marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Hello,
A huge, heartfelt, squinty-eyed-with-emotion "thanks" to all of you
who have written either myself, or the bar that employs me as manager
(the Phoenix Bar), to inquire about how we are doing, and how the bar
and its staff are doing. You have no idea how very much it has done
for my outlook to observe the outpouring of worry and support in the
aftermath of Katrina.
First, let me apologize that this is a bulk email. I promise to those
of you who are family or close friends that a personal email will
follow when time allows. Right now, time just does not allow. I am
lucky just to have this chance to be online for that matter.
Now let me try to answer all the many questions, one at a time.
My partner Billy and I are alive and well. So are our two cats. We
evacuated New Orleans on Sunday afternoon and got as far as we could.
Due to traffic, that was not as far as would have been, well, better.
Long story short, we ended up in a tiny hotel south of Hattiesburg.
That is actually just 30 or 40 or so miles from the coast? Or
something like that. The traffic was a nightmare and it was the best
we could do. And long story turned ugly, the storm track changed a bit
at the last minute, good for New Orleans (which was devastated even
after this little turn) but not good at all for Mississippi. It
tracked directly over us! I guess we can say we evacuated, AND rode it
out.
I have never seen this sort of region-wide devastation in my life. I
need to keep this short as far as our personal tale goes, so let me
just say, the situation in places like Hattiesburg right now is far
grimmer than what you might read on the news, and also more desperate.
After the worst 96 hours of my life, we are safe in a hotel in
Jackson. We will shortly head for Memphis, and then loop down wide
around the destruction zone to a place offered to us for a while
outside Lafayette.
I know you are eager for inside info, so let me just give this example
of the desperation of people down here. We left our hotel at one
point, and when we came back, a road block was up. We were not allowed
back into the area where we had been allowed to check into a hotel.
Humm. So for three days I had no id, no wallet, little cash, and a car
with little gas, plus no way to reach our hotel, where our possessions
such as cats and laptops were stuck without us. Men with M16s and
stern looks seemed to think that people from New Orleans with no place
to sleep were the enemy, not the people they were supposed to help. I
met a woman with a baby who took some shade with Billy and I on
Wednesday, by a building, when it was 96 degrees. Like us, she had not
bathed probably since Saturday. She wanted her baby to not get
sunburned. She said someone had said she needed to pay more attention
to her personal hygiene. Also smelling like barnyard animals, we
joined her in a hearty laugh on the cosmic tragicomedy of what was all
around us. She'd slept with her baby in the Wal-Mart parking lot the
night before, right on the pavement, and someone told her to work on
her hygiene. Funny, yes, but today I felt sad to read about the guy
who shot his sister in Hattiesburg that same day over a bag of ice.
That is how grim it was down there. I would like to erase those 96 or
so hours from my memory. Yet let me say I feel Billy and I are lucky,
very lucky. We have our lives and each other. We are not separated,
wondering if the other one is alive, or where. We are well aware of
the much greater (much, much greater) suffering of so many others and
deeply appreciative just to be here. However that said I will not lie
and say that we are not basically a total mess of depression and grief
over what feels something like a psychic amputation. That is how we
described it to each other in the car at one point, like having our
lives amputated, city, community, homes, bars, possessions, friends,
and all. So thanks for caring, because it does truly help me remember
that this will pass. The feeling that all is hopelessly lost is just
that, a feeling. Thanks for making that so clear.
Enough about us. Many of you have written to inquire about the status
of the Phoenix Bar. Well, all I can say is, information is extremely
hard to come by regarding the level of flooding and wind destruction
in our neighborhood. After spending this morning trawling the web for
information, taking breaks because it is just too awful to see all
that death and destruction and know it was where you lived, all I can
say is that there is basis for a shred of optimism, and not much more.
It seems that the immediate area of the Phoenix flooded no more than
three to six feet, which is not enough the ruin the bar. However, we
have no information at all on the physical status of the bar. It might
be intact, or completely destroyed. We just do not know. We know that
looters completely ransacked the nearby grocery, and pharmacy, as well
as many homes right there, and another bar in the area, so I have to
assume the Phoenix has been emptied of any valuable contents, being a
bar after all. But I do not know that. Maybe we got lucky. Also, just
now, a post to a mailing list for that neighborhood seemed to imply
that the bars in the area were mostly intact, which would suggest the
Phoenix is standing.
In any case, as much as I and so many of you love the Phoenix, it
truly is not my first concern right now. I and the recent new owners
of the Phoenix, Tim and Bobby, are much, much more worried about the
health and welfare of my staff, the neighborhood residents, and the
people of the city in general, many of whom were our steady customers
and friends.
In that regard, the new owners and myself were adamant that the bar
close promptly when it became clear everybody really needed to leave.
We made it clear on Saturday night we would be closed by midday Sunday
and encouraged everyone, staff and customers, to leave while they
could. The Phoenix has never closed in over 23 years, not once, so I
think this woke some people up. I sure hope so. Anyway, I can tell you
that all of the staff did evacuate, except for possibly:
* Red ~ I got an answering machine every time I called to urge her
to do so, which makes me hopeful she did evacuate.
* Ron, who was tending to his mother in Arabi ~ I do not know
whether he moved with her to the Superdome or not, and I am deeply
worried for him.
* Bartenders Darron, Erick, and KaCey intended to stay in an
industrial warehouse where KaCey works. I had a text message from
Darron indicating they were okay "so far" during the peak of the storm
hit on New Orleans, and I have not heard from any of them since. Even
though I know they would not likely have the ability to reply right
now, this is weighing on me heavily.
