prytaniawaterline.com Blog

Hurricane season is almost upon us, there is already a disturbance that the weather folks are watching. The city has announced that they will not be opening any shelters for hurricanes that are cat 3 or above.

The Corpse of Engineers seems to think that they have done a great job repairing our hurricane protection but some have doubts. A letter from Matt McBride posted at Humid City talks about a rusty pipe issue, plus we have the leaky levees that we are told not to worry about from People Get Ready, and flood walls being
stuffed with newpapers from First Draft. Put it all together and you can say that hurricane protection in this city is a crap shoot.
Having stayed for Katrina, and never having evacuated for a hurricane prior to that, I will tell you that I will be leaving town if a Cat 3 or higher comes this way. I would highly recommend this strategy to others.

While it is still Spring 2008, I wonder what is keeping the R.T.A. from a complete restoration of the St. Charles Line
. As with so many public infrastructure repairs it seems to be taking a lot longer than it should. We are coming up on three years now. It’s time to get rid of the excuses and get things working here again.

On a positive note there is now bus service in Lakeview, I know someone who lived in Lakeview who used public transit to get around. The main reason she did not return was because she had no way to get around without any public transportation.

I was really saddened to hear about Betsy McDaniel being robbed and beaten in her Marrero home. I know Betsy, I have eaten at Betsy’s Pancake house many times. I don’t understand why whoever robbed her felt the need to beat her so severly. I hope she can make a full recovery from this.

If that is true than I should have gained a lot from my bike ride to the Huey P. today. I had a pretty good hangover going when I got up this morning and I knew I had to sweat it out, and sweat it out I did, it’s not even June yet and the heat is making it very difficult to exercise. I dropped five pounds during my ride today, all water, maybe it smelled a little like beer. My hangover is definitely gone. I had a relaxing weekend, I spent a lot of it in bed trying to shake this flu like cold I have had for the last week. It looks like I will be healthy just in time to go back to work. The heat is here, and it is going to get worse before it gets better.

An Article in yesterdays Times Picayune would indicate that New Orleans might have a shot at the 2013 Super bowl. That would be a big boost to the local economy, it would also mean that the Saints would be in New Orleans for a while. The NFL will not schedule a Super bowl if the team doesn’t have a lease with the state for the Super Dome. At times I have wondered if professional sports franchises were worth the deals that teams make with local governments. Pro sports in New Orleans has been a huge morale builder for locals, many who are still rebuilding their lives.

See if you can spot me in the photo.

The Grey Ghost Vs. Nola Rising

Leaky Levees from People Get Ready

I was in Mobile yesterday and it was dry there yesterday. I caught some rain on the drive home last night but nothing too serious. This morning at work all the talk is about how did you get home yesterday. I am glad I missed it, it is such a pain when it rains like that, and it is very easy to ruin your car. I wonder if it is solely a matter of the amount of rain in a short period of time or is the drainage infrastructure still not working at Pre Katrina levels. Anyway I am hearing lots of war stories this morning about yesterdays flooding.

I found this one while going through some old archives. Who is that TV pirate?