Day 56: Public Services Map; A Month And A Week From The End Of Hurricane Season

NOLA Public Services Map: CNN hosts yet another interactive map with New Orleans zip codes and the status of amenities – water, sewage, trash removal, power – for each area. Eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina and the flood, water is available throughout the city, but for New Orleans East. All public services have been restored to the Lower Garden District, Uptown west of the Garden District and the Westbank. North and east of there, the situation is not so good, but improves slowly and surely. Contrary to the map, the French Quarter and the part of the Marigny closest to the river also have all services. Now, we need a map of free wi-fi hot spots. This post in WiFiNetNews is a starter.

—

One Month And One Week Before The Close Of Hurricane Season: s.b. just reminded me that the end of hurricane season is not a week but five weeks away. With every counterclockwise-moving swath of white I see on a screen, my chest hurts more and more. Gulf of Mexico hurricanes are quickly starting to resemble those sold at Pat O’Briens – too many of them and my stomach doesn’t want to be in me any longer. Feh.

For fear of sounding trite, it has been a very tough year on the Gulf of Mexico region, and it was all I could do to keep it together this afternoon, as almost everyone from the local gym to the grocery store spoke of nothing but Hurricane Wilma. My heart goes out to the residents of Cancun who were affected by Wilma’s floods, and we have another landfall to look forward to tomorrow.

… police shot into the air to scare away looters and quickly evacuated more than 30 tourists from a downtown area overrun by people raiding stores … some people, hungry and unable to find anything open, began taking things they needed. Downtown, the city handed out food packages that included rice, beans, crackers and cooking oil, and people stood in line for blocks to collect …

… the storm knocked out many of the island’s docks, making it difficult for the navy to arrive. State officials were trying to clear airstrips on Cozumel and nearby Isla Mujeres so that planes could land with aid.

Windows were blown out at the city’s main public hospital and about an inch of water stood on the floor of the intensive care unit, although a generator provided electricity.

The U.S. Embassy was sending consular officials to shelters to help tourists prepare to leave. The U.S. government also offered to donate $200,000 in hurricane aid.

Granted Mexico did not sustain the scale of devastation that our portion of the Gulf coast did after Katrina, I admire the responsiveness of the Mexican government who seem to have a better handle on emergency management than we do. Also, notice how quick we were to evacuate our people in Mexico, but could not and still cannot offer that level of aid to our very own in New Orleans and surrounding areas. Some people qualify as more American than others, I suppose.

Pop Culture Faux Pas Of The Day (via FoxNews TV) – Man boards up his property and spraypaints the following on one of the planks “Barny [sic] Wilma’s Not Here.” That would be Fred, unless something new has transpired in the Flintstones universe.