heres another excerpt about nola from our friend
from an email on 12 november:
It's a funny thing, I was supposed to stay at the Sheraton on Canal but
when I got there there were pieces of heavy equipment in front and it didn't
look safe to go underneath so I called from my cell phone to see if there
was another way in. The receptionist told me to wait, in the meantime a
police officer went past and said that the sheraton was closed. I told him I
had a reservation and in typical NO style he told me I might be waiting a
long time. :-) ... so when the receptionist came back on line I asked her if
it was closed, she said no, I asked how to get in and she said she couldn't
get through to that Sheraton. she wasn't even there, she didn't know the
hotel was closed and she was a Sheraton employee. She was in another state,
in a central call center. unreal. I went [someplace else], where I've
stayed b4, and even though they are officially closed they rented me 2
weeks.
they know me there, maybe that's why, I don't know. there were FEMA and
small business admin people staying there also. and I think some contractors
and a lot of suits were staying there, they looked like FBI but I'm sure
they weren't.
some of my friends in slidell had no damage but they are leaving nola
permanently anyway.
it's such a strange situation.
...
When I was still there I watched the mayor on tv, he had town hall meetings.
some of the stuff was pretty scary. local contractors being evicted from
hotels to allow immigrant contractors in. pretty scary stuff. also I saw the
big mess hall (a tent set up for lunch and dinner) that the contractors are
eating at. it's really a weird situation. it reminded me of slave days,
rightly or wrongly so, when people brought in cheap labor. it just doesn't
seem right. some contractors and service workers are sleeping in makeshift
tents en masse under overpasses.
I see blanco on tv all the time asking for federal aid but I think she may
have lost her credibility and that's why not much is getting done the way it
needs to be done.
