Cyclone News from the Gulf

[Peter Voice]

Do we know how every-one is doing?

[Peter]

It was on the news last night (9/1) that the Rock and roll singer Fats Domino (I Found My Thrill on Blueberry Hill) is missing. He lived in a low section of New Orleans near the French Quarter.

Hope he made it

Peter

[Rick Martin]

Eve Dupont (worldwidese) left a message on my answering machine this afternoon (Friday) saying she was in Florida and wanted me to call her. She sounded stressed and the phone number she left was for a pay phone. If anybody else hears from her, ask her to call me again (727) 734-0983 or 459-4710.

[TwisTee]

Rick,
I am responding to your post concerning Eva Dupont.
I am new on the board and I know you don't know me but if I can help here I would like to. I am in Navarre, Fl just east of Pensacola. I notice that your in Florida as well. Though I have no idea where Dunedin is.
I also noticed that Eva is from New Orleans and seemingly on the run from Katrina from the Florida payphone you mentioned. If Eva needs a place to stay we can help out (at least short term) for 1 or 2 people. We don't have much ourselves due to several emergencies and Hurricane Dennis but we still have a roof we can share.
My number is (850) 939-7687 cell is (850) 501-5915 If it works today.

TwisTee

[Rick Martin]

Eve Dupont was living in New Orleans and the payphone she called me from was in Clearwater, FL which is the town right next to where I live which is near Tampa. She sounded stressed and confused and I'd like to try to help her. I'm hoping she'll call again or maybe go into an internet cafe or library and check this forum.
Rick Martin
(727) 734-0983
(727) 459-4710

[TwisTee]

Allrighty Rick,
I guess she is closer to you than us. My wife and I were thinking that if she was closer to us and stranded we could have picked her up as well. We were in the process of moving here when Ivan hit last year and we were stuck in motels for several months. Not much fun with a baby and a dog. Then a perfect stranger found out our predicament and let us stay with them for about two months till we finally found a place to live. We got settled and things were beginning to look up when Dennis made landfall on top of my house. Some people helped us out then, too. It's time for some payback.
When you hear from her please let the board know. She seemed very nice to me in my introductory post and would like to help out if I can.
As things settle down, if she needs a place closer to New orleans to stay while she sorts things out there she is welcome here.

TwisTee

[martin ewen]

I wonder who this is?

An excerpt from an unrelated bulletin board

Here's a post about an acquaintance of mine who's trapped in NOLA:

"A" is with a good group in a parking garage near the convention center. 11 people, of which two are teens , one a child, & one street performer (the only person "A" knows in the group & the one who invited him in)
They are keeping their heads.
They've looted a little water & food.
Cops are not letting people out of the area once they enter.
It's effectively a concentration camp.
Violence is minimal-- most people are pulling together & helping each other
He's had a little water & one MRE.
He has no way to care for his leg
His group has a sanitation bucket & is keeping the parking garage swept clean.
People are going around offering water & food they loot to other survivors with mantras of "may you never thirst" & "fear is the mind killer".

They tried for the bridge but no buses of course & the Gretna police are turning refugees back-- keeping people effectively pinned in the area.

You all know about the explosions.

He sounds well for now.
People recognize him & he reports how friendly & supportive most everyone is... trying to keep morale high.

Rumors are that the cops will try to force them to move en masse before Bush gets there, but that will be impossible.

Some buses did turn up at the convention center yesterday but they were without guards/ support & had to turn back.

And a bit later:

"A" is a walk away from his home: where he has necessary, life saving medical supplies and water.
And they won't let him or anyone else leave.
Armed police are keeping people penned in areas without sanitation, food, or water in this heat & with no idea when such supples will arrive.
& people are dying."
...end of quote

[Rick Martin]

I'll definitely post here if I get to talk to her again and I'll tell her about your offers of help. She certainly would be an interesting house guest. I met her about two years ago when she and her husband were part of a variety show we did at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi. They did a nice Marionette act featuring New Orleans musician character puppets. She and her husband were in their seventies and I believe she told me that they had met in the forties when she was a chorus girl at the Follies Bergere in Paris and he was doing the marionette act there. I think she might have told me that they had done the Ed Sullivan show back in the day.

[Rick Martin]

I found Eve this afternoon. She drove out of NO Sunday just ahead of the storm with Gwendolyn, a Tarot reader and artist. They have a place to stay very near my place in Dunedin, FL. I'm sure she'll log on in a day or so and tell her story.

[TwisTee]

GOOD NEWS, Rick! Thanks. Let her know I would love to meet her and, for that matter, you and everyone else on the board.

TwisTee

[worldwidese]

To those interested?

Twistee- Thanx for your offer. There are a lot of comments in the media about the worst coming out in people in crisis, but you are a prime example of the best of people! I will try to get in touch with you on my way back when I know more about the timeframe. Eve.

