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evacuating
new orleans
Kalamu ya Salaam just outside of baton rouge the traffic slowed to
a crawl. once past baton rouge, everything was fine.
some of us were leaving, some of us were staying. i was not in
new orleans when betsy hit in 1965--but have stayed for every
other hurricane since 1947. this is the first time i'm
evacuating.
i was following my wife nia and her daughter, secret mbaye, and
secret's two young daughters, headed to houston to stay with
nia's brother's voris.
habib, secret's husband who is senagalese, decided to stay, as
did nia's son kendall. i have two children living in new orleans:
one, mtume, the older, decides to evacuate; tutashinda, decides
to ride it out with his wife, four children and his mother. like
mtume says, in an informal poll, it's about half and half who is
leaving, who is staying. there doesn't seem to be any logic to
it.
on monday night i told nia i had a bad feeling about this
one--not so much that it was going to hit new orleans, but
rather than wherever it hit it was going to do a lot of damage.
many of you may remember my previous hurricane reports: one
where we rode it out at the hospital where nia works, the second
when my car was flooded as i was trying to get home. we live on
the west bank of new orleans, which is divided by the
mississippi river. the east bank is the main part of the city. i
live six blocks from the river, which may seem very dangerous to
folk who don't know new orleans. actually the closer you live to
a major levee, the safer you tend to be from flash flooding,
which
happens frequently down here. however, if there is a direct
hurricane hit, well, no place is safe.
a little after six a.m. tuesday morning, 14 september, while we
were packing the car, nia asked me did i smell something. i say,
yeah, but i didn't see a fire. shortly afterwards while making a
second trip to the car, my neighbors were standing outside and a
fire truck was two doors down the street. behind my neighbors
house on the edge of his property-line, a tree branch fell on a
power line and caught fire. the firemen were waiting for the
utility company to arrive and cut the power before
trying to put out the fire. the tree, whose branch was burning,
was listing badly.
my next door neighbor said he had been trying to get the guy
on the other side of him to deal with the tree for a long time,
and then boom, well, really more like sizzle-snap the power went
out as the branch either completely fell or burned through the
power line. now we had no power and even if i had been inclined
to stay, without electricity two days before ivan's impending
arrival, there really was no good reason to do stay--with all
that was going on, who knows when power would be restored. just
like ivan's threatened arrival, like we say in new orleans
creole, comme si, comme sa (maybe yes, maybe no). the utility
company might restore power in the next hour, or it might be
after ivan before we got power back. i'm not a christian, but
like most humans under stress, i do believe in signs.
the first thing i packed into the car was the g5 computer, the
two laptops, the cameras, and a critical hard drive (it has the
rough edit for a new movie we are doing, plus final cuts of a
bunch of other movies). the second thing i packed was music.
then finally i put in my travel bag with a change of clothes and
my travel kit. also packed in some of nia's stuff and we were on
our way.
i'm driving down the expressway listening to music on the third
day of a fast (water only on sunday, juice and water on monday,
water on tuesday). usually, i have to fight off some type of
serious malady once a year or so. my regimen is to fast, vitamin
c, and monitor myself. i have a strong constitution, so even
though i haven't eaten in two days, the six hour drive to
houston goes smoothly.
i have $21 dollars in my pocket and a bunch of quarters i keep
in the car; about $18 in the bank; and, am waiting on a long
delayed check from the orleans parish school system, which they
said they would finally release on monday and mail to me. ok. i
check my post office box before i leave, no check, but there are
some cds i had ordered.
folks, don't be concerned for me. i'm ok. but all along the gulf
coast, particularly in new orleans, we have bunches of poor
people who have no way to evacuate. i'm hoping for the best.
most of the tv reports concentrate on businesses and beach side
residences, which are mostly high income areas. but please think
of people in trailer parks, think of folks living in what
amounts to shanties and who are service workers for the gulf
coast casino enterprises. think of the migrant workers in
florida. the people who can't afford to board up their homes,
if, they are fortunate enough, to have a home. people who have
one old car and a family of six or seven folk. people who are
dependent on state medical care.
here in houston the cable weather channel has been on all day.
not once have they shown the poor. they've shown surfers
delighting in the waves. they've shown hotel and restaurant
owners. small business people. you know folks, this is part of
our task as revolutionary artists, if nothing else, we can raise
questions. we can speak up for those who have no voice. at a
time like this, i ask that you think about the poor--i'm
fortunate and i know it. my poverty is temporary and
self-selected, in that i knew when i joined the program that the
pay would be spotty. my wife is a professional, so i had a back
up source to get out of town. some of us have no back up.
new orleans mayor ray nagin urged everyone who could to evacuate
the city--well, what about the one hundred fifty to two hundred
thousand poor residents would could not evacuate--had no
transportation and certainly not enough supplies to last a week
without utilities, stores and a job. the last time there was a
hurricane, the superdome was used as a shelter. predictably
there were a lot of problems, neither the city nor the people
were prepared to deal with the hurricane.
we watch these hurricane reports on tv, often without ever
realizing that in most cases there is very little preparation to
help poor people survive these natural diasters. if the city of
new orleans had to be evacuated, it couldn't. and a tidal surge
of water over-flowed the levee, the superdome would be help as
the results of flooding would be totally catastrophic. i don't
believe the situation is hopeless or that we can pray away
danger. new orleans has been lucky, but sooner or later there's
going to be a direct hit.
whether ivan hits new orleans, mobile, pensacola are anywhere
else along the gulf coast, poor people are going to suffer
tremendously, just as zora neale hurston described in the
conclusion of their eyes were watching god. by monday night, the
walmart near us was sold out of bottled water. i have my
suspicions about other cities along the gulf coast, but i know
for sure the city government has no provisions to take care of
literally well over a hundred thousand poor people in times of
natural disaster. that the richest country in the world has no
adequate government plans to assist those who do not have
adequate ways and means to survive a hurricane, well, that's
capitalism.
think about the people. do whatever you can. if you believe in
prayer, pray. if you are into meditation, meditate. if you have
friends in harm's way, contact them, offer them aid. sometimes
just a phone call of concern makes a big difference.
take a lesson from cuba--they went all out to pull together.
used the media to explain what was happening. mobilized the
government to provide support and supplies. . . . i don't need
to preach... just want to make mention of how important it is
for us to support each other.
be strong, every little thing is going to be alright!
posted summer 2004; check e-drum (kalamu@aol.com)
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