The BP oil spill last year was a huge reminder of the perilous problems oil has been causing in the Gulf Coast and elsewhere.  The fact that even this catastrophe is only part of the ongoing problem is graphically brought home in the maps and data offered by the National Response Center Incident Reports for Louisiana in 2009 available at http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/04/chronic-exposure.html.

So what does an individual do?  Well, one step my husband and I have been striving to take is to reduce our gas consumption in cars.  Unfortunately, we’re finding that even that meager step is not easy as residents of the greater New Orleans area.  Our shopping revealed that the available choices offered us either gas efficiency or space and clearance:

Space–there was an appealing car that would decrease our consumption by 37% and its interior was relatively spacious considering the gas-efficient cars.  Unfortunately, the trunk is rather small in order to accommodate the hybrid’s battery and cooling system.  Why the emphasis on space?  Have you evacuated since Hurricane Katrina?  Since that event we even think about space in the car when we consider adopting a pet—would we have room to take it and its food, et. al.?

Trapped in a Neighborhood Flood

Clearance–we also noticed that the fuel-efficient cars are all low to the ground.  If you read my blog  An Ironic Confirmation of Water Vulnerability  you know this photo of our Subaru and the water surrounding it was taken after an everyday storm in New Orleans.

For so many reasons, I remain a strong advocate against expanded oil drilling.  I also know that this car shopping reflects only a minute example of the complexity of our nation’s dependency on oil.

We figured we had enough time to catch the matinee of Harry Shearer’s documentary, The Big Uneasy, which we had heard was nothing like other New Orleans documentaries and was well worth seeing. We drove to the last one-screen movie theater in the New Orleans area, located Uptown amidst nice homes.

While the film methodically, convincingly, and comprehensively presented the facts of poor engineering that resulted in the devastation related to Hurricane Katrina, we became aware of loud, persistent, thunder outside the theater. It seemed to punctuate the stark message that the new pumps for taking water out of the city during hurricanes do not work.

About three-quarters of the way through the film, as we absorbed the film’s warning, we got another from a theater employee: “It’s raining pretty heavily outside and flooding. You might want to check on your cars.”

In fact, when we and other members of the audience went outside, the water was already too high to act. Opening the doors of our cars would simply let more water in them. Moreover, there was little possibility of successfully moving a car were we willing to wade out and have the extraordinary luck of starting it.

A few people, who either lived nearby or had cars parked on higher ground, waded out. As the rest of us waited for the rain to stop, the pumps to catch up, and the water to subside, we learned that this is a regular occurrence in this neighborhood. So accustomed to the flooding, the residents on the block where we had parked had enacted their system of erecting barriers at each end so no cars could travel in the waters already threatening their homes. They took out signs they made to stop the truck or SUV that sometimes entered adjacent streets, whose wake exacerbated the flooding. One resident later explained that he had installed a water-tight gate to protect his property because this occurs so often.

After waiting about an hour, my husband and I waded four blocks to reach a restaurant and have dinner. Upon our return the water had receded from the streets, but not from our car. Our passenger seats were saturated as was our engine, apparently, for it didn’t start. Tow trucks did a booming business in that neighborhood that evening.

In Why People Live in New Orleans, though I spoke about the need for good drainage in our city and showed some of how it works, I didn’t go into the fact that some streets in many neighborhoods of the greater New Orleans area flood whenever we get a torrential rain. Since we are a sub-tropical climate, such downpours occur often — without hurricanes – and quickly overcome the pumping capacity of these susceptible areas.

Solutions can be handled by individuals to a point, as the Uptown residents were attempting to do. Our house is another example. We live on a ridge. (Everything is relative and this is by no means as high a piece of ground as might come to your mind when you read the word “ridge.”) However, my parents built our house on a slab in 1956 when the street was only paved with sea shells, and we were one of four houses on the street. Each time someone built another house they had to build to newer codes, which were always at higher elevations. The street also got higher when it was paved. Consequently, we were one of the low spots. Each time it rained, and especially during those gushers, we were in and out of the rain clearing the drains and working to keep the water away from our house foundation and entryways.

When my husband and I began updating the house in 2004, our priority was to re-grade the property and have such features as retaining walls to help neighbors’ water run to the street instead of our property, and more drains.  However, there are still downpours that outpace the pump capacity, and we will always have to monitor the drains and the water level. We also attend meetings of our neighborhood association to work on the wider neighborhood and greater New Orleans area issues. We are grateful to people like the scientists, the Army Corps of Engineer whistleblower, lawyers, and concerned active citizens who work at a national level to resolve issues in spite of losing their jobs and being ridiculed by their colleagues when they find they must fight agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers.

