a small group of Avondale residents gathered Monday to call for testing of debris piled into the area's two landfills.

"The citizens of the West Bank should not have to bear the burden of southeast Louisiana's debris being dumped in our back yard," the Rev. Charles Crawford said, surrounded by three other ministers and 11 residents.

The demonstrators carried signs with slogans such as, "Stop the dumping," "Our health is important too" and "Keep West Jeff safe."


The Rev. Byron Clay, regional director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called for an independent study to assuage community fears that the trash haulers were bringing toxins from New Orleans into their neighborhood. Alluding to vocal protests by the Vietnamese community opposed to a landfill in eastern New Orleans, Clay said West Jefferson residents shouldn't have to put up with hazardous materials, either.

"If it ain't good for Chef Menteur, it ain't good for the people over here in Avondale," he said.

But Darren Mann, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality, said New Orleans' two landfills have the same processing standards as the construction and demolition landfill in Avondale, which is owned by River Birch. Jefferson Parish owns a nearby landfill for household garbage.

Before disposing of construction and demolition debris, Mann said, haulers pick up only trash that has been segregated at curbside, with household chemicals and other hazardous substances removed. Then crews examine each load from viewing towers as trucks enter the landfills. A separate group of workers pick through the loads as they're dumped and pull out any unauthorized materials.

"The only thing that's going into the landfill is construction and demolition debris," Mann said. "It's nonhazardous, nontoxic debris. Essentially, it's an innocuous waste stream."

Mann said the his department routinely meets with citizen groups to explain the disposal process and health precautions.

Despite decrying what they described as the state's lax environmental standards, the Avondale ministers said they had not contacted their state or parish leaders with their concerns.
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#408 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:20 am

Lightning sparks fire at Murphy Oil

Tuesday, July 04, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
From staff reports


A fire at the Murphy Oil refinery in Meraux was doused in less than an hour Monday after lightning struck a gasoline storage tank and set its seal ablaze.

No one was injured, said Thomas Stone, chief of the St. Bernard Fire Department.

"We had it under control within 30 minutes," said Stone, who noted firefighters from the department and oil company worked together to extinguish the blaze that began at 10:30 a.m.


The fire did not spread beyond the seal of the 250-foot-diameter tank.

"We were lucky," the chief said.
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#409 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:30 am

Summer tourism fears are borne out

City can't break storm's legacy, seasonal drop-off

Wednesday, July 05, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Jaquetta White
Business writer


As the Essence Music Festival hit the stage last weekend -- not in New Orleans, its traditional home, but in temporary, post-Katrina digs in Houston -- the absent spending power of the event's thousands of attendees was clear to local restaurants, hotels and retail shops.

"What we're obviously missing right now is the Fourth of July buzz," said Glenda McKinley English, president and creative director of G.Mc + Company Advertising Inc., which handles multicultural tourism accounts for the city and state. "It's a void in our community."

Temporary displacement of the festival, the summer's biggest musical attraction, and the cancellation of other events already have industry analysts comparing summer 2006 to those of the dismal summer of 1985, when just half of the city's hotel rooms were filled.

In June, the city successfully hosted the 18,000-person American Library Association convention, proving that New Orleans is again up to the challenge of megaconventions. But the ALA conference was the only significant tourism event on the city's summer calendar, a traditional down-time for conventions.

As a result, tourism officials, hoteliers and business owners are now buckling down for a possible wave of business closures as marginal shops and services knuckle under before the convention season, which officials say promises to be a healthy one. It kicks off in earnest in the fall.


Hot time in the city


It's no secret that summer has never been kind to the New Orleans tourism industry. Though a third of all travel nationwide takes place in the summer, turning the spirit-crushing humidity of New Orleans into a summer destination has been an uphill battle. The heat-averse travel north. Those who like it hot tend to flock to beaches and theme parks.

"For whatever reason, we've never been able to establish ourselves as a summer destination," said Bill Langkopp, executive vice president of the Louisiana Hotel and Lodging Association.

Not for lack of trying and, before Hurricane Katrina, considerable progress: Last year, summer conventions climbed 50 percent, and Essence Fest attracted a record crowd. Hotel occupancy is usually in the upper 90 percent range during Essence, said Darrius Gray, president of the Hotel and Lodging Association and general manager of the Holiday Inn French Quarter.

"It's a huge draw for the city, generating millions of tax dollars for city coffers," Gray said.

This year's projected tourism numbers remain misty. There's always the possibility that disaster tourism and sheer curiosity about New Orleans' ordeal will be a magnet for some travelers. "But based on bookings at the hotels, we know summer is going to be light," said Stephen Perry, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Michael Valentino, managing partner of Valentino New Orleans, which owns four hotels, said summer tourism will follow the downward trend that prevails every year, but because numbers already are off, the dip will be more challenging.

"It's all the same things exacerbated by the fact that it's the anniversary of the worst natural disaster in the country's history and the perception that the city is crippled," Valentino said.

Perry said this season "certainly parallels" the lows seen 21 years ago when citywide hotel bookings, in a post-1984 world's fair slump, fell to just 52 percent.

