New Orleans-The Plucking Continues

PresHallBanjo3, originally uploaded by carolWorldLeader.

Unfortunately, they appear to be plucking people out of flood waters and off of rooftops. Hopefully, one day soon, the only plucking to do in town will once again be of the banjo variety.

This was taken inside of Preservation Hall which, unfortunately by now, is probably covered mostly in water.

I have to stop watching the news. I have to, I have to, I have to. I keep feeling like I want to watch, but I shouldn’t, and I do anyway. I’m addicted to the coverage. This one’s really “gotten me.”

So, I was thinking yesterday, while I was watching some poor folks being plucked from the rooftops on my TV (as I have been, unfortunately, for the past few days) “What if…what if everybody who has been watching TV for 3 days straight were to donate $10 to the Red Cross. Would that help?” $10, you see, is about the price of a movie these days and, as much as I hate to admit it, the news coverage has been a main source of “entertainment” for many folks over the course of the storm. Why not pay, just as you would, for a “normal” movie? This is, of course, just a suggestion from the bowels of the back of my mind, which is flooded with too much storm coverage at the moment.

I was talking to Steve about the storm the other day and he raised an interesting question. So, we’re all hearing about how the levees have been breaking, and we know that they keep the waters at bay but, the big 20 foot water-wall question of the day is, how exactly do you fix a levee? I mean, once it breaks and all, how do you fix it?

I just have visions of scuba divers chewing gum and sticking it on with their thumbs or something, but I’m sure that this isn’t right.

I know that the Army Corps of Engineers is down there helping. If anybody, in the history of the universe, would know how to fix a levee, it would probably be those guys. They know how to fix a lot of stuff.

Usually, the army sends them in to build bridges and stuff while they are being shot at, deep behind enemy lines. Oh, and like, they have to get out right away before being spotted. This is just a little floating fun for them. Almost like a walk in the park.

Ok, maybe actually a walk in the lake.

But, back to my original question, it appears, unfortunately, that they don’t know either. Latest word is that they have tried dumping sand and this didn’t work so now they are resorting to “plan b” which consists of loading up barges with rocks and pushing them next to the existing levee bottom, in the hopes that this will control the water.

A beached barge full of rocks? So that’s how you fix a levee. Who knew?

Until next cinaburst…