Rishon Rishon

A city beyond all recognition

From Wes Meltzer:

Those of you who know me know that my family has very, very deep roots in south Louisiana -- my mother's mother's family has been there since the late 1840s, and my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mom, my brother and I were all born near the spot where my Gran and Papop lived until Sunday morning -- and I've spent many of the vacations of my lifetime in New Orleans. It's still a very raw and very painful wound.

The enormity of the destruction also looms large for my family, as with everyone else's, many of whom are suffering far more. My mom's parents' house, in the Garden District, is probably flooded only very slightly at worst, because that's one of the higher points in the city's below--sea level elevation. But everything else has been covered with water; my dad's parents live near the lake, just south of Robert E. Lee, and I shudder to think of how far under water their house must be. My aunt Doris and one of my cousins live in the eastern part of the city near where the canal broke through its levee, and their houses, too, must be flooded. Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes were devastated. As I say, all that has been spared was Uptown, so far, because of its elevation.