The room is filled with geeks far geekier than I live blogging and armed with cameras, so before directing you to them, I will begin by saying it's a beautiful morning at the New Orleans Yacht Club as RT2 opens with the political panel. Our day's schedule is here (click "schedule") and we're running just a bit behind. With Lake Pontchartrain in the background and all of the boats well-tended in their slips or heading out to sail, unlike last year when their masts were still sticking up out of the water a year after Katrina.
The Rising Tide blog (a different web destination from the main conference website linked above)is up and running and I can see Ray in New Orleans, and Scout Prime of First Draft and Maitri all typing away on their computers, so click away, look around and I'll be updating this post as the day goes along. (Update: Scout's armed with camera.)
The kick off last night at Buffa's on Esplanade was wonderful with great food and really interesting Katrina-focused independent films screened as a loop so you could wander in and out from film watching to blogger schmoozing to slipping from the balmy back room into the cooler bar up front to dry off a bit. A local tv crew covered the event and we heard they led the late news with it but, we were there so we didn't see it, and since getting back to Dangerblond's and making the, er, short turnaround to getting ourselves back out here this morning (okay, we were a little late), Cynthia, DB and I haven't had a chance to check it out. Let me know if you find anything online about what's going on here.
Updates to come. Go. Now. Read.
Peace.
Update: We're listening to Tim Ruppert (USACE) current President of the Louisiana Section of the U.S. Society of Civil Engineers, is trying to explain the complex flood control issues New Orleans faces to all of us lay people, with a great deal of hope, pointing to London and, of course, the Netherlands as success stories, proof that it can be done, that's it's being done, that all the folks who say that New Orleans cannot be protected are wrong. If you're a reader of Tim's wonderful blog, you understand that, while he regards coastal restoration as an important aspect of flood protection, he feels certain that coastal restoration is not the answer, certainly not alone and that properly engineered levees and floodwall sare the only way we can be successful in protecting, not just New Orleans but all of our waterfront communities, going foward. This isn't just a New Orleans issue. It's not just a Louisiana issue. There are flood risks all around our immense coastlines as well as across our interior. I, for one, am glad we have great minds like Tim's working on this and he states that, "We [ACOE] do exactly what Congress tells us to do," and that by 2011, with all the projects in progress right now, completed, New Orleans will have 100 year flood protection in place.
One last item for this update: Maitri informs me that she has lent her laptop to Tim for his PowerPoint presentation and that she will begin live blogging (her link is above) when his session is finished. [Scout posts at First Draft that she video taped Tim's presentation and will have it posted later.]
Up Next: Matt McBride of Fix the Pumps, by video conference from Maryland. While Matt is no longer actively blogging at FtP, the content that he posted during his blog's short life is packed with importance, bringing a critical engineer's view to the current state of NOLA's flood protection, primarily as it relates to the outfall canals. His work is chocked full of raw scientific data and, while it's not easy reading, it helps us understand the problem, not just from an engineering standpoint, but politically as well.
Update: Matt's doing a great job of explaining the role of the pumping stations during flood conditions. The video conference includes his voice on audio (imperfect feed) with a small live video picture of him in the upper right hand corner of the screen and his PowerPoint presentation, which he's controlling (in Maryland). I am hoping that both Tim's and Matt's PPTs will be made available somewhere online after the conference, and, if they are, I will post links as updates. While Matt is no longer posting on FtP and no longer living in NOLA, his voice continues to be heard at places like Daily Kos and via email at Humid City.
Update: Mark LaFlaur of Levees Not War is here and asking very insightful questions. Being here has made me realize just how inadequate my gutter links have been.
Update: Lunch from Dunbar's (red beans 'n' rice, amazing fried chicken and cornbread) is concluded but no need to worry about anyone dozing off in an after-lunch stupor because because keynote speaker Dave Zirin, author of Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Promise and Politics of Sports and Edge of Sports columist, has the floor and he has the audience transfixed, more politics than sports but mostly about how they combine. There's a large magnificent yacht that's pulled up just a few feet away, outside the window and below us. There's some kind of irony/lesson there, but rather than figure out what it is, I'm going to shut up and listen.
Update: Zirin, who was amazing (I'll link to the video when it's posted) and the writers' panel is up now. Everyone seems in agreement that we all learned one thing from the aftermath of Katrina and the flood: there is no social contract. Not for the rich or the poor, the young or the old.
Final Update (at least for now): This has been a wonderful day the writers' panel was also filmed by Dambala as well as Ride Hamilton, whose post-flood film, shot while traveling the region during the aftermath with Joshua Clark, who incorporated those travels into Heart Like Water. I will post links and/or videos when there's a chance.
We're down to the final panel, "Making Civics Sexy" with activist bloggers Karen Gadbois and Bart Everson and there are still folks in all the seats listening intently, even if some of them (okay, us) have wandered over to the bar and returned with a beer. Karen just said, "I think people are enraged enough to be engaged." I hope that carries us into the coming national election cycle. The fact is, that, more than anything else, this has been about blogging, new media community and the possibilities that lie within that emerging dynamic to create social change. I can only think, as we sometimes say in the south, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
Peace, out, y'all.
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Another Update: If you're interested in what New Orleanians have to say about the upcoming Presidential (now, there's a word that's changed meaning) visit, Greg Peters at Suspect Device says it all.
Clay at NOLA-dishu has a GREAT POST with pictures of the best Dangerblond moment at RT2.
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