Hans Wandfluh, a hotel consultant and former general manager of the Royal Sonesta Hotel, projects bookings at hotels in the first-class market to run in the low 60 percentile. Other markets, he said, will experience occupancy rates in the 40 percent to 50 percent range. That's down 15 percent or 20 percent from past summers.

"Right after the world's fair, that was the last time we faced a major crisis," Wandfluh said. "We saw hotels struggle at that time. We saw some ownership changes taking place. We saw some refinancing taking place. I think similar things are going to happen today in New Orleans."

"From a business perspective," Langkopp said, summer 2006 looks to be "identical" to summer 1985.


Watching for hurricanes


But there's a psychological difference. The industry has to overcome a number of negative perceptions and survive a closely watched hurricane season, obstacles it didn't face two decades ago.

"The biggest challenge is one of perception because the images that are in most people's minds are from the hurricane, even though that was months ago and the French Quarter and other places have been open for months," said Allen Kay, a spokesman for the Travel Industry Association of America, a nonprofit trade group that represents the U.S. travel industry. How this hurricane season shapes up will also be a major factor, he said.

"The critical thing here is, 'What is the perception of this hurricane season?' If the perception is that it is not so bad, I think there are going to be more people who are going to say, 'I really want to go and support New Orleans,' " Kay said. "I think that's worth holding out hope for. But there are no guarantees here. It's a tough situation to be in."

There also is a challenge in communicating to travelers that it's safe to visit New Orleans.

"We're getting the message out but it keeps getting drowned by news of National Guard arrivals, heinous murders, lack of hurricane planning and incomplete levee repairs," Valentino said. "Any time one of these stories surfaces, it demolishes any forward movement we've made."

What's more, the industry has to prepare to take a step back in time in August when the first anniversary of Katrina will no doubt recycle media images of a city under water, residents stranded and lawlessness.

August is going to a "very difficult time," said Sandy Shilstone, chief executive of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., a public-private agency financed through the city's general fund, proceeds from hotel and RTA taxes and Harrah's New Orleans Casino. "We'll have to relive a lot of negative images because it will be only natural for networks to do retrospectives."

The marketing corporation has made its own "anniversary video" of footage that includes the Convention Center and restaurant reopenings. Shilstone said the video will be made available to local media in August to report on the city's progress.

"We're hoping we can help the national media to provide a more balanced image," Shilstone said.


Businesses suffering


Still, there is little doubt that summer will leave small businesses vulnerable, particularly retailers on Magazine Street and in the French Quarter as well as bed-and-breakfast operations, Perry said.

"There will be some that will not be able to weather it," Perry said.

Already many of the small caterers, printers and tour companies that relied on tourism to stay in business have not reopened. Fifty-six of the 244 members of the New Orleans Multicultural Tourism Network have not returned, the network's president, Toni Rice, said. Telephone calls placed to several of the businesses listed as members of the network were answered with a disconnection message. The Tourism Network organizes small-group visits to the city, such as family reunions, none of which are scheduled for the summer.

"It's the businesses that rely on tourists that are hurting the most," said Laura Drumm, president of small business advocacy group Second Wind and owner of Tabasco Country Store in the Louis Armstrong International Airport, whose business is down about 60 percent.

"Everyone I know that has a business is worried," Drumm said. "My concern is how long these businesses can wait."

Perry said those small businesses with the best chance of survival will be the ones that "conserve costs." Many small business owners are doing just that.

Drumm, for instance, has reopened only one of her shops, and her husband is working in it seven days a week.

Similarly, Linda Friedlander, who owns the Magazine Street antiques shop Objets Trouvés, has cut back to a four-day-a-week summer schedule.

"I'm trying to be fiscally responsible and cut some overhead and still find a way to be open," Friedlander said. "For me, it's a new step. But there are a lot more stores that will be doing it this year. I'm just trying to figure out a way to be here in October."

Robert Florence, owner of Historic New Orleans Tours Inc., echoes Friedlander's sense that summer is trouble but that a revival lies just over the horizon.

"I could be doing something else, if I didn't think things would come roaring back," Florence said. Indeed, large convention bookings this fall stand at about 84,000, about what they were before Katrina wiped out the 2005 season.

"The big thing is we have to get through is summer," Florence said. "I think if we have a hurricane, as long as it just knocks trees and power lines down, then we'll be all right."


Incentives help


Hotels and restaurants, including some of the largest in the city, are also bracing for a tough summer lull.

Valentino said his hotels will relax rates and policies associated with booking and cancellation in order to keep occupancy high. He used the same strategy last year.

"The storm has just exacerbated what was already a problem and made people even more wary about doing any advanced planning to New Orleans," Valentino said. "I think we're going to enjoy a decent volume of visitation but it will be at a very low daily rate."

At the Holiday Inn French Quarter, Gray said, guests will be confined to eight floors instead of the full 15. That will allow the hotel to cut back on costs.

Citywide, he said, now is the time for hotels to begin offering incentives such as breakfast and dinner.

"We've all anticipated that this day was coming, and each hotel is making necessary adjustments," Gray said. "Creating a more value-added feature is going to be the method we'll have to employ to get people in the city.

