Sunday, August 23, 2015

Remember NAWLINS (baby): some of my memories before & after Katrina

 I just heard that I’m headed to the Fork Complex of fires in NorCal, and this week marks the 10-th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the havoc it wrought to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, the “Crescent City”. I was fortunate to have lived there in the early 80’s, returned in the late 90’s (more later), and then to have participated in rescue & rehab operations just after Katrina a decade ago. The last day of this month, Meme & I will be seeing Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell performing at the Santa Fe Opera. A previous time we saw her perform was on a riverboat, while we resided in “Nawlins”. I’ve been lost in a flood of memories: eddies of time and place.  So, here are a few…

ready for Mardi Gras 1983
While stationed at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, TX, I celebrated my 21st birthday there in ’68. My description of the place would’ve been: “interesting place, an alternative for some adults to Disneyland”. In August of 1981 my NPS Ranger career brought Meme & I from Arizona’s Tonto Basin to the bayous of southern Louisiana. The city is rightfully famous for Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, and all night distractions, but it also home to parks, museums and many quality pleasantries. After about 2-weeks of the summer heat & humidity, + the massive amount of trash littering the local roadways, I found myself second-guessing this promotion: I distinctly recall thinking “what have I gotten myself into?” In retrospect, it was a good move. I worked as the Supervisory Ranger (Chief, Interpretation & Resource Management) at the Chalmette Unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve. The Chalmette Plantation was the epicenter for the grand-finale of the Battle of New Orleans (January 8, 1815), 200-years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans

It also was the final resting place (National Cemetery) for veterans from the Civil War on… several musicians included.  I worked with Unit Manager A. Wilson (Will) Greene, who had studied at LSU as a graduate student, and has become a very respected Civil War historian. The highlight of each morning & afternoon was when the tour/river boat (Voyageur?) docked next to The Beauregard House, disembarked its passengers, and Rangers provided talks about the events and historic landscape: “and the British came from the area where you now see the aluminum factory…” Along with French Quarter Unit Manager, Linda Canzanelli, who founded the Jose Cuervo Training Center (JOCU), we worked with an interesting cadre on National Park Rangers. After-hours we’d meet to further various aspects of our ranger skills: I was often in need of “additional training” at JOCU.

Living in mid-city (on North Hagan Street), near Bayou St. John and City Park, provided many special memories: commuting via motorcycle through the 9th Ward, jogging along the bayou, Tulane & Saints football (yes, we had paper bags for our heads), patrolling in my “pursuit Pinto” (Chalmette was exclusive Federal jurisdiction), St. Bernard Parrish personalities (lunches at Rocky & Carlo’s were “must do!”), “The Quarter,” the music (everywhere… but special for us were hearing Jimmy Buffett at the Saenger Theater, Michael Murphy, John Stewart, The Rolling Stones). Then of course, there is our son Justin- he wasn’t born there, but we first learned of Meme’s pregnancy while residing in NOLA (before transferring to Fort Laramie, Wyoming).
            
Susan Morton - Barataria
Then, in the late 1990’s I was asked to return, and assist the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding the theft of historic statues from local cemeteries. As a Special Agent (SA) I had conducted several major Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) cases. SA Susan Morton (Regional Office in Denver) and I consulted, conferred and helped where we could: some of the perpetrators were convicted of theft under general state statutes (not statue statutes). It was a good trip with visits to Chalmette (of course, Rocky & Carlo’s), the French Quarter & Barataria Units of Jean Lafitte: didn’t realize it was my last visit until after the 2005 disaster struck: Hurricane Katrina.
            
National Cemetery wall
My first insight to the federal response to Karina came a couple of days before its landfall: I was asked to join a Type II Incident Management Team (IMT) being sent to/staged in Alexandria, LA. I missed the calls due to hiking in the Pecos Wilderness. However, within 24-hours I was asked by the Incident Commander (JD Swed) of the NPS All-Risk Type I IMT if I was available to be his Safety Officer on the Command Staff. I was. JD & I went back to “buck-Ranger” days together in AZ; while I was at Tonto he was at Petrified Forest, and we’d stayed semi-in-touch over the years. We’d soon be seeing the adverse effects of wind & water on a U.S. metropolitan area. 
Water level - National Cemetery area
We were fortunate to have Steve Holder, Logistics Chief extraordinaire, on the General Staff of the IMT. When deployed one of our first decisions was whether to report to FEMA or the NPS Director: we hemmed & hawed for milliseconds over that one… and decided for the latter.  Our initial objective was search & rescue, followed by resource/values assessments & protection, and restoration & repair. A NPS Special Events & Tactics Team (SETT) was the vanguard of our efforts, and during my travels around Nawlins, St. Bernard, and the West Bank (of the River) I usually had a uniformed driver: Public Health Service (PHS) Officer wearing full “Bird” Navy Captain uniform (O-6). It greased the skids at many a roadblock.

Some of my other memories include: responders from agencies and departments coast-to-coast; total destruction of Rocky & Carlo’s; mold, Mold, MOLD (everywhere, of course some of the mold in my former office looked the same as 20+ years before); blown over oak trees in National Cemetery with human remains in their root ball; R&R day trip to Baton Rogue; Rita road trip (no, not margarita: when Hurricane Rita headed towards us we evacuated to Tupelo, MS for a couple of days); the dedication by so many, to achieve the above objectives. 
covering remains
I prefer to ponder the many positive efforts, than the negative memories, and there were certainly enough, often perpetuated by people that weren’t there and recounting 3rd or 4th hand “information”; like the moderator at a public history conference that held-up a T-shirt that said                   “FEMA Federal Employees Missing Again”
It got a cheap laugh at the expense of a lot of emergency responders.
So again: THANK YOU to ALL that were actually there, those that supported the folks involved with our efforts, and everyone still going in Harm’s Way to protect others!
Roadway

1 comment:

  1. Great post Phil. What a gift giver you are with your words. - Pat, your favorite sister-in-law.

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