* Tony, the DJ, could not be reached at all. He knew we were
closing, having worked the Saturday night before, and I recall him
saying he was making plans, but I do not know what he did and I feel
worried for him, too.
I have lived in New Orleans over three years and it always struck me
that people were terribly jaded about the possibility of the Big One.
I can tell you though that as it became evident the Big One was upon
us, people who never before could be persuaded to leave, did leave.
The future? It is becoming very clear that New Orleans is going to be
completely emptied of people and then will not be inhabited by anybody
except disaster recovery personnel for at least two to three months,
and maybe longer. So, I just cannot tell you when or whether the
Phoenix will re-open. So much depends on the recovery effort related
to the city overall. I will say that it is my personal belief that the
community of which the Phoenix is but one part, will eventually
recover, and grow again, and I sincerely hope that the Phoenix will be
a part of that slow return to life again. This is the best I can
offer, is hope. I do hope that there will be new post-Katrina memories
to be had in the Phoenix, and in New Orleans, as this awful event
becomes history.
But right now, we have to focus on helping those in dire need. Many of
you have asked what you can do. Well, on a larger level, please take
my word for it (I have witnessed it firsthand, painfully so) that
THERE IS AN OVERWHELMING NEED FOR BASIC LIVING ASSISTANCE in a huge
swath of the Gulf coast region and I am talking about things like
water, food, and a place to sleep, much less things like clothes, the
luxury of information about the world outside the mosquito infested
baking hot hell that surrounds you, or a place to stay long-term while
you get your life back together after everything you ever had is
toast. I am not talking about me here, but people I have seen. I will
always remember the time between Monday morning and Wednesday night as
the worst little spell of hell I ever had to endure, but what Billy
and I went through was nothing compared to what we saw others having
to deal with, such as people separated from their family or loved
ones, or with kids in tow, and so on.
PLEASE donate to the Red Cross. PLEASE get your spare clothes
together. PLEASE listen to the local offices of the Red Cross about
what they need and how you can help, and do it. The misery out there
is so intense, I can hardly stand to think about it, and it is going
to get worse. It is hot, muggy, and sunny down in these parts. There
is no power, no gas, no food, no shelters, no phones ... apparently
New Orleans felt that just evacuating to other people's homes was a
great solution, while the other people felt they did not need to
prepare for hurricanes at all, much less make a plan to deal with all
the folks from New Orleans. The result is a giant mess of suffering,
and it just has to be seen to be believed, in terms of the scale of
devastation and lack of preparedness to cope.
So PLEASE go to the Red Cross site and donate. It is here:
http://www.redcross.org/
Many of you have offered personal assistance to myself and Billy, and
for that, I am so grateful and I wish I could find words to tell you
how greatly these offers have mattered to me, and not on the material
level you might think.
I've always believed that people were fundamentally good and that we
as a people had it in us to build a better world, and that we would ~
that we were. Unfortunately there were times in the last few days when
I marveled at the sheer lack of caring and compassion demonstrated by
so many people we encountered. What most amazed me, as well, was how
the people who were most interested in helping others out, were the
ones who had very little to offer except words of assurance, or maybe
something to drink, or a borrowed gas can, or what not. We folks from
New Orleans were all eager to try to help each other out as we could,
while, well, let's not throw stones and just say it was amazing to
feel like a very much unwanted refugee in one's own country. Aren't we
all Americans? Anyway, the number of people who acted in line with my
fundamental beliefs about "how people are" was, well, so far less than
I ever imagined in a natural disaster situation. It shook my basic
notions of humanity.
Finally being somewhere normal (bed, shower, TCP/IP connection to
world network  ) and observing the outpouring of concern and
support from what felt like the whole world, as my inbox filled, for
everyone associated with this little old bar called the Phoenix, has
somewhat reassured me.
Now, as to assistance to particular persons associated with the
Phoenix ~ I am not yet able to reach other staff, though I have been
trying. Keep in mind the basic phone and telecommunications network
across the South is disrupted. But I think it is likely a lot of the
staff will need help with temporary housing, income, the whole nine
yards. I will let you know as I know, what the situation is. In the
meantime, if you want to hear from me further about the Phoenix staff
and their recovery and about the bar, I need you to send me a NEW (not
reply to this) email with JUST your chosen email address in the body
of the message. Send it to newlist@phoenixbar.com. I will collect
these and make a new distribution list for people who want to be
informed of Phoenix-related news as it develops.
Separately from your request to be on that email list, you are welcome
to send me your thoughts and any information you might have about the
Katrina aftermath. And by all means, if you want to volunteer
temporary shelter and possibly employment opportunities for Phoenix
staff, preferably still within a day's drive of the city, that would
be great.
But please remember that the city is devastated, and it will be a
while before there is any Phoenix to visit again. Please focus on the
whole population and its dire need, and give to the relief effort for
everyone.
Oh, and to the guy who wanted to know if the bar would be open this
weekend, and did I get his resume: Yes, I got your resume. No, we will
not be open this weekend. I'm sorry, but what planet did you say you
were from? Turn on the TV!
I have to go get gas for the road tomorrow. (This may take many
hours.) Thanks again to all who wrote. I will send more as I learn
more about the Phoenix and the future of the city.
Warmly and Thankfully Yours,
DB | The Phoenix Bar
webmaster@phoenixbar.com
http://www.phoenixbar.com
P. S. Remember, to get further emails from me about the recovery as
far as it concerns the Phoenix and our staff, send a NEW email with no
content except your preferred email address, to newlist@phoenixbar.com.
What amazes me is the (not unexpected) lack of preparation... Go figure...
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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