Ralph Brennan, who owns three New Orleans restaurants, said he is hoping to stimulate traffic by offering early-bird and nighttime specials.

"We had some (business) in June for the librarians," Brennan said. "And it's dropped back down already."

At least one positive to emerge from the slow season will be that staff-strapped businesses will be able to catch their breath.

"We're hoping as far as employees that restaurants can kind of catch up and not work people as hard," said Tom Weatherly, a spokesman for the Louisiana Restaurant Association.

The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation and the state office of tourism, are working on ways to cushion the impact of the summer slump.

The marketing corporation, for instance, has partnered with Travelocity, the Internet giant, to promote New Orleans to leisure travelers. The thinking is that the Internet advertising will appeal to travelers booking a trip on a whim. Most leisure visitors now book anywhere from two weeks to 10 days before their planned arrival date, Shilstone said. The Travelocity partnership is expected to drive business in the summer and early fall, she said. The city and state also are continuing television and print ad campaigns that urge visitors to "come fall in love all over again."

The problem is we will not have the marketing dollars to make much of an impact in the summer, Perry said.

The Louisiana Recovery Authority in April earmarked $30 million for tourism and convention marketing, but the money has not yet been delivered. Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said the money is "on track" and will be distributed as soon as it is received.

"We would have liked to have had that in early April," Gray said. "That would have been the time to put on a nice healthy summer campaign."

Without those funds, the industry is relying on a public relations and communications campaign to generate publicity and get out the message that New Orleans is open and capable of handling tourists. One example is the industry's push to showcase last week's American Library Association conference.

"That was a game-time audition," Perry said. "Every person we get here is an ambassador."

Meanwhile, Perry and others will wade through the summer looking forward to fall, when several large conventions are scheduled, as is the Bayou Classic and the return of cruise ships.

"We're optimistic about the fall," Gray said. "We're going to have two slow months, but the fall will be better.
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#410 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:33 am

People rebuilding in the hardest-hit parts of the Lower 9th just received their trailers in June

THE LONG WAIT

Image
Aloyd Edenburgh is one of the Lower Ninth Ward residents who have finally moved into a FEMA trailer

Wednesday, July 05, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer


In some parts of recuperating New Orleans, the FEMA trailer days are over.

Here, in the Lower 9th Ward, they have only just arrived.

Many homeowners across the region, having repaired their residences, want the government's contractors to come haul away the Cavalier brand trailers, which have become a symbol of New Orleans, almost as ubiquitous as a fleur-de-lis, in this post-Katrina landscape of a city on the mend.

But in the Lower 9th Ward, homeowners like Aloyd Edinburgh have barely christened their temporary trailers, which arrived only a few weeks ago in the worst-hit portion of the ruined neighborhood. He is among a small band of homeowners who received trailers in June.

"We had a long wait for the trailers, quite a while," Edinburgh, 75, said the other day as he took a break from working on his home in the 5400 block of North Derbigny Street, only blocks from where the Industrial Canal suffered a deadly breach during Hurricane Katrina.

"First it was the electricity," Edinburgh said. "Then they said the water was bad."

Edinburgh, a retired whiskey salesman and sometime cab driver, is one of the urban pioneers making his way back to the neighborhood where he was born and raised.

"Where would I go?" Edinburgh asked with a smile. "I'm a Southerner. I wouldn't want to go where it's snowing. I was 20 years old before I saw snow."

Except for the two years he spent in San Francisco after the draft board called his number in 1951, Edinburgh hasn't called any place other than New Orleans his home. After his Army stint, Edinburgh returned to the neighborhood, married and started a family.

From his front porch, he can see the house he grew up in on Andry Street. A widower for about six years, the father of six is a fortunate son of the Lower 9th. Edinburgh not only owns his house outright, as many of his neighbors did, but he had both homeowners and flood insurance.

Most important, he also had the energy to return. Trailer life and rebuilding are a family affair now. Edinburgh's five children who lived in New Orleans pre-Katrina are rebuilding their flooded-out homes in eastern New Orleans.

"Everybody lost their homes," he said of his children. "They just got trailers. All are rebuilding. They all have mortgages. What else are they going to do?"


Staying home

Edinburgh, who enjoys golf on the weekends and a pipe loaded with Captain Black tobacco, said he doesn't see himself moving away from his hometown. This is where his family is, where his friends are. Not to mention the home he built for his family 55 years ago near North Derbigny and Andry Streets.

Just as he rebuilt after 1965's Hurricane Betsy, which badly flooded his neighborhood, Edinburgh is redoing the five-bedroom house. Common Ground, the activist-driven nonprofit group that set up shop in the Lower 9th in December, gutted the muck-coated house for him.

Edinburgh said he doesn't see the point of complaining about the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers or City Hall, and also said he isn't worried about this hurricane season. The levee walls that line his side of the Industrial Canal are now taller and stronger, the corps promises.

"It looks like a little bit safer," Edinburgh said of the levees. "But who knows? We might not even have a storm."

