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Posted on 05/01/2006 5:55:02 PM PDT by Ellesu
The piles of plaster, plumbing and broken appliances top 6 feet in some places, filling the gutters and spilling onto the sidewalks.
Despite the heat _ it's already in the high 80s _ the piles are moist from the still-waterlogged material ripped from flooded homes. Something in each of them attracts hordes of flies that buzz up at every disturbance.
Eight months after Hurricane Katrina pounded New Orleans, this is the first sign of an attempt to revive the "Gert Town" neighborhood, a poor, mostly black part of the city.
Quintocha Johnson, 30, looks at the debris along her block of Broadway Street with a combination of hope and despair.
The houses now being worked could bring back longed-for neighbors, but she worries about her two young sons getting hurt playing around the debris, which attracts flies, rats and snakes.
"You have to stay on that porch and watch them," Johnson said, pointing at Mandingo Reed, 1, and James Moffett, 3. "If you don't stay on that porch, no telling what might happen. The other day, I was sitting on the porch and I saw three nutria rats up on the poles there."
Johnson, her mother, Patricia White, and the boys moved into the remodeled house on Broadway in January. They were the first residents on the block since Hurricane Katrina ripped the roofs off houses and sent more than 5 feet of water gushing through the streets.
Their old house, in another part of the city, was destroyed. They rented this one even though the rest of the block was deserted.
"I found it by searching, looking for it, coming from Atlanta every weekend or every other weekend or so to try to get back home," White said. "For what, I don't know. I think I should have stayed in Atlanta."
It's easy to see why the still-struggling block could cause despair.
Three flooded cars sit at the curb, gray mud caked over them. A downed light pole remains stretched along a sidewalk. The block has two working street lights, the only illumination at night besides White's porch light.
Doors on many of the houses are open, revealing moldy furniture still inside.
But some of the houses are finally being renovated.
White's three-bedroom house is immaculate, beautifully furnished with the help of Trinity African Baptist Church in Mableton, Ga. "Comfortable" is the way White describes it, though not nearly as nice as the one they lived in before the hurricane. Still, after living in hotels and a small rented apartment in Atlanta, she loves having her own room where she can close the door and relax.
"This is where I come and get me a little comfort," White said. "Read my Bible, try to get my mind together. Because so much has happened, it's just been rough."
Although she and her family are settled now, things are certainly not back to normal. She says she's not ready to go back to her job working with disabled people because "I'm not really stable-minded yet, because of all the commotion and all the stuff I've had to deal with."
Days are hot and noisy on the street.
The sounds of saws and hammers begin early. Workers have started renovating the house beside White's and one across the street. The house on the corner is being gutted.
A line that spewed raw sewage into the street in front of White's house for weeks was fixed, but a deep pothole remains.
"I've got to fight flies everyday. I killed two snakes in the yard," said Daniel Douglas, Johnson's father, who stops by regularly. "With my grandkids out here running around, I've got to watch that."
Two houses down, Douglas' cousin, Frank Mitchell, has friends helping him gut the house that's been in his family for generations.
Mitchell laughs when he looks at the doors he was starting to nail together to make a raft before he was rescued. They're among the things he'll dump on the street so he can start renovating.
Insurance paid for his new roof but nothing else, including two cars and a pickup truck that flooded.
"That gets to be trying," he said. "When I was evacuated, I have medical problems, I spent maybe $6,000, $7,000 renting cars running back and forth to the hospitals."
Robert Laurent, who owns 18 two-family houses in New Orleans, said the one he's working on at 3113-3115 Broadway will be better than ever after renovation.
He's already installed ceramic tile throughout, and modern kitchens are going in. He's going to add aluminum siding and decorative pillars to the front porch.
"It takes a lot," Laurent said. "The permit process is phenomenal. I'm doing as much as I can until they need electrical, plumbing inspection."
The workers Laurent employed before Katrina are scattered now, so he's hired people who came to New Orleans after the storm. Many of them are living in his other houses because of the housing shortage.
Before the hurricane, Laurent's two-family house on Broadway _ with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, bath and small back yard on each side _ rented for $500 per side.
"I'll probably only go $100 more because of the renovation," he said. "I'm not going to ask what these ridiculous people are asking for rent. I mean $1,200 and $1,500 a month for one bedroom is really ridiculous."
For now, life on the 3100 block of Broadway is uncomfortable during the day and downright spooky at night. That's when White and her family gladly move inside, away from the darkness and empty houses around them.
"It's going to get better if everybody comes back and takes care of their business and does what they're supposed to do," Douglas said. "But look at all them empty houses. Only ones here now is my cousin and us."
"You have to stay on that porch and watch them," Johnson said, pointing at Mandingo Reed, 1, and James Moffett, 3. "If you don't stay on that porch, no telling what might happen. The other day, I was sitting on the porch and I saw three nutria rats up on the poles there."
