Today is the three year anniversary of Katrina. I went to New Orleans this morning to film the events taking place in the Lower Ninth Ward. My friend Mr. Robert Green led a procession through the neighborhood and buried a casket in remembrance of those who died in the storm. It was a small gathering with more reporters than anything. I don't like the reporters. They were rude and complained and I felt like one of them carrying my camera.
The Lower Ninth Ward is very, very slow to come back. The grass is high and the only encouraging thing is the five houses that Brad Pit is building. I am so impressed with the work he has done there. It is breathing new light into the neighborhood and giving people hope of returning to the community they once had. The houses are cool too. They look like shotgun houses, but modern and like, twelve feet off the
ground. They have solar panels one the roofs and just really interesting architecture. Thanks Brad!
The tension here is thick. People are leaving town before they are being told. Gustav has just been projected to be a class 4 and heading right for us. It''s bringing all the Katrina stress and anxiety right back to everyone. I can't believe that we are having to live through this again. I do not want to be here. I want to be safe in California far from the winds and rain. My mother is feeding her friends dogs down the street while he is out of town, and we can't abandon the dogs. My flight back to Cali is on Tuesday and Gustav will be making landfall about the time I should be boarding my flight, out of New Orleans. I am scared of tornadoes. I feel stuck, but I am glad that I am here with my mother. She would be alone if I had not come to town. I must have some crazy karma with this place.
We got sand bags today for the back side of the
house and tomorrow we will be cleaning the yard and cutting the ditches. We have to clean the refrigerator for when the electricity goes out, get ice and then wait. Gas is running out at the stations across the region, but the news assured us that they will have gasoline for evacuation. Tomorrow, the Contra flow begins northward and there is not a hotel room available until Tennessee.
It's getting closer and stronger and I just hope it goes way west of New Orleans. We don't need another hit. I am due north of the city, about an hour away. Straight across the Causeway, what we call the Northshore. As of now, it's looking like we will get the eastern side of the storm with winds coming from the south and this is not good news. Katrina hit us on the weak side of the system with the winds blowing around from the north. This one will be different. We can only wait and see.
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Estee's Blog