"When I go golfing, a lot of them are angry and complaining," he said of his peers. "I go in the bar and have a drink, and they're there complaining. Everybody fussing about trailers. It don't worry me. When you raise six kids. . ." he trailed off.

He fingers two gold chains around his neck, gifts from his daughters, as an example. "I'm wearing two chains. One girl gave me one chain and another gave me this one. What I have to do is to wear them both. You have to be laid back."

The necklaces suit Edinburgh. One holds a tiny pendant shaped like a golf bag. The other is a pendant for his astrological sign, Taurus.

This Taurus isn't spending his days complaining about the levees, or the three-month wait it took to get his FEMA trailer, or the 10-month late start his neighborhood got on rebuilding.

"I got my insurance money and I've started to work," he said. "I don't have no control over what FEMA does."

He did enjoy telling a visitor that it took six contractors to install the trailer. One did the propane tanks, another the sewerage line. Another for electricity, and so on.


'I'll fix it again'


Edinburgh has hired some workers, but he spent most of last Thursday afternoon alone in his house replacing the flooring.

A stack of new vinyl siding rested in the front room. The rest of the spacious home has been gutted and cleaned, but still needs rewiring.

Edinburgh gazed out on his street and ticked off the neighbors that won't return. "This neighborhood is like an old-folks home," he said gently. "The lady over there, she was a retired teacher in her 80s. The lady on the corner, she's in Texas. She's in her 80s and had no insurance."

Others were renters and are long gone. Still others are waiting to see whether the state's housing recovery program will deliver enough cash to rebuild.

In the Lower 9th Ward, houses often were inherited and not purchased, Edinburgh said.

"They were passed on through family," he said.

Or, like his, they were built to raise children and then pass on to future generations.

Edinburgh said he will continue on, just like New Orleans, come high water or not.

"If it flooded again, miss, and I'm able, I'll fix it again."
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#411 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:57 am

DMV mobile unit to leave Chalmette after Thursday

7/05/06 UPDATE NOLA.com

The mobile unit from the Louisiana Department of Motor Vehicles that temporarily set up shop in St. Bernard Parish recently will be open only two more days, today and Thursday, a St. Bernard Parish news release says.

The unit, which opened at the St. Bernard Port in Chalmette last month, is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for driver’s license renewals, vehicle registrations and other matters.


A permanent site for a DMV office trailer hasn’t been announced.



St. Bernard Parish seeks owners of trailers on public property

St. Bernard Parish is requesting the owners of any and all trailers or mobile homes located on public property to contact the parish Department of Public Works at (504) 278-4317.

The department needs to confirm ownership of any trailers or mobile homes prior to removal by the parish’s debris contractor, a parish news release says.

The parish's website, http://www.sbpg.net, has a link that includes pictures of a number of trailers and mobile homes that currently are on public property in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's winds or floodwaters.
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#412 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:00 pm

Post-Katrina failures stain our history

Wednesday, July 05, 2006 Times Picayune/NOLA.com
Lolis Elie


What does the Fourth of July mean to us, the folks who have survived the worst disaster in U.S. history?

The first week of July traditionally has been a time for such reflection, a time when Americans take stock of our independence and our democracy. Usually without much discussion, let alone comparisons with other countries, we hastily conclude that this is the best country in which to live. Indeed, we grouse, this is the best country that God created for human habitation since the Eden experiment went awry.

I wouldn't necessarily quibble with that conclusion, but I would demand that we put the question of our national greatness to a more rigorous test. What does our experience in post-Katrina America tell us about the benefits of U.S. citizenship?


Waking up Congress

Individual Americans as well as civic and religious groups have been incredibly generous. They have sent truckloads of relief supplies and busloads of volunteers. But what of the people we pay to provide leadership and assistance?

Our Congress has been slow and niggardly in its response. Though Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath were disasters of national proportion, it has taken a tireless effort by the Women of the Storm to coax, cajole and drag members of Congress to even visit the scene of the devastation. There are 21 states, ranging from liberal California to conservative Utah, whose senators have not even come to see the destruction.

Our legitimate grievances are being evaluated, less on their merits and more on the relative strength of our congressional delegation. Our senior senator, Mary Landrieu, is only in her second term, and she is a member of the minority party. Our junior senator, David Vitter, is a Republican, but he hasn't been in Washington long enough to wield the substantial clout we need.

Is this the way democracy is supposed to work?

Damage to ties that bind

In an essay written for The New York Times less than a month after Katrina, Harvard University professor Michael Ignatieff analyzed the response to the disaster in terms of a government's duty to its citizens.

"A contract of citizenship defines the duties of care that public officials owe to the people of a democratic society," he wrote. "The most terrible price of Katrina -- everyone can see this -- was not the destruction of lives and property, terrible though this was. The worst of it was the damage done to the ties that bind Americans together."