"But look at all them empty houses. Only ones here now is my cousin and us."
Gee. I dunno. I think I'd move out of a rat infested area that my Mayor doesn't seem to be doing much about if I possibly could. Who advised them to rebuild in an area where not many are rebuilding, and do they know that it's just weeks from Hurricane Season again?
On the one hand I totally understand wanting to stay put; I mean "Home" means something, but on the other hand? Nope. I just don't get it. But I've always been one to appreciate dry land and never have wanted to live below sea level.
Tornadoes and ice storms up here are scarey enough.
What's the idea of sitting and staring a pile of moldy, useless rubble? Tear out the 2x4s or short lengths of lumber that can be used as firestops in new constructions, or bulldoze the entire pile of crap away. But it ain't gonna fix itself and a new house ain't gonna grow out of it all by itself.
Nutria lol. I have actually ate Nutria They're not too bad.
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They taste almost, but not quite, completely unlike chicken.
Well Diana, I guess we better send them back to Las Vegas until the Mexicans get it all put back together.
How did the junk car roundup/kickback scheme finally turn out ? Did Nagin's buddies help themselves to a quarter of a billion $ as was reported ?
Do you have any idea about this - either an alligator WILL eat a nutria, or will NOT eat a nutria. It looks like the swamps of south Louisiana would have enough nutria for thousands and thousands of alligators to stay well fed.
???
thanks
Alligator is yummy, though. Mmm, alligator sausage.
I'm pretty sure they do a better job of cleaning up after hurricanes in Cuba. At the very least, somebody is in charge there.
I actually have eaten this recipe. Took me a minute to find it
Stuffed Nutria Hindquarters
STUFFING FOR NUTRIA:
3 tablespoons butter
1 pound nutria meat, ground
4 cups chopped onion
1 cup green bell pepper
1 cup red bell pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Enola's Secret Seasoning or (Creole Seasoning)
1 cup stock or water
1-10 3/4 ounce can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups fresh La. Crawfish, peeled, deveined and chopped
13 slices of bread (stale)
Click here for Enola's Secret Seasoning Recipe.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put bread in food processor press pulse button several times. Bread crumbs must be course; set aside.
In a 5-quart pot on high heat melt butter. Add meat, onion and both bell peppers; cook and stir 10 minutes. Add red pepper, salt and seasoning; cook 5 minutes. Add stock and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add cream of mushroom; cook for 7 minutes. Add crawfish, then reduce heat to medium and cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add bread crumbs, stir until mixture is moist but holds together.
PREPARATION OF HINDQUARTERS:
15 nutria hindquarters
5 tablespoons Enola's Secret Seasoning
Remove the large leg bone, then pound out legs, and sprinkle seasoning evenly on both sides. Lay leg flat, stuff inside, roll and tie with cooking string. Place stuffed legs in oiled baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees, covered, for 1 hour or until tender. Uncover, then cook an additional 10 minutes or until brown.
Makes 15 Servings
I'm sure the kind people from Trinity AME who went out of their way to help her truly appreciate her gratitude, and recognize the spirit from which it comes (i.e., the "Entitlement Mess"). Sadly, I suspect the AME part of things will prevent them from making the connection.
"...Nutria lol. I have actually ate Nutria They're not too bad...."
Did you give Nutria up for Lent?
He was pulling your leg. Nutria are in fact a primary food source for Alligators. The problems is that the Nutria breeds so fast the Gators can't keep up. Then the Nutria are eating up the MArshland and other areas where tthe gators live. Thats one reason why this whole eat Nutria promotion started.
"Well Diana, I guess we better send them back to Las Vegas until the Mexicans get it all put back together."
That's not what I was implying in the least. I, personally would not rebuild in the same spot whether by my own hand or by the work of illegals hired for the job.
We had a Cat 4 Tornado this past summer in the town next to
me, (Stoughton, WI...you can look it up) exactly one week before Katrina hit NOLA. $47 million in damage to the infrastructure alone for a town of about 8,000 people, so while it was tough for us, no one else in America came to our rescue. Only one death, but dozens of critically injured people with 2x4's injected into them, serious cuts from flying glass, etc. Not one dime from FEMA...or anyone else, though the Red Cross did show up to help.
The rest of us pitched in and cleaned up from there. I spent last fall hauling Gawd-only-knows-what out of farm fields to ready them for planting this spring before things froze into the ground over winter. Various animal parts, sheet metal, wood, bricks, kids' toys, clothing, you name it. So I can sort of (though not really) imagine what the clean-up must be like down south.
It could have easily been my town. So, while I understand that NOLA was a disaster of Biblical proportions, I, personally wouldn't rebuild in that same spot again. Cleaning up after that tornado was heartbreaking enough.
Oh, be still my heart . . . Quintocha has a kid named Mandingo.
Summer's gonna suck down there when it heats up. It'll be two or three times as bad as it is now.
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