If our car cannot be repaired, it will be the third that my husband and I have lost due to weather related causes. The first was washed down the river in the Big Thompson Flood in Colorado. Wind from Hurricane Rita fell on the second when it was parked in southwestern Louisiana at our Hurricane Katrina evacuation destination.

Natural disasters occur everywhere as seen in the storms, mud slides, earthquakes, and fires just this year. I highly recommend your viewing The Big Uneasy to help ensure that man-made disasters don’t continue to compound the natural ones. Here’s some of what a respected local radio host, Garland Robinette, had to say about The Big Uneasy:

I didn’t want to go. I’ve talked Katrina to death the last four days. I’ve seen most documentaries, read many books, and listened to experts from all over the world on this show for 5 years. Katrina, Katrina, Katrina….enough! . . . went only because Harry is one of the few world-wide backers of New Orleans and a friend. I felt an obligation to see his art.

One man’s opinion: No other book, movie, documentary or news reports even come close to the importance of Harry’s work, ”The Big UnEasy.”

The rest of Garland Robbinette’s August 31, 2010 response to what he learned is contained in an article he called “The Big UNEasy – Consider Yourself Warned” at http://www.wwl.com/pages/8041702.php.

At Boat Launch

After Hurricane Katrina and before a new marina was built, Lake Pontchartrain shrimpers moored their boats at a nearby boat launch. I loved to visit in the evenings to see the pelicans hanging out and waiting to be fed leftover fish.

I took many pictures of them there and in other locations, like the one at West End on pilings. The pilings are all that’s left of seafood restaurants that used to be out over the lake until they were washed and blown away in 2005.

Remains of Restaurants

As big as the whole is inside me when I view the remains of the places where so many memories were made and good food enjoyed, I now have another perspective. At least the lake and the pelicans remained after that last disaster. I wonder about what will be left of the one going on now in the Gulf.

Shortly before the April 20, 2010 oil rig explosion we had had a series of articles that now seem ironic. We were being encouraged to return to swimming and enjoying the lake, because, with the help of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and residents’ efforts, the lake had been cleaned and was deemed a healthy environment. About the same time, we were pleased at the announcement that Pelicans had been removed from the endangered species. Now we see the images of pelicans and other animals dying in oily muck, and we worry about that same black muck destroying the Gulf, being at the Mississippi river’s mouth, and inching toward Lake Borne which goes into Lake Pontchartrain.

Hope for the Future

It’s easy for me to become mired myself in the oil catastrophe – hours reading, discussing, and worrying about what’s happening. Fortunately, I have excellent friends, mentors, and family who help me move forward in positive ways. One of these is my daughter who, believe it or not, is named Katrina. Yesterday she sent me written and video versions of a meditation for the Gulf that was, of course, just what I needed at the moment. The last picture on this blog is one I took before this spring, when the water and the pelicans appeared quite healthy. It and the meditation help me focus on the possibility of the Gulf returning to some form of health in the future. You are welcome to check out the meditation yourself at Healing Meditation for the Gulf.

 ”we owe the people of Louisiana and of the Gulf Coast both an ecological and economic debt.”

Wondering about  the term “ecological debt?” Do you consider the Gulf Coast an “industrial sacrifice zone” or a “resource-rich hinterland?” Dr. Haney clearly explains these with a sound summary of relevant environmental and economic events since oil arrived in the Gulf Coast region, including the hurricanes Katrina and Rita periods and the current realities and implications of this 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  He also makes specific suggestions as to how to repay the debt, including the responsibility of the average citizen/consumer.

I think you’ll find it well worth reading whether you agree or disagree with him.  You can access the article at:  http://www.truthout.org/the-2010-oil-spill-and-our-ecological-debt-louisiana59386

Like five years ago we realize the domino effect of the devastation.  Not only were people killed in or displaced from their homes in the flooding, but those houses once needed postmen to deliver mail, grocery stores to provide food, doctors, schools, and so on, all of whom were affected by the loss of each area.  Similarly, not only did eleven men die, countless fishermen and people working the Gulf lose their jobs, and damage or destruction of wetlands and animal life begin, but people across the nation who drink coffee, eat shrimp, like fruit, plan to buy a new set of tires, or export grain, and those who supply these items, could also feel the effects of this oil incident.

Some things have changed in five years.  There have been a lot more more disasters worldwide and people have become much more proactive, much more connected, and have heightened their expectations.  Volunteers line up to help with booms, debris, and wildlife.  Fishermen, who are prevented from doing what generations of their familes have done, quickly sign up to help because they desparately want the solution and so that they may have some income.  Networks of interested groups communicate with their constituents to mobilize needed support, pressure, and action for a quick response at all levels.

We’ve also learned to stay informed, and to distinguish facts from the damaging misconceptions and generalizations surrounding the event, so we don’t compound the effects of the catasrophe.