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• Friday, February 24, 2006 08:30 AM

  thanks for the article

  As a native New Orleanian, thank you for continuing to report on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's not over, not by a long shot.

  I am encountering a lot of compassion fatigue where people's attitudes seem to have gone from “you poor thing” to "you got what they deserved - living there." I don’t hear anybody bitching about how the Netherlands are below sea level. California has earthquakes, mudslides, wild fires, and the possibility of Tsunamis, yet, no one has called for everyone to vacate that area. I’m sure if some disaster struck, people would claim they knew it was coming all along. Hindsight is 20/20. Have some compassion, people.

  I completely agree with the idea that the city needs to get smaller, and tough decisions need to be made. But the TIME it is taking to make these decisions is completely unacceptable. My house was flooded with 7’ of water. My husband’s job moved, so it is unlikely we could or would return. But SIX months after the storm and we still don’t know what to do with our former house. Should we pay to gut it? Should we tear it down? Can we feasibly sell it? That poor thing still has all our things that we wouldn’t salvage (which is almost everything) sitting in there molding away, the fridge laying on its side, never yet (hopefully never ever) opened to the rotting former food within. We can’t make well-informed decisions until they decide which neighborhoods get the axe and until the FEMA flood maps are done. For someone who is decisive and likes to move forward - this waiting is unbearable.

  And frankly, yes, the city is sentimental. That’s what made the city special, not the French Quarter bars that tourists puked in. People are fiercely loyal to their neighborhoods. We knew our neighbors and probably their parents, too. The people seemed as permanent and as rooted as the homes. We could walk to locally owned businesses in our pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. And losing that is why I am so sad I had to move to America.

  —dee lb Read dee lb's other letters
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