Water to the Lower 9th
Much of the lower 9th ward got water on Monday, more than eight months after last fall’s levee breaches and just in time for the mayoral runoff election. Good to see that Nagin cares so much about his people. In March Nagin offered the disingenous excuse that a lawsuit forcing the city to actually notify residents before bulldozing their homes caused much of the delay.
Also, to counter a common misconception, much of the area that got water service restored Monday, such as the Holy Cross neighborhood, is above sea level.
On Tuesday I interviewed lower 9th property owner and advocate Cora Charles in her home on Alabo street, where she has tacked a photo of a picturesque house and neatly kept garden to the front of the partially sheet-rocked structure, the same house nine months later. Charles, who evacuated for Betsy with her young sons, talks about Hurricane Betsy in 1965, her home, and the lack of leadership in the city. The interview was interrupted by the visit of a neighbor who is now living in Minnesota and had only been back once time before this.
Cora Charles on the failure of the government