All those old stories about the greatness of America's past accomplishments are cheapened when compared with the mediocrity of its current callousness. The history of America's shining moments means nothing, absolutely nothing, unless it informs and guides our behavior today.
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#413 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:03 pm

GCN Recovery News Report

GULF COAST NEWS UPDATE:

This report will constantly be updated as information becomes available
Updated 7/5/06 9:15 AM -- GCN.com


Jackson County officials are relieved that property tax loses from Katrina and destroyed homes is not severe. Thanks to new construction county officials say the losses were limited to just around 2 percent of the county's income. While normally there would be a substantial growth, county officials say they will not have to make sharp cuts in spending for county services. While Jackson County, is seeing recovery moving well, there are still high concerns regarding tax losses in Harrison and especially Hancock counties. Hancock County officials may borrow $15 million and refinance county debt to keep going as the county is rapidly running out of money.

Wages at the Coast's casinos are higher than before Hurricane Katrina. Wages for dealers and other workers at the Coast's five reopened casinos are up 30 to 40 percent. Jobs that paid $8 dollars before the storm are now paying $12 or more. Casino officials say the increase in wages and salaries is because there are more jobs to fill than people to fill them. The cost of living is also higher as many people rebuild or find housing to rent. The higher salaries and wages are an incentive for people to return to work on the Coast.

Questions regarding Gov. Haley Barbour's position on illegal immigrants in the state are clearer. In an article by Sid Salter published in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Salter writes on the lack of housing and laborers that are needed on the Coast. Salter quoted Barbour saying it "would be much worse if it were not for Hispanics. It's totally against Mississippi's interests if these workers were not here." The governor's statement seems to be at odds with the high level of unemployment on the Coast, which he blamed on people receiving hurricane unemployment relief money. Most of which has stopped. The governor's comments are also contrary to existing federal law.

Before Katrina, around 2,000 Hispanics lived on the Coast. Since the hurricane, it is estimated that as many as 40,000 immigrants, many illegal, may be living in the area, but nobody really knows. This 40,000 clearly are living in the remaining rental homes and apartments in the area, displacing residents that would be in those homes and apartments instead of trailers or out of town, and if they could afford them.

Since the hurricane, rents for apartments and the available rental homes have skyrocketed beyond the affordability of many Coast residents. But it is common for immigrant workers to be housed in large groups that could pay the higher rental rates. GCN observed an attempt by one contractor to put as many as 15 to 20 Hispanic workers in a home in a Biloxi single family residential area that he had rented. When residents complained to the rental home's owner, the owner was unaware that the renter had subleased the home and evicted the workers. But with property owners receiving rents at much higher rates, many owners are likely just looking the other way as zoning and housing regulations are ignored.

Immigrant labor, many illegal immigrants, are said by area business and political leaders to be needed to rebuild the Coast from Katrina's damages. Estimates of illegal immigrants in the state range to as many as 100,000 statewide, far higher than the amount reported in the 2000 census. The exact number is almost impossible to establish. The high number of immigrants does cost the state. State Auditor Phil Bryant estimated earlier this year that taxpayers are footing the bill for illegal immigrants in the state to the tune of $25 million.
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#414 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:07 pm

Image
Joe Lazzaro, Kathy Krane, Lance Harrington, and Judith Bourne-Harrington, all of Gulfport, celebrate Independence Day on the Harrington's U.S. 90 slab with new friends Randy Widrick of Colton, N.Y. and Ronni Sampson of Boise, Id.

Fun by the sea on 4th enlivens residents' slab

By EMILY RANAGER 7/5/06
SUN HERALD


EMILY RANAGER/SUN HERALD
Joe Lazzaro, Kathy Krane, Lance Harrington, and Judith Bourne-Harrington, all of Gulfport, celebrate Independence Day on the Harrington's U.S. 90 slab with new friends Randy Widrick of Colton, N.Y. and Ronni Sampson of Boise, Id.
Photo slideshow
Audio: Jones Park celebration
Pascagoula celebrates
BILOXI - Hurricane Katrina couldn't stop some South Mississippians from celebrating at their home - even if it was just a slab.

Lance Harrington and his wife, Judith Bourne-Harrington, refused to let Independence Day go by without fanfare. The couple pitched a canopy on the slab of their million-plus-dollar U.S. 90 home, bought beer, burgers and bottle rockets, and invited friends over for a Fourth of July bash overlooking the Gulf.

"We decided to have an 'open house,'

" said Bourne-Harrington, a North Carolina native who fell in love with South Mississippi while on a vacation 12 years ago. "This is a beautiful place to be, and we really wanted to be out here."

Party guests donned red, white and blue outfits, hats and Mardi Gras beads and even decked out their cars in Old Glory.

"It's one thing to celebrate in a FEMA trailer, but it's a whole different thing to be by the water," said Joe Lazzaro of Gulfport. "After a big disaster, it's good that people still remember to have fun."

Ronni Sampson of Boise, Idaho, stumbled upon the festivities while taking photographs of folks celebrating their first Independence Day since Hurricane Katrina. "There are some people playing volleyball on the beach, but it really seems like they're one of the few out today," she said.

The party may be the slab's last. The Harringtons plan to sell the beachfront property and have bought a home in Gulfport, but they promise the celebrations won't stop.

