Boat Problems

These sailboats are residue of the New Orleans West End Marina Post Katrina cleanup.

Ka-tri-nas [kuh-tree-nas] -nown -Definition: any one of the billion visual oddities seen in Post Katrina New Orleans.

You should have seen this marina a year ago. Boats were stacked everywhere and blocked navigation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) directed the US Coast Guard and US Army Corps of Engineers to salvage boats only if they hindered navigation, but wouldn't let them salvage boats not in the way - like these. Sailboats are one thing, but many hundreds of mom and pop commercial fishermen's boats are grounded in all kinds of strange places across South Louisiana. In most cases, helping a fisherman get his boat back in the water also puts his family back in business and results in a quick return to self reliance. They certainly would have appreciated the help and our government rather than feel bitter about being left high and dry, broke, in debt and out of business.

See more of my imagery showing the results of the worst engineering disaster in US history here.

We're working hard to rebuild New Orleans higher, stronger, safer and smarter. We intend to rebuild our flooded home out of a concrete panel rapid construction system (from www.m-2usa.com) and our living space will all be above the Katrina flood line with parking and storage at ground level. We are very excited about not using wood. Our home will be pretty much hurricane, flood and fire proof, very energy efficient with extreme insulation 'R' values because of the foam layer between steel reinforced concrete layers. The resulting house will be one big monolithic piece of reinforced concrete. No termite contract! We're very excited about our plans to go home, but it sure is taking a lot longer than we want.

Outsiders want us to shrink our footprint, increase green space and all kinds of things that probably make sense wherever they come from. Many New Orleanians endlessly complain about our mayor's lacking leadership abilities, but personally, I believe he is doing the right thing for our people. I call his plan the 'dowachawanna' plan. His plan does not tread on either our human or property rights. The outsiders' plans are designed to create a better much more wealthy city at the expense of our city's people and would horribly infringed on the rights of tens of thousands of Americans.

Ray Broussard

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USA-Canada / USA-Louisiana

Lat: 30° 1' 31.61" N
Long: 91° 8' 3.4" W

Elevation: 90° 7'3.40"W

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

D70s, Sigma 12-24, Peace River 3Sixty