Bayou Bailouts
When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized spending for volcano monitoring, those of you outside of the Pacific Northwest might have nodded in agreement. In this economic climate, it’s easy to forget the cost of natural disasters. How would Jindal like it if someone took away hurricane monitoring?
I just spent a long weekend in and around New Orleans, my second time there since Katrina, and probably my 35th to 40th visit in my life. My mom’s from NOLA and her whole side of the family still has deep roots there. If there’s another storm, should they be expected to leave forever? To never rebuild?
Those are tough questions. Seattle is close enough to Mt. Ranier that the USGS has produced a four-page document entitled Mount Rainier—Living Safely With a Volcano in Your Backyard (click for .pdf) And on a (rare) clear day, I can see the active Mt. St. Helens from here within Portland city limits.
On Friday, we were to attend my cousin’s wedding, but my wife and I rushed down to Barataria Preserve in Jean Lafitte National Park — one of our favorite places in southern Louisiana. It flooded since the last time we were there — due to Hurricane Ike. I was told that many of the wild irises and other plants died from salt water/storm surge, but I have to say, the area looks pretty good to me.
I saw no fewer than five snakes, a turtle, some frogs, and a few birds in less than an hour. I do recall hundreds of armadillos last time, and I didn’t see any, but I think they weren’t a native species anyway. Perhaps the hurricane did them in, but it’s more likely that they were eradicated in some formal program.
If you’ve never been in a bayou, watch this video. It’s fun to listen to a few seconds of the sound from the airboat, but then you might want to mute the sound and just watch.
Pretend you live there, that your livelihood comes from that water, and that you either can’t afford or aren’t allowed to rebuild. Pretend your family moved there hundreds of years ago and that they still speak a form of French today. Where will you go?
As a Louisiana girl, I still stand in amazement that people argue that we shouldn’t have rebuilt. I watch the annual wild fires, mud slides and earthquakes in California, the floods all along the Mississippi Delta each year, tornadoes in Midwest and plains states, hurricanes strike all along the Atlantic seaboard, yet, Katrina strikes and people say that NOLA and Louisiana are a lost cause. Pack up, move out and just forget about it.
No one tells the people in California to move out or any of these other folks for that matter. The problem with Katrina was a lack of preparation on the part of the people and a failure of government to make wise decisions in a crisis. My family survived Katrina. We watched as the storm destroyed our property. We worked with other neighbors to dig out of our neighborhood before the government vehicles showed up. We were prepared with 72 hours of food and water. When the electricity was still out after 3 days and not knowing how much longer we would be without power, my husband and a neighbor packed up the car and drove until he was able to find more supplies. His company asked us to move to Dallas on Friday.
Louisiana is vital to the USA. We produce seafood, oil, rice, sugar as well as other vital products for the American consumer. Our estuaries provide a home to thousands of species of wildlife. They serve as nurseries for baby animals. Furthermore, those of us in Louisiana are fighting to protect that marshland for the future.
Americans need to respect people’s decisions to live where they are. We all have our trials and tribulations to bear when it comes to Mother Nature.