To see more pictures from area July 4th activities, go to http://www.sunherald.com
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#415 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:09 pm

Coast Guard cleaning up waterways

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BILOXI - The U.S. Coast Guard is working to clear Mississippi's waterways near the Gulf Coast and inland after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region.

FEMA has given the Coast Guard two major assignments.

First, it has a $230 million project to remove debris from waterways extending south from Interstate 10 to one-half of a mile into the Gulf of Mexico. Then, it has a $1 million assignment to remove debris from waterways north of the interstate.

FEMA says Katrina's winds and storm surge swept debris in the water when it hit last Aug. 29. Now, the Coast Guard has the task of removing and disposing of an estimated 1.15 million cubic yards of waste, including automobiles, large appliances, railroad cars and houses.

FEMA says nearly 98 percent of the state's land-based debris has been removed.
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#416 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:11 pm

Thousands turn out to enjoy fireworks shows

Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - Mobile Press Register/AL.com
By PENELOPE McCLENNY
Staff Reporter


Fireworks soared toward the sky, music flooded the air and proud parents prepared to say goodbye as southwest Alabama celebrated America's 230th birthday Tuesday.

About 36,000 people packed into Battleship Memorial Park for an event sponsored by the Press-Register and the city of Mobile, police estimated, with another 14,000 parked along the Causeway. Just before the firework's 9 p.m. start, police had to turn away cars because the park was full, spokesman John McLain said.

No arrests were made during the event, McLain said. A fire erupted as cars left the park, but caused no major problems, he said.

"There was a minor fire by the ditch next to the road. It was basically in a swampy area and burned itself out after about 20 minutes," he said.

Traffic ran smoothly before and after the event, McLain said.

While celebrations staged on both sides of Mobile Bay centered on family fun, several also took time to recognize military service.

A group of Korean War veterans formed the color guard at the beginning of festivities at Battleship Memorial Park, and several local groups honored the spouses and children of service members on overseas duty.

For two Mobile-area men attending festivities at the battleship, the holiday marked the last few hours they will spend with family for a while.

"It's the day our country was born, so it's a pretty good day," John Edwards said of being one of five men getting sworn into the U.S. Army during Tuesday's events. Edwards, 18, was scheduled to board a bus today to head to basic training in Fort Benning, Ga.

Sitting quietly in a fold-out chair behind Edwards on the battleship lawn, his stepfather, Randall Evans, said watching his son take the oath of military service brought new meaning to the Independence Day holiday.

"Democracy comes with a price, and if my son wouldn't do it, they wouldn't have the freedom they have," Evans said. "I feel safe with him protecting my country."

Nearby, Joshua Ashcraft prepared to enjoy his "last July Fourth as a civilian," a friend jokingly labeled it. After being sworn into the Army along with Edwards, he also had planned to catch a bus this morning bound for basic training in South Carolina.

"We have these freedoms because of our soldiers, and I feel we need to keep these traditions alive, keep them going," said Ashcraft, who admitted he was a little anxious during the celebrations.

"I'll probably sleep (Tuesday night), but I can't eat," he said.

Mobile and Baldwin County experienced high temperatures and high humidity for the Fourth of July, according to the National Weather Service Office at Mobile Regional Airport. There was a slight trace of rain at the airport in Mobile but nothing measurable, said Gene Jacobi of the NWS.

"There were some showers over in Baldwin County but by the time anything happened fireworks or concert wise it was all gone," he said. Tuesday's high temperate was 92, which was recorded at 2 p.m. When the fireworks finished Tuesday night, it was about 79 degrees with 76 percent humidity, Jacobi said.

In Baldwin County, thousands of people hit the beaches throughout the day, while even more were scattered as far north as Bay Minette through the evening to attend picnics and watch fireworks displays.

The American Legion Post 199 held an Independence Day Bar-B-Q and Concert in Fairhope, while the Lillian Community Club hosted its 63rd annual July Fourth Picnic and Celebration, and participants rolled through a parade in Magnolia Springs.

Though storms threatened the area early in the day, the weather remained dry in the evening, and fireworks shows in Daphne, Fairhope, Gulf Shores, Robertsdale and Bay Minette went off without any major problems, officials in those towns reported.

Hours before Tuesday's fireworks show at the Battleship, the park bustled with activity. Mike and Camille Deavers of Vance brought their family, including several who had never seen the U.S.S. Alabama, to the park for a tour followed by fireworks.

"We heard about it on the news and decided to make a day of it," said Mike Deavers as the Murphy High School band set up on the stage in front of them.

About an hour before the ship closed, dozens of people still strolled on its deck and around the aircraft and artillery displays at the park. While the lawn remained mostly empty at about 5 p.m., a steady stream of cars began at about 5:30.

Joe Piggott of the Alabama State Troopers said traffic flowed smoothly for the most part. A few cars that had stopped in the no-parking zone along the shoulder between the eastbound exits of the tunnels eastward to the Raphael Semmes Bridge were told to move.

Near the southwestern section of the park, Pat White of Pyrotecnico, the New Castle, Pa.-based company that provided the fireworks, worked hurriedly with several others around large boxes.

