[Leica] Katrina relief pin-up calendar--Q for Jeffery

[jsmith342 at cox.net (Jeffery Smith)]

I looked at some elevation "maps" on the Internet, and they seemed to be
saying that Gentilly was the highest ground (and that I'm below sea level).
Well, Gentilly got hit really hard with slow rising water. I'm so close to
the river, I'm on a "natural" levee that was formed during a few hundred
thousand years of the Mississippi laying down silt. Here's my location.
http://tinyurl.com/rafwn

If you look to the upper left, you'll see St. Charles Ave. That was dry as
well. The entire crescent between St. Charles and the river was bone dry.
Our land is subsiding, but the real problem was areas that were previously
swamp. The black suburbs of New Orleans (New Orleans East) was an upscale
area where people had houses and cars that looked like Anytown, USA. But
they were swampy just 40 years ago. Katrina reclaimed them as swamp. That
might be the most tragic area of the entire city. Many square miles of
relatively new, nice, well-kept homes, all flooded by 4 feet of water for
weeks. And all deserted now. If there is one place that shouldn't rebuild,
it is New Orleans East. It is wide open to the wetlands and lakes to the
south.

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
http://www.400tx.com
http://400tx.blogspot.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Bill
Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 12:17 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] Katrina relief pin-up calendar--Q for Jeffery


Jeffery:
   
  "High ground" in Houston is only a couple of inches. Since NO has
virtually the same topo, I wonder how high are you above the lowest
elevation?
   
  Adding to the flood woes of level topo in Houston, was/ is the land
subsidence of 4-7 feet from water well extracation--primarily from
industrial use.
   
  Bill

Jeffery Smith <jsmith342@cox.net> wrote:
  I'm in an all black neighborhood (except for about 6 of us), and we (and
the rest of the Irish Channel) are on very high ground. It all depends on
how close to the river you are. Over the past 150 years, old neighborhoods
became ghetto neighborhoods as whites fled to the suburbs and north of the
lake. But now there is more interest in restoring 150-year-old houses in my
old neighborhood because it was built before the levees.

Lakeview got wiped out worse than anyone other than the lower 9th ward, and
Lakeview was primarly white. Unfortunately, it was far from the river and
close to the lake. Houses were in the $300,000 to $500,000 range there, and
they got 6-8 feet of water. I paid $60,000 for mine and got no water.
Location location location.

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
http://www.400tx.com
http://400tx.blogspot.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Scott
McLoughlin
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 6:22 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Katrina relief pin-up calendar--Bro Nagin


Aside from the color of folk's skin, is it true that in many or most cities,
the historically nice neighborhoods for the well heeled are on higher
ground?

This is true in Baltimore and Wash, DC. (lower G'town my be an exception),

I was led to believe that this started way back in an attempt to avoid
mosquito and other insect born illnesses.

BTW, I like your final analysis of the problem.

IMHO, it's very hard to be prepared for low probability, theoretically worst
case scenarios - and not just hurricanes. If we were so prepared and ever
vigilant against all such possibilities, we'd probably all go 
crazy.

Scott

Jeffery Smith wrote:

>... that the blacks live in trailers
>while the whites live in houses. I would hazard a guess that there are
>far more whites than blacks in FEMA trailers down here.
>
>[snip]
>Jeffery Smith
>New Orleans, LA
>http://www.400tx.com
>http://400tx.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
> 
>

-- 
Pics @ http://www.adrenaline.com/snaps
Leica M6TTL, Bessa R, Nikon FM3a, Nikon D70, Rollei AFM35 (Jihad Sigint NSA
FBI Patriot Act)



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