The News from Hell's Gate

In lieu of salutation, I heard the following when I answered the phone this morning: " Well, it's a screwed up mess down here, boy. That's for sure."

It was my friend in the Guard. He was calling from New Orleans.

The following is the gist of what he described to me in a 30-40 minute conversation.

They finally got the last of the folks out of the Convention Center. He said that he cannot imagine how some of those folks survived, especially the elderly ones confined to wheelchairs. One man confined to a wheelchair weighed around 500 lbs. The Red Cross commandeered a U-Haul that could lower to the ground. They had to roll him onto the lift and then raise him up. Once inside, about 6 guys got him back up in the chair.

He described the carnage inside the supporting as, well, indescribable. As he said, "You would not recognize the place where you and your buddies used to watch all the ball games." He said that once they get the power and water back up they will have to send in guys with pointy-tipped shovels to scrape and haul stuff out. They turf will have to be pulled up.

The reports of human waste being everywhere is true. There are corpses to be found over by the Superdome. He thinks they need to start gathering the bodies soon as it is a public health issue. The stench, even outdoors, is overpowering in places.

He said that the French Quarter is in pretty good shape. He saw only a couple of collapsed buildings during his patrols. Most everything is structurally intact. The damage caused by the looters seems to be pretty much confined to the point of entry and to the cash registers. They were only interested in stealing stuff and not in wanton destruction. There are abandoned vehicles all in the Quarter. He has been using them to charge his cell phone. The ones that still have batteries in them that is.

He believes that the most critical need is the restoration of power. Once the power is restored, they can put up banks of lights and start hauling debris around the clock. And when the water pressure comes back up, and the sewers are back online, they can commence hosing down the streets and sidewalks to transport the waste. Also, once the power comes back up, and the hotels are able to do some repairs, they hope that rooms will become available for NOPD and the relief workers so they can shower and rest in comfort. Hopefully, the kitchens can be restocked and hot meals can be provided in the hotels for the workers as well.

Power and water are back up in the Riverwalk already. They had to go to each of the restaurants there last night to turn off coffee pots that came back to life. It was obvious that the folks dropped everything and fled as soon as they got the word. Catfish was found in frying baskets in one restaurant. A pizza had just gotten pulled from an oven to be cut up in another. In any event, he said that once they did some glass work and did some cleaning, they could open back up all things being equal. Which is amazing to me.

The water starts about I-10 and gets worse the further you go West. They got some pumps up and running and the water is being drained back into the Lake. He said he has heard that it may take as long as 80 days to draw down the water to where they can start cleaning up out there.

He said the best news is that they have had no trouble out of the bad guys. They are still keeping a wary eye out but so far the people have been orderly and have obeyed the instructions of the police and the military. They are extremely grateful for the porta-potties and the food. He said soldiers bitch about MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat, in the flowery language of the Pentagon) all the time. But MREs taste pretty good when you haven't had anything to eat in 4-5 days and so they haven't heard any complaints.

He asked me about the news. He asked me if it was true that a lot of cops had resigned. I told him that as near as I could tell there were some resignations-and I suppose that throwing down your badge constitutes a formal separation in service-but that most of them had returned without repercussion. I told him that two officers had committed suicide. He was genuinely shocked by that report.

He asked me if it was true that the Sheriff over in Plaquemines Parish was running checkpoints to keep evacuees out. I told him that I had not heard that but that it would not surprise me, given the sorry history of Plaquemines in race relations stemming from the days when the place was run by the legendary Leander "Boss" Perez of whom Earl Long once said, " Leander doesn't hate Washington because of integration. Leander hates Washington because they got the bomb and he doesn't." Or something along those lines. Uncle Earl was always saying shit like that. He was a lot funnier than his brother. He was a damn sight crazier too.

I told my friend that the long knives are coming out. That the finger pointing has begun. I told him that people all over the spectrum are united in their dismay and revulsion over how all of this has been handled by government at all levels. I told him that you could almost smell the anger in the wind. But I also told him that hearts everywhere swelled when the military showed up to literally save the day. Just like in the movies. I told him not to doubt for a minute that folks aren't 100% aren't behind what they are doing down there. There may be doubts about the war in Iraq. But there is none about the war in New Orleans.

And with that he took his leave. He said that he and another officer were off to find some IVs for the medic. He says that the medic is worried that guys are working too hard and that dehydration may be an issue and that he wanted to be prepared to rehydrate the ones that needed it. He said that he would be in touch now that cell phones seem to be working as long as he could keep boosting power from the abandoned cars to recharge his battery.

And that is the news tonight from the Vieux Carre. That is the news from Hell's Gate.