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Letter To Clifford, 15
Dear Mom, 9/28/05
I haven't written to you in a while and so you may be wondering did I break my arm or a finger or a fingernail or maybe I moved away to a country with no typewriters or pencils or stamps. But none of those things has happened.
A month ago today a hurricane named Katrina hit New Orleans, which is where I lived before coming here to Virginia, and I suffered for a time worrying about people I know there and wondering if they were all right. The hurricane and subsequent failures of the New Orleans levies had almost the whole town flooded under four to fifteen feet of water. My former girlfriend, M, had not evacuated as is commonly recommended, and ended up having to be boat-lifted from her front porch. On the boat ride from her house there were people and animals who hadn't survived, floating in the street. Her house (which used to be our house) sits higher on the street than many of her neighbors, most of whom are too poor to evacuate when hurricanes come. So for a week, with no power and no phone and no way to communicate to the outside world, she and 30 others she had taken in from the street waited out the flood waters while armed looters terrorized small portions of town and the federal government fumbled around with appropriate response and assistance. For awhile, in the media, president George Bush was criticized for being a failure (because of his poor response to the crisis), which I'm sure comes as no surprise to you. M had stock-piled plenty of water and food and so everybody was ok. Your grandson, RL, and his wife, J, and your three great-grandchildren, G, and the boy/girl twins A and I, also lived in New Orleans but they evacuated before the storm and are staying with your son and my brother, DL, in Arlington. R and J's New Orleans house, according to pictures taken by satellite and published in various places, was pretty much completely under water after the storm.
The city of New Orleans is now just sparsely populated and there will be a rebuilding of the city on a scale unprecedented in modern America. So I will be going back to New Orleans to be a part of that because I have a house there too, which I had rented out when I left, and it took in some water I think, and I will have to renovate it myself. I don't know if I will end up staying in New Orleans permanently, but that I will be there for a good many months, working, is a certainty. Many people probably won't come back to the city, so it will be interesting to see what happens, what the new New Orleans will be like.
There is a party at your house in October and I will be coming in town for that. Sounds like a bunch of hullabaloo to me but maybe we'll have some fun. I am looking forward to seeing you. Hope you are high and dry and doing fine.