Uptown Re-Entry Delay?: Mayor Ray Nagin and the federal head of Katrina recovery, Thad Allen, will meet this afternoon to reconsider re-entry into the 70115 and 70118 zip codes. Too late, people are already going in. It comes down to the quality of tap water and Tropical Storm Rita’s plans.

“We will reassess how we have done in reopening so far and the status of our water, sewerage, electricity and hospitals” across parts of the city left relatively unscathed by Hurricane Katrina, [the city’s director of homeland security, Col. Terry] Ebbert said, adding that the projected direction of Tropical Storm Rita, presently in the Atlantic Ocean, also would be a factor in determining whether to reopen Uptown.

[Thad Allen] on Saturday questioned Nagin’s proposed timeline, calling it “extremely ambitious” and “extremely problematic.” Tap water remains unfit for drinking and bathing in most parts of the city, and Rita posed another potential threat, he said.

City officials continued to recommend that residents visit the city during daytime hours only and not stay overnight, Ebbert said. An 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew remains in effect.

The city presently is populated with government and relief workers, journalists and some residents. “They obviously had vehicles to get in here,” [Ebbert] said. “We will continue to institute a mandatory evacuation.

Unless Rita makes a hard right towards our part of the Gulf Coast in the wee hours of Thursday, she’s projected to head for Mexico Galveston. Meanwhile, officials, get your stories straight and realize that residents are returning to stay regardless of your momentary optimism.

Hope this doesn’t delay going back home to 70130 for a little while.

After a long hiatus, I watched CNN again yesterday, this time on mute (aah, the simple pleasure of following the teletype and not the affectations of the newsdesk). Their “Focus On 70114” mentioned that not many people are taking advantage of being able to return to Algiers. Of course, the reporter was standing right in front of the Crescent City Connection as cars whizzed by back and forth across the bridge.

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Vaccination Overload: Contrary to popular belief, it is not required that you have yourself protected from hepatitis to cholera before going back into NO. Unless you are immune-compromised, suffer from other health problems, or are to undertake a very involved clean-up effort, officials ask you to avoid getting the shots at all. Do get a tetanus shot, if you haven’t received one within the last ten years or can’t remember.

[State Health Officer Jimmy Guidry] said that concerns that outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and typhus could occur are completely unfounded since none of those diseases existed in large numbers in the Greater New Orleans area before the storm. Guidry blamed the fear of outbreaks on rumors and erroneous reports from some media sources, and said many residents are straining the health care system by requesting unnecessary vaccinations for Hepatitis A and B and tetanus … Those requests are taxing the supply of vaccinations needed for first responders and others at-risk individuals.

…there is little to no danger of residents contracting those disease in the course of normal clean-up activities.

The sounds of Uncle Tupelo, Banco De Gaia, Tracy Chapman, Wolfgang Mozart, XTC, Sonny Boy Williamson, Iggy Pop and many others come out of my laptop. Life in New Orleans is like being married to music. Here is a look at what musicians have done in the face of Katrina and a discussion on the future of New Orleans music.

Lincoln Center Hurricane Relief Benefit: “Emotions ran high” at last night’s star-studded Lincoln Center Higher Ground hurricane relief benefit concert (good job, Wynton Marsalis!). I’m sure the music was inspiring, but am intrigued by some of the following statements.

Danny Glover – “When the hurricane struck, it did not turn the region into a Third World country … it revealed one.” (A trite, but true, assessment of New Orleans. Now that you’ve said it, are things going to change and how?).

Elvis Costello – a Brit reacts to certain Americans balking at the high cost of post-Katrina rebuilding – “I just hope we keep in our minds that an effort like this can never be too expensive.” (I’m glad I bought your last album, Elvis.)

Irvin Mayfield – “[This rendition of Just A Closer Walk with Thee is dedicated] to my father, who is still missing.” I’m fairly certain that OffBeat reported the Mayfield family as intact, but this is not the case. Irvin Mayfield is jazz trumpeter, US Senate-appointed cultural ambassador for the City of New Orleans and a member of the hot, hot duo, Los Hombres Calientes. That such a man is reduced to looking for his father after a natural disaster is nothing short of shocking. Please hope for his family.

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19th-Century Sousaphone Stolen From New Orleans Evacuee In Houston: Today’s Houston Chronicle reports on the theft of Emile Francis’ minivan from near a Houston Red Cross office on Tuesday, September 13th. In the vehicle was his sousaphone which he took the pains to save from his flooding home. The local police have reported his van as stolen.

Louisiana license plate number: NDC 880 … The unique horn is a solid brass Cerveny sousaphone with four rotary valves. It was made sometime in the 1890s … is packed in a soft, black case.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of the van or sousaphone, please contact Houston police or the article’s author.

Mr. Francis continues to live with the great attitude that “happy is the man whose hobby is his occupation.” Amen.

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Q-Burns’ Message Not So Abstract: My friend, the talented Orlando-based DJ Q-Burns Abstract Message (Michael Donaldson), sends a note of hope for New Orleans. Out of goodwill and activism, not only has he placed my recommended get-the-Katrina-word-out links on his site, but also mailed me some cool, new mixes to cheer me up. What a guy! Michael lived in Louisiana for 15 years before moving to Florida and plans to host a benefit gig for Katrina victims – can’t wait to help out!

