[LittleOldLady]

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LOL,

Good post. Ive really enjoyed your posts on the situation in New Orleans. Please keep the information coming.

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Not to defend Ray Nagin who made a fool of himself and stirred a pot that didn't need stirring, but to explain the situation a little more thoroughly--

A friend of mine yesterday used the term "post-traumatic stress syndrome," and I think it applies. All the New Orleanians I have been in touch with, at home and in the diaspora, feel that what we are seeing with Nagin is some sort of psychological breakdown precipitated by that horrible week when people were on their roofs and in the Superdome and Convention Center. Nagin was always a bit of a shoot-from-the-hip guy, but he didn't get to be a highly successful businessman by being an outright fool. I would put Aaron Broussard of Jefferson Parish in the same category. He was always a bit, well, eccentric, but not the emotional basket case he has been after the storm.

I can tell you that mental health problems are cropping up in my acquaintance. I have a friend who has been the personification of pluck--she has been through the removal of both breasts for cancer without batting an eye. But she didn't evacuate when her friends begged, spent a week alone in the dark after the storm, and was rescued by helicopter just when a looter was shooting his way from house to house down her block. A self-described bookish spinster, she bought herself a big-ass pickup truck, but is afraid to drive because the street lights aren't working. She called me the other night to tell me that she is unable to bring herself to get out of bed. I told her flatly that she needs some professional help. Another friend has developed obsessive-compulsive symptoms and keeps returning to her ruined house IN BARE FEET (houses that haven't been emptied and gutted still have deep layers of toxic mud). My best friend who is the most laidback person on the planet has reported feelings of suicidal depression (and he did not lose his house). Others are reporting inability to concentrate, anxiety, raw nerves, and other symptoms of emotional distress. I myself am experiencing what I would describe as an emotional paralysis.

So I don't really blame Nagin, and he is certainly not stupid. But we need people in leadership positions who came through this ordeal in better mental shape. Oliver Thomas is certainly trying to demonstrate that he is such a person and is having some success.

This mess is unprecedented in the history of the United States, and I don't think that the rest of the country really has a grasp of the scope of the problem. Yesterday I spent yet another day on the phone with insurance. I had a violin as a scheduled valuable item on my homeowners policy. While the homeowners policy does not cover flood, scheduled items are covered for all risks. I brought this to my adjuster's attention several times (when I could get in touch with him), but he didn't pay me for the violin--which he unquestionably should have (nothing made of wood and glue could or did survive being under ten feet of water for weeks). So I called my agent (which in this case happens to be another major insurance company) and asked to file a complaint, and the woman I spoke toi asked me for a receipt for the violin. Has she lost her mind??? A receipt for a transaction that took place over a decade ago would have survived sitting in 10 feet of water? Even the documents in the safe deposit box didn't survive. Get a clue, lady.

Eighty per cent of New Orleans still looks like the backside of the moon. The people living in the "good" part of town are living without infrastructure. The half-million or so of us wherever we are are all suffering emotionally, and Ray Nagin is no different. There is supposed to be a mayoral election next month which would probably relieve him of his misery if it were to be held. Unfortuunately it has been postponed indefinitely while they try to figure out how to be sure we all have the opportunity to exercise our franchise....