Inside the boxes sat fireworks ranging from 3 to 7 inches in diameter, White said, set up in three different stations. Wires connected the stations to a panel, where White orchestrated the show.

Outside of the park, residents lined up anywhere they could to watch Tuesday's show. Nearly two hours before the show began, cars lined the shoulders of the Causeway, where parking was allowed, and some people sat atop the entrance to the Bankhead Tunnel.

"I think it's good to see American people come together and celebrate the great nation we have," said U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, who attended the event to help honor families of those serving in the military. "The founders envisioned a great nation here from sea to shining sea, and now it's a reality."
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#417 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Thu Jul 06, 2006 11:02 am

Jackson Barracks will be restored

Image
A $200 million resotration for Jackson Barracks will bring the La. National Guard back home.

PROJECT TO BRING GUARD HOME, HELP REVITALIZE AREA

Thursday, July 06, 2006 - TP/NOLA.com
By Greg Thomas
Real estate writer


Gov. Kathleen Blanco will announce today a $200 million restoration of Jackson Barracks, a project that will spur redevelopment in the Lower 9th Ward and Arabi and will allow the Louisiana National Guard to return its state headquarters to the complex.


LRA Executive Director Andy Kopplin said he believes the project could become an anchor for redeveloping the area.

At the same time, the huge repair project, which will include new building materials and will be done in accordance with FEMA elevation guidelines, will demonstrate to property owners how to repair shattered homes and build new ones according to new hurricane codes, Blanco said. The first floors of the salvageable buildings at the base will be built of materials that both protect the architectural integrity of the homes and repel water.

"I hope this solid construction project will show the community that if we rethink how to rebuild, we can live in our world and do it effectively," Blanco said. "There's still a certain amount of skepticism in Congress if anything should be rebuilt in our region. We have to demonstrate how effective, smarter and safer" the area can be.

The 100-acre historic base, which straddles the Orleans-St. Bernard parish line and includes the largest grouping of antebellum homes in the United States, took on between four and eight feet of water after Hurricane Katrina. The flooding forced the Louisiana National Guard to temporarily move its state headquarters to Camp Beauregard, near Pineville.

In addition to restoring the barracks, Blanco wants to integrate community services on the compound. Those could include fire and police stations, a health center, a Veterans Administration outreach program and other services that could draw people back to what is one of the most heavily damaged areas in the city.

Kopplin pointed out that if enough residents return, a charter school similar to that at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse could be in the works.

Blanco will invest $3.7 million in Community Development Block Grant money in the repair of state structures at the base. FEMA, through a matching program with the state, will contribute $37 million. The Department of Defense will pick up the remaining $163 million.

The Jackson Barracks restoration includes the building of a $43 million home for the 141st Field Artillery Readiness Center, long known as the Washington Artillery, which can trace its history through the Civil War to the current battle in Iraq, Lt. Col. Doug Mouton said. Mouton has been the middleman in putting the project together.

Another major part of the Jackson Barracks reconstruction involves the replacement of the Joint Forces Headquarters at a cost of $39.1 million.

The project also calls for spending as much as $14 million restoring the base's antebellum homes, $20 million for infrastructure improvements and $25.4 million to build a new 61st Troop Command Multi-Readiness Center.

About $10 million will be spent on new gate houses and security measures.

The project involves top local architects including John C. Williams Architects, John T. Campo & Associates Inc., Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects, and W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co.

All of the projects are already financed or are part of a state request for proposals.

Brig. Gen. Hunt Downer, a legislative aide to Blanco, said the governor lobbied hard to secure the Department of Defense money and was able to get it expedited. Further, the Defense Department is allowing it to be a design-build project, meaning that once the infrastructure or other items are designed, construction begins even as architects and planners are designing the next step. The design-build process cuts 30 percent to 40 percent off of building time, Mouton said.

In addition to the money to restore Jackson Barracks, Louisiana will get $250 million more from the Department of Defense to strengthen and repair all National Guard facilities in the state damaged by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The money will be used to repair an air facility for National Guard helicopters in Hammond and facilities in Alexandria and elsewhere.

While parts of the base date to the 18th century, most of it, including the antebellum homes, was built in the 1830s. The modern barracks were built the 1960s and 1970s. Those will be demolished and rebuilt.

While basic designs for Jackson Barracks are done, local real estate consultant Wade Ragas said the plan fits precisely what planners, architects and the LRA have been seeking: a project that is melded with the community, repairs infrastructure and attracts pre-Katrina homeowners and new households to the area.

Ragas said the project creates jobs, demonstrates what a large project will cost when it's constructed to meet flood elevation and wind load requirements, and provides community services.