[Butterfly Man]

Comic relief

Comedian, juggler, writer, magician Pat Hazell (www.pathazell.com) lives in Mandeville, LA (right across the lake from NOLA) … in his own words:

We are safe and involved. Much to tell. An untold amount of sadness and despair attached to the continued efforts of all to save lives, homes, cities and a nation that will be deeply affected by Katrina. In my recent visit I have met
with the Mayor of Mandeville, The Mayor of Slidell, their respective
Chiefs of Police and District Fire Chiefs. We connect to the local Red
Cross leaders and the national Red Cross rep on site as well as the
Fire Captain in Lacombe, LA and several shelters. I am rushing them
desperately need generators, AC units and many other requests. Turning
the cash people donate into the products that are most needed at that
moment. The needs change hourly. One minute is a shortage of Diesel
The next it is as small as empty five gallon gad cans for emergency
personel. They have been bought up from here to Houston. We have
trucked in sanitary napkins, diapers and personal hygiene to shelters,
only to discover they have not as so much as a single light bulb for
seven days.

My car was smashed by a falling tree that broke out the back window.
It is still operational so I have donated it to the Fire Administrator
that is without any vehicle. Our yard is littered with downed pecan
trees, but the house is still standing. Water rose to the porch but
did not enter the door jamb. The water quickly receded on our side and
our castle stands tall with only a loss of services and a broken
window. Services have been restored and as of tomorrow it will house
the Helicopter pilots and their camera men that are shooting all the
footage you see on CNN, Fox and all other affiliates. They have been
in sub standard living condition in Baton Rouge and are working around
the clock in the worst possible conditions. Seeing things the world
can not imagine in one hundred lifetimes.

Our kids are safe and snuggly. Their warm breathe while they sleep and
the feel of their beating hearts during a hug make the world brighter.
We are still formulating our plans for our next step. But as I am
connecting the dots right now for some much needed communication
between city leaders I am focusing all my efforts to the cause.

I hope to keep all informed at a later date.

A changed man,

Pat

[GlassHarper]

Staying Clean While Escaping New Orleans

The outpouring of love, concern and charity I see after this disaster on the Gulf Coast is nearly overwhelming. Of course it doesn't take much to get me crying these days. Glued, as I have
been, to the TV and NPR I have seen several friends and acquaintances coping with the aftermath. Thursday night, however, capped it. Listening to NBC-TV with only partial attention I thought I heard a name I should recognize. The reporter was interviewing a fellow who was walking west on an elevated section of I-10 with his meager possessions on a folding hand cart behind him. What riveted my attention was when I heard him say, in a Cajun accent an alligator couldn't chomp through, "Well, I've got my soap with me."

It was a homeless friend Ricky Breaux, a master soap carver, who made his living carving cakes of soap into cartoon characters and selling them on the street in New Orleans. Ironically there had been no mention of his occupation, so to someone just tuning in he probably sounded like someone who, in the exigency of evacuation, wanted to make sure he could stay clean!

I met Ricky last year when he fell in love with my new puppy, KD. He squatted down behind me as I played my glass harmonica on Jackson Square and asked if he could do a portrait of her. Though only about nine months old at the time she sat perfectly still for the next half hour while Ricky carved a remarkable likeness right down to her four large black spots, which he applied with Magic Marker. The soap sculpture sat on the fireplace mantle in my French Quarter apartment and I cried once again realizing it may not have survived.

But then again it may have. It is fairly clear, at this point, that the flood waters never reached up onto Dumaine Street, one of the higher points in New Orleans. It was the height of the land, of course, that led Sieur de Bienville to build his colony there nearly 300 years ago. Several city-wide fires, innumerable hurricanes, disease, pestilence and wars have not wiped out my favorite city in the world. This disaster won't either.


Peter (The Glassharper) Bennett
email: glassharper@hotmail.com

Temporary residence: Plymouth, NY, 607-334-3041

[Doctor Eric]

I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I think your soap is still there Peter. From what I have been able to piece together from satellite photos and accounts from various friends who took up firearms and refused to leave, most of the quarter is dry, what flooding is there is quite shallow, the marigny and the upper ninth ward seem to be in the same position, although there is flooding once you pass the tracks, also shallow, which should leave most places intact since they are all built 3-4 feet above the ground anyway.

And I agree with you wholeheartedly, many folks, now that the immediate threat to life is over, have been wringing their hands about the city being able to recover, and I don't think most of them understand the elastic ability of New Orleanians, those people can !@#?ing BOUNCE man. I still have a lot of hope.

By the way, do you know how Warpo is doing?

[GlassHarper]

Friends keeping track of friends

Thanks for the good wishes, Eric. I think you're right about the high land in the Quarter, although it may be some time before we can confirm it with a visit.

Warpo and Laurie (with dog Ginger) are on their way to Kansas City where they have relatives. Harry and Liz Anderson landed in Austin. Eve (Worldwidesse) is in Florida. Doug Conn is in Lake Charles. Willow and Tara (and babies and animals) are safe in ?? (senior moment).

I pray (and I don't do that often) that the mayor's guess that thousands are dead is situational hyperbole, but, again. it may be some time before we know for sure.

God bless those hardy souls who have taken on the tasks our "government" was so reluctant to do -- go in there and accomplish what they can to help!