Selection From An Email

One of the Kid's landlords from New Orleans sent her an email yesterday. Here are some selected bits that I thought my four readers might be interested in:

Hello! Congrats on the house! Lots have changed since we last spoke... where to start? A.'s entire family lost everything and moved into our house while they rebuild. J. moved to Portland and was going to pay rent through January when she was coming back to finish school at Tulane. I asked here if she would consider giving up the apartment so A.'s parents could live there and she agreed. She even gave all of her furnature (sic) to them! WOW! I must admit we really have had good tenants. So we stored all her stuff until she returned to New Orleans last month. A.'s brothers family moved into our apartment with their baby! UGH! Coupled with the fact that the storm destroyed my plans to open an electronics repair shop as well as driving whatever job opportunities away, we moved. To Seattle. Yup, I am writing you from Seattle. Since we moved away A.'s parents moved into our apartment with her brother and we rented J.'s side out to a law student just yesterday. I'm not sure what you've been hearing or seeing on the news but New Orleans, and especially St. Bernard Parish is totally fucked. It's bad. St. Bernard had 100% of the buildings flooded or otherwise destroyed, including my in-laws and their restaurant. Everything two blocks north of St. Charles was flooded. Lakeview, Gentilly, Mid-City, Carrolton, NO east, 9th ward, destroyed by up to 15 feet of water. Luckily Metairie survived somewhat intact. There are still hurricane menus. Rocky's Pizza has a grand total of 2 employees at any given time as of last week.
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I've had more interviews in the last two months than I've had in New Orleans in the last 3 years. Still, I can't help feeling like I'm abandoning my city.
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I'm pissed at the feds response and to Bush's sweetheart appointment of Mike Brown to FEMA. I'm pissed at the NO city council for caring more about the power than about the city. I'm pissed that the only one with some vision, Ray Nagin, is being protrayed as a kook. He fucked up like everyone else but at least he has the balls to admit his mistakes.
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