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OffBeat Magazine & The Future Of New Orleans Music: New Orleans’s own online music resource, OffBeat, hosts a forum thread on the future of the city’s music scene. The object is to fuel discussion on “what effect will Katrina have on our local record labels, nightclubs and our burgeoning film industry. Can it survive?”

If you’re a music lover and wish to see the city of New Orleans shine again in this regard, please join the forum and make a few useful suggestions, should you have any. Music is our city’s salvation, and we don’t want to see it usurped by an opportunistic few.

70130, Ready Or Not, Here We Come: According to a map in today’s paper version of USA Today, the Garden District (GD) is included in Central Business District (CBD) re-entry slated for September 26th. However, some GD residents are going in starting Monday (09/19) anyway, assuming they are not going to get kicked out if Uptown residents are permitted to stay. Why GD re-entry is lumped in with that of the CBD is unknown.

This line from the AP report on re-entry is in all of the major papers, and I consider it misleading: “Those [re-entry] areas, for now, are limited to Algiers, the French Quarter, the central business district and Uptown, which includes the Garden District.” Quite a few GD residents will assume logically that if Uptown includes the GD, we should be allowed to go in with Uptown residents. Our amenities are coming back up, slowly but surely, as evidenced in this note from my neighbor: “There is no power in the neighborhood but [our neighbor] said there are Entergy trucks in abundance, clearing debris and working on lines. There is gas, water, and phone service. I called our land line today and the phone rings and the voice mail comes on (today is the first time the vm has come on). He said he was there on Tuesday, and that the difference between then and today is very impressive–lots of progress had been made in that four day period. He also said traffic into the city wasn’t bad at all today.”

I’m sure the traffic will get worse once people go back in. Again, we’ve stayed away this long and a couple or three days more is not going to hurt. The city doesn’t need the strain over the course of one weekend (wonder what’s going to happen when all of those toilets flush at once).

The bottom line: It’s up to you. Take a lot of bottled water and boil city water for everything else. Don’t drive around a lot for there are no open gas stations, respect the city’s curfew (8PM – 6AM) and love that you are inside your home again.

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I Thought Frenchmen Desire Good Food: Next on my reading list is John Churchill Chase’s Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children And Other Streets Of New Orleans. ByTheBayou warned me that the book was written in the 1940s and, therefore, contains references to “savages,” i.e. the natives before current natives and slaves, but is overall an informative narrative on how New Orleans transformed from swamp to the colorful place we know, love, and call home.

Forgive the lateness of this post, but a gargantuan thunderstorm took hold of all electronic activity right over txyankee’s house today (seriously, it wasn’t raining as hard anywhere else in Houston, or even Stepford, just right on this house), and this seems to have wiped out all internet/cable service for most of the day. Along with this morning’s adventure in cat-herding, my title of errand girl for cataclysm, seems to follow everywhere I go. Should you wish an audience with Her Disasterness, it is highly recommended that you take out a foolproof insurance policy first.

70130 Zip Code Re-Entry: There is some confusion over why the 70130 zip code (mine, of course) wasn’t mentioned in the re-entry schedule. Rumors abound that unless you’re a business owner, a resident of this zip code will not be allowed in until September 23rd. This has not been confirmed. Garden District businesses are included in Central Business District re-entry scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, and the rest of us should be allowed to return the middle of next week with the Uptown folks. See this map below (courtesy SFGate), which includes “dewatering” updates and phased re-entry guidelines:

70130 Included In Central Business District Re-Entry (from SFGate)

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Tulane Provides Legal Aid To Hurricane & Flood Victims: Introducing From the Lake to the River – The New Orleans Coalition for Legal Aid & Disaster Relief. The purpose of this independent coalition is to bring together law school faculty, practicing lawyers, students as well as non-lawyers to “to facilitate the fair distribution of federal, state, and private disaster relief to New Orleanians (wherever they may be) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.” maisnon, Chai, Jenny E. and other legal beagles out there, take note. If you would like to offer your aid, please contact katrinalegalaid@gmail.com.

The Coalition will serve as a contact point and clearinghouse for legal information … serve as a watchdog and oversight group to ensure that public and private resources are distributed on an equitable basis … conduct research on areas of law relevant to the relief effort (e.g., benefit programs, insurance, bankruptcy). We are particularly interested in providing help to those low-income victims who have been unable to obtain support or assistance through other channels.

Here is the full text of the Purpose & Action Plan along with the Katrina Coalition Contact List.

This is a great example of proper resource allocation, if it works with minimal bureaucracy and head-butting. There are enough passionate and caring people involved that it will work for those who are already starting to get cheated on insurance and building contracts. Almost makes me want to be a lawyer … almost.

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New Orleans Water Quality: An interesting article on historical vs. present New Orleans water quality (bad, and now worse – we aren’t called Cancer Alley for nothing). Rebuilding has to include “a full-fledged clean up,” higher drinking water standards and the sustainability of southern Louisiana’s clean water supply.

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Lessons Learned From The Grand Forks Flood: In April of 1997, Midwesterners watched as the Red River burgeoned and its floodwaters drowned large portions of the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. This flood displaced 60,000 people and downtown Grand Forks burned. Sound familiar?

Mac says, “I am going to ask [friends who stayed in Grand Forks] about long-term problems, or things they didn’t realize until later. This could help us all with longer term planning, and we can be better prepared about what to expect. I think it will also help with the legal aid project, because we can look at the legal issues that arose there and see what might apply to NOLA. This is the first web page I found on the subject, but there is a ton of info out on it.”