WAITING FOR NORMAL Betcha Didn't Know

Betcha didn't know that in 1987 the Army Corp Of Engineers contracted with a private company to survey the levee system in south Louisiana for its ability to with stand storm surges and the raging flood waters that always come with hurricanes.  The results of the survey were that the levee  system was crap, levees would NOT be able to withstand these dangerous waters.  They would leak, sprout holes, crumble, disintegrate.   How do I know this?  My brother was one of the surveyors.

Betcha didn't know that it was the failure of the levee system after the hurricane that caused the deadly and destructive flooding in the Greater New Orleans area.  Let us not deny Katrina her due. She was a mighty wind and she blew a 25 foot storm surge miles inland along the coast. But after the wind was gone, so were the storm surge waters.  Then the waters that the levees were supposed to hold back came snaking through the streets like some evil sea serpent.  I know ´cause of the first hand accounts from many of my friends and clients.

Betcha didn't know that as Hurricane Katrina roared in that Sunday in August, people were still trying to evacuate, using the twin spans over Lake Pontchatrain to get out of New Orleans. Many tried but never made it across this high rise to the other side and safety.  Why not?  'Cause those spans began to twist and turn and slip and slide and, either tilt enough so the evacuees' vehicles just slipped into Lake Pontchartrain, or the entire span just fell down, down, down into those murky waters. I know ´cause a first responder, a guy who saw those cars and those people, told me

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Betcha didn't know  that hospitals are routinely built with the a/c system, the water pumps, the generators, the pharmacy, the cafeteria, and other vital materials and equipment in the basement. MEN!  Now, no matter if the water came from the storm surge or the levee failure, it went into the basement first.  And there went the ¨vital organs¨ of the hospital.  Medical staff and patients left behind soon had little or nothing to eat or drink, no medications, no medical equipment.  Of course, there was also no running water, no flushing commodes, no electricity...you know... nothing.  Lots of people died in those nursing homes and hospitals. I know because doctors and nurses who were there told me so.

Betcha didn´t know that concrete floats.  Yep.  Althea floated for several miles, to my friend´s front yard. Let´s call my friend Linda.  Althea lay there, day after day, week after week, month after month.  Over a year Althea laid near my friend´s front door, encased in a twelve foot long by four foot wide by three foot high concrete sarcophagus.  Linda did not know from where Althea had floated, but she´d reports from other folks in Slidell that various large, concrete tombs were scattered around... lotsa homeless dead people.  Initially, Linda was discombobulated by Althea´s presence.  But soon she thought of a solution to this invasion of her privacy.  ¨Well,¨Linda told me, "Ëvery morning, when I go to work, I pass by and touch the tomb and say, ´Good Morning, Althea, have a nice day´... And when I come home, I walk near enough for her to hear me say, ´Hope you had a nice day, Althea.´¨

Have a good day, Althea.