Waiting Game Down South

Jan. 11, 2006

The media is a fickle thing. Just a short time ago, you couldn’t flip on your TV without seeing an intrepid reporter paddle through the flattened neighborhoods of New Orleans. Now the nightly news rarely mentions the hurricane and its after-effects.
“It isn’t exciting. There aren’t bodies pouring down the river,” said Bill Palladino, who recently returned from Lafayette, Louisiana. “The only thing you seem to hear about now is what people are going to do for entertainment without Mardi Gras.”
In reality, Louisiana is facing astronomical problems that are hard to describe in a 60-second news segment. And let’s be real. The word “infrastructure” puts people right to sleep. But it’s still worth the nation’s attention, Palladino said.
Palladino went south on his own dime to help with a two-day brainstorming conference on how to rebuild the state of Louisiana. Palladino is a master trainer of a planning tool called the Implications Wheel, which was invented by futurist Joel Barker. The process starts with posing a very specific idea or issue and then exploring how it will affect everything else.
For example, what will happen to Louisiana if 35 to 40 percent of the hurricane evacuees (about 400,000 people) never return, as one state agency predicts. Money-wise, the state will lose $1 billion in revenue. Secondly, huge numbers of people will be lost from the workforce and extended families will break up. Schools may close if large numbers of students don’t return. On the positive side, crime in New Orleans will likely go down due to lack of returning criminals.

DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS
Organizers of the conference (attracting 400 people) made it a point to seat poor, black residents at the same table as decision makers—say, white senators—to encourage sharing of sometimes wildly disparate viewpoints.
“Here you had politicians sitting with people on the street and *valuing* their opinions, and someone writing it all down,” Palladino said.
After returning to Traverse City, Palladino realized the average citizen has little idea of how badly the hurricane ravaged the state’s economy and all the Catch-22s of bringing it back.
“There is a cascade of issues that are so overwhelming to think about. You can’t think of opening a business without tourists, but there won’t be tourists without hotels, and the hotels need staff to operate. Right now, though, people don’t have a place to live, and they don’t want to move back unless there are hotels to work in.”
The same is true for all the industries, whether it’s tourism or shrimping or shipping. The Port of New Orleans used to handle up to 40 incoming ships a week laden with steel, rubber and coffee in pre-Katrina days. About half the ship traffic has returned, which is impressive, but the port won’t get back to normal until more truck drivers and longshoremen move back to town.

BY THE NUMBERS
In terms of numbers, New Orleans and the many towns along the Gulf have a long way to go. Before the hurricane, New Orleans’ population stood at 480,000. Now experts estimate that only about 81,000 have returned.
There are thousands of stories in Louisiana, some hopeful, others disappointing, but the stories still need to be told, Palladino said.
One story that’s particularly close to Palladino is the frustration of his co-worker Chris Wendel, who works with him at the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center.
Wendel volunteered to go into Gautier, Mississippi, to help businesses apply for disaster assistance loans through the Small Business Administration. He lived in an RV for two weeks and was protected by a U.S. Marine during his weeklong stay (yes, Virginia, there are people down there still really angry with the government
“I listened to business owners for over two hours at a time, as they told their amazing stories, and eventually we analyzed if they should even continue to operate as a business, or if they should turn, walk away and throw in the towel,” Wendel wrote in his blog . Check it out at www.cwendel.blogspot.com).
The majority of businesspeople wanted to stay, in part, because they felt they owed it to the community, said Wendel, who talked to about 100 businesses during his October visit.
Most of the people were in good spirits and showed unusual humor considering all they had lost. Others, getting on in their years, were stressed and ready to call it quits.

GOVERNMENT BUNGLING
Wendel has since experienced his own disenchantment. There have been government foul-ups with processing the SBA loans, and Wendel is still getting calls from businesspeople who tell him they have yet to receive a check.
“Several people in our group were skeptical about how the loans would be administered in a timely manner, and now some of those fears that were discussed that evening have become real,” Wendel wrote in his blog.
Government bungling, apparently, is a persistent problem. CNN reported that months after the hurricane, people in St. Bernard Parish were still living in tents, cars, tents inside their homes, and even living in barns because FEMA failed to deliver the needed number of trailers to house them. The problem: in-fighting between local, state and federal officials.
In fact, partisan bickering, time wasted on finger pointing, and debates over all the abundance of good (and bad) ideas are keeping the state in paralysis, Palladino said.
But amidst the frustration, there is good news. During his short visit to Louisiana, Palladino was impressed by the generosity of churches toward the refugees. FEMA is housing them, but the churches have taken over their care, he said.
“They are making sure they’re clothed, they’re fed, and also working with them on the social issues of finding work and getting their kids into schools. I was really impressed with the faith-based services stepping up to the plate. “
A church was delivering meals to a family of six who was staying in a hotel room next to his own. They were grateful, but clearly ready to move beyond charity.

BE A TOURIST
“Think of someone’s self esteem with no job and no prospect for a job. They were very edgy and not really interested in talking to us. It’s not over. It’s far from over. Not only for the people who were evacuated, but also for the communities who are absorbing them or trying to absorb them. They are largely low income with not many workforce skills and it’s hard for them to find jobs.”
One of the most supportive things you could do to help New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area is to visit as a tourist. Don’t assume your normal vacation destination is flattened, because it may be open for business. It’s a way of showing support for the Cajun culture, a national treasure that may be diluted or lost as New Orleans is rebuilt, Palladino said.
“They want to make sure they don’t turn into another Las Vegas or Disney.”
Speaking of tourism, a new disaster tour just started up. It’s called “Hurricane Katrina Tour -- America’s Worst Catastrophe,” and was created by Gray Line New Orleans. It seems weird. Like charging people a fee for people to rubber-neck a car accident. On the upside, 10 percent of the $35 charge will go to Katrina relief groups and the tour will give people a firsthand glimpse of the tragedy. But many residents—some who are still visiting their wrecked homes to salvage what’s left—consider the tour as tragedy porn. They say their heartache is not entertainment.