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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (176382)	8/13/2006 10:23:28 AM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793955

St. Bernard Parish, a white flight working class working class suburb of NO, is an interesting place. Incredibly tight neighborhood bonds, very traditional. Salt of the earth folks, but fairly complex. There is a fairly large community of Spanish speaking Islenos, whose forebears are Spanish, a smattering of Yugoslavians oyster fishermen, and other groups which make Da Parish an interesting place. I have tried lots of cases there, have gotten to know the Judges and the local lawyers and powers that be fairly well. The courthouse got flooded but is now cleaned up and more or less in serviceable mode. However, the clerk's office got completely flooded, so court records are being reconstructed based on what the lawyers have. The report you cited is wrong with respect to records of civil cases; they are gone. The real estate records digitized by Lena Torres were a godsend to property owners. She is a formidable lady. Criminal cases I assume are being dismissed for failure to prosecute or for lack of evidence, I don't know. But the real damage is to the fabric of a previously tight community. I was in St. B. a few weeks ago. If NO is depopulated, St. B. is a ghost town. It would not surprise me to learn that it lost 75% of its population. Adding to the flood is the fact that a local refinery failed to secure one of its oil tanks before the storm so the flood waters also resulted in a huge oil spill in the area. Insult to injury. The reason that ST. B. is not coming back was articulated well in the report: The overriding fact is that Katrina's devastation was of a magnitude that defies ordinary understanding. Yes, St. B. was not hit by a calamity but by a cataclysm. It really is unbelievable how much damage was done. Another Parish contiguous to St. B., Plaquemines, suffered even more, if that is possible. Fortunately, its population was significantly less than St. B.'s and more spread out. Although vestiges of Plaquemines are still present, in many respects it has ceased to exist as a functioning community. The folks in the NO area who suffered from the flood are indeed depressed. We had 196 psychiatrists in NO proper before the storm; now only 22 remain, so a lot of the depressed are not being treated. BTW, Mayor Nagin is reputed to be one of the mental cases; he has basically withdrawn from public life since the election. I think the mental health problem may end up being one of the biggest consequences of the storm. It's easy to spot the folks who suffer--haggard faces, unkempt, and there are lots of them. I thank my lucky stars that we were out of town when Katrina struck. Although I would have probably evacuated if I had been in town, I might not have. The large number of friends who did stay are all suffering, especially the MDs who were at Tulane Med. Center and went through sheer hell. We had no damage to our home and no economic consequences of any significance. This has resulted in a curious phenomenon I have never seen before--"survivor guilt." No, there is no need for mental health treatment for that fortunate malady. vbg.