The plan for Jackson Barracks will be announced at a press conference this morning.
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#418 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Thu Jul 06, 2006 11:16 am

Map of Jackson Barracks:

Image

This map shows how the Jackson Barracks literally straddle the parish line between Orleans and St. Bernard Parish. I used to live in the area just below St. Claude Ave., and about three blocks from these very barracks. The bottom section (widest and closest to the river) is where the old "Parade field" (don't even know if it's still there) used to be, and yes it's in this area that so many of those old antebellum homes are located. One of my dear friends from St. Maurice, Reggie Booth's father was a colonel living in one of these homes, as was Shelby Pecquet. I had played many baseball games on that parade field, once took great pride in that during a baseball game, one of my friends, Tommy LaMarque, (yup of the Lamarque Brothers Auto magnates today), had a huge wooden Louisville Slugger and I hit one, literally out of the barracks that day. We played football here, drove our bikes in the drainage ditches that actually tunneled around under the streets, and often went along the river through the tall grass of the batture, where we could find a huge ship's anchor laying on the ground. Then there was that 80 mm howitzer sitting out in front of the Adjutant General's home/office---those were truly fun days. The Motor pool, was closer to the St. Claude line, and north of St. Claude were all the more recent buildings and barracks for the soldiers. As kids we'd go there regularly to watch the soldiers drill, to talk to them, and I'll never forget the day Ed Hargett (then a QB for the New Orleans Saints) showed up and threw a few passes with us. It was truly a child's wonderland, and I'm very glad they're saving this place... it goes back in history to a time when our nation was very young, and has appealed to the young-at-heart ever since. Long-live Jackson Barracks!

A2K
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#419 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:31 pm

Eddie Jordan ordered to pay $3.58 million for firing white workers

By Gwen Filosa TP/NOLA.com 7/6/06
Staff writer


Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan’s administration must pay $3.58 million in total awards and fees for violating the civil rights of workers he fired after taking office by using skin color as a factor in hiring, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval signed the final judgment on June 29 in the civil rights case, named for Judith DeCorte, who along with dozens of her co-workers were fired to make room for Jordan’s choices in January 2003.

A jury last year found that Jordan illegally used race as a motivating factor in setting up his support staff. Duval ordered Jordan’s office to compensate the 43 plaintiffs with $2.8 million to cover lost wages, benefits and emotional damages.

Duval added $706,740 in attorneys’ fees to Jordan’s bill, plus an additional $64,894 to cover what the plaintiffs paid their expert witnesses.

The plaintiffs’ lead attorney, Clement Donelon, was awarded nearly $350,000 in fees for his work on the case. Attorney Vaughn Cimini was awarded $145,530, while attorney Lisa Brener will receive $133,730. The $706,740 also includes fees to law clerks and paralegals.

Jordan, who swept into the district attorney’s office in 2003 as the city’s first black top prosecutor, succeeding the 29-year incumbent Harry Connick who had retired, has always denied that race played any role in his administration. He argued at trial that he chose a new staff based on recommendations by an aide for U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, who is Jordan’s political mentor and ally.

But at trial, the statistics alone helped persuade the federal jury to find Jordan liable for firing 43 white workers and replacing them all with blacks.

DeCorte, a legal assistant at the district attorney’s office for 14 years, filed suit against Jordan in May 2003. She was awarded $72,147, including $26,000 in back pay and $9,000 for emotional damages.

Jordan has appealed the verdict to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Donelon and his legal team have already conceded in court documents that, considering the “financial condition” of Jordan’s office, it’s unlikely anyone will be paid soon.
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Audrey2Katrina
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#420 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:32 pm

Registration for state-run N.O. public schools starts Monday

NOLA.com 7/6/06

Registration for schools in the Recovery School District (RSD) of New Orleans will begin on Monday, July 10, 2006. Parents wishing to register their children in RSD schools for the 2006-2007 school year will have three ways to do so: in person at one of three registration centers, online or by telephone.

Registration centers will open July 10th at the following sites:
Benjamin Banneker Elementary, 421 Burdette St.
Henderson Elementary, 1912 L.B. Landry Ave.
Joseph S. Clark Senior High School , 1301 N. Derbigny St .

On the first day of registration, operating hours will be 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Otherwise, registration centers will be open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The centers will be open until 7 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Enrollment in RSD schools is on a FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED basis. Parents will have the opportunity to enroll their children in the Recovery School District of their choice, as long as space is available.

Parents should bring proof of address (such as a telephone or utility bill), their child’s Social Security card, birth certificate, immunization record and Individualized Education Program, if applicable. Staff will be on hand to help parents to complete Social Security replacement forms, replacement birth certificate forms, free and reduced lunch forms and Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid forms.

Parents may also register online at http://www.nolapublicschools.net or by calling the RSD’s toll-free hotline at 1-877-453-2721. However, to complete the enrollment, parents must visit one of the three registration centers in New Orleans before 5 p.m. on August 12 to provide the required signatures and supporting documents.

The first day for students at RSD schools is Sept. 7. All RSD schools will be open-access to students across the city, and none will have admissions criteria. The RSD will provide transportation for all students living more than one mile from their campus.

Jointly, the Recovery School District (RSD) and the Orleans Parish School Board plan to open 56 schools in August and September to accommodate 34,000 students. School locations are based upon demographic projections on New Orleans’ returning population and the ability to repair buildings during the summer. Work is continuing on 9 additional school sites that could be available later this fall.

Information about all available public schools that will be operating in New Orleans in 2006-2007, including charter schools, is available at http://www.nolapublicschools.net or by calling 1-877-453-2721.
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