It’s that day again. I wrote of my feelings about the Katrinaversary on Wednesday, so I don’t have to go there today. Instead, I’m sharing links to some of my posts about the storm and its aftermath. I’ve never compiled them before. It might become an annual thing as we grapple with the legacy of Hurricane Katrina and the Federal Flood.
I’ve organized things by content. I hope y’all are content with that. Some of the posts first appeared on my eponymous solo blog, which exists mostly on my hard drive, so they’ve been republished at First Draft under various rubrics. I’ll skip the rubrics in hopes of avoiding a rhubarb.
PERSONAL STORIES
Re-Entry Blues is about Dr. A and I sneaking into New Orleans before it reopened to check on our house. It was originally an email I sent out to friends, family, and neighbors. The OG title was Dr. A’s Life Of Crime.
Michel is about tracking down someone dear to us in Dallas after the storm. We didn’t get there in time: Michel had died. We still miss him.
You Say Plan-O, I Say Play-No is a humorous post about two of our favorite former neighbors. They moved away many years ago. We still miss Jan and Victoria
The Adrastos Wayback Machine is a compilation of quotes from my early days as a blogger as well as some well-deserved mockery of former Picayune douchebag Chris Rose.
Michael Homan’s Katrina Diary: My late friend didn’t evacuate with his family before the storm. His house flooded and he had a series of adventures after the storm passed. One of the good things that came out of this mess was meeting Homan. We still miss him too.
POLITICS
Loose Tongue: In this case, the tagline says it all, the life and corrupt times of C Ray Nagin. Nagin, of course, was mayor when the storm hit. He was a lousy mayor before the storm and even worse after it.
Book Review: Landfall by Greg Meffert was published at Bayou Brief. It’s a review of a book by one of Nagin’s top aides who shares something else with C Ray: He’s a convicted felon.
TENTH KATRINAVERSARY HYPE
Katrinaversary Blues: Of Resilience Tours, Carpetbloggers & Disaster Tourists addresses the egregious hype surrounding the ten year anniversary. It remains one of the most read posts in First Draft history.
Killer Kitsch: The Hurricane Katrina Snowglobe is about the tacky tourist tat that sprung up for K10.
The Not So Great Fleur de Lis Ban Hoax of 2015: The rumor mill was grinding in the run-up to K10. This post is about one of the wilder rumors. It’s pretty tame in contrast to the weird shit floated hither and yon by many MAGA Maggots.
THE BIG PICTURE
The Spirit Of ’05 Revisited deals with the camaraderie felt by those of us who returned to New Orleans after the storm and flood that changed our lives forever.
The Double Whammy Anniversary is about the eerie coincidence of Hurricane Ida making landfall in New Orleans on 8/29/2021.
That’s all I’ve got for you today. Looking in the Katrina rearview mirror is simultaneously exhausting and revealing. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m beat.
Repeat after me: August is the strangest month.
In lieu of the Friday Cocktail Hour, Louis Armstrong gets the last word:
The Friday Cocktail Hour and Friday Catblogging will return next week.
That is all.