Beyond the Bons Temps Roulez

Posted: April 30th, 2010 | Filed under: Politics, Ruminations | No Comments »

Dateline New Orleans 04/30/10.

This morning I’m thinking of Ernie.

He was our guide when we took an exciting and informative air boat ride through the swamp during the Daze Between. Ernie grew up in the area of the Barataria basin, which contains the bayous we toured. My guess is that other than his time in Baton Rouge where Ernie majored in history at LSU, he’s spent most of his life at home in his familiar bayous. His appreciation and unfettered love for the land and waterways came through in his every word.

The bucolic area is a 20 minute drive from New Orleans. Thanks to the oil spill, it is in serious danger. They’ve started pumping fresh water into the basin, 4,000 cubic feet/ second from David Pond in St. Charles Parish. And it’s but one of many imperiled areas.

Just short of a quarter of a million gallons a day of oil is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. By the time I write this on Friday morning, it’s probably already reached land. If that’s what you can call the already wetland depleted area down river from the Crescent City.

Best estimates say it will take a couple of months to cap the leak. The perils of slow and inadequate response to such a major crisis — default governmental character traits around here — are already rearing their ugly heads.

Some around town are complaining of the oily odor and other physical symptoms. The air is now being monitored more closely. Joanie has had a headache for the last day. Sinuses, she thought. Petroleum contaminants in the breeze, perhaps???

I’m inclined once again to invoke Randy Newman’s anthemic dirge about the perils of this land, “Louisiana 1927.”

Instead a line from Dylan comes to mind.

“Bury the rag deep in your face/ Now is the time for your tears.”

Last night on a return trip for sublime grilled oysters at Drago’s, our waiter expressed the increasing fear that the oyster beds will be a major casualty of this eco-crisis. So too, shrimp and other Gulf seafood. And birds. And plants. And the shoreline. And thus the economy and well-being of the denizens of this ill-fated land.

This is like some unlikely aftershock to the devastation of Katrina. And like that “natural” disaster, this one is, at the very least, exacerbated by the foibles of man, and arguably caused by us. Safety precautions are inadequate even in theory, and unworkable in execution.

While it’s not factually applicable, I’ve got to go here before ending this lament.

New Orleans and the Gulf Coast sure have gotten way more than their fair share of not fair.

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