dj soul sister speaks to you (i.e. my katrina life, new orleans)

Well, the time both you and I have been waiting for finally happened yesterday. I went home to New Orleans.

Following the lead of my aunt who "snuck" into the city the previous day, my family and I decided that we were going to check things out, see what was left of home. Keep in mind that New Orleans residents haven't been given the official OK to go back. And now I know why.

The first thing that hits you upon entering post-Katrina New Orleans, after passing checkpoints swarming with surprisingly friendly and caring National Guardsmen, is the color of the city or, should I say, the lack of color.

Anyone whose house had even just 1 inch of water can expect to see brown grass on their lawn. All the neutral grounds - brown. Bushes - brown. Flowers - dead. Trees - dead.

And speaking of trees, they're everywhere laying on the ground, next to power lines that hang and lay where you least expect them. They're the barrier that make it unsafe for those of you who weren't in heavily flooded ares.

And speaking of flooding, my neighborhood got 4 feet of water, which is miraculous considering that some neighborhoods suffered 11 and 12 feet of flooding.

Folks, let me tell you something about flooding and water and something that has been left out of the media. No one specifically tells you that when you've been flooded out, mold and mildew is left behind. Not the kind of mold that you can wipe off with some Comet and Lysol. I'm talking huge, moist black and green circular globs of rapidly reproducing fungi living on the couch in your den. A smell that sticks to your skin and clothing long after you've left the moldy pit. It's purely disgusting.

And the smell - a lot of people have talked about this. The only smell I could describe is one where everything is burned badly. (The smell is probably worse where there was higher water and dead bodies and animals afloat.)

So you've got a charred scent, brown foliage and a wet, moldy house, trees and power lines down, a burned house or business here and there - a recipe for poor living conditions. Except, in the middle of all this, our air conditioner was on! Yes, we neglected to turn the thing off before we evacuated so it stayed on, which meant that we miraculously had power. Thank God my uncle had the foresight to break open the lock box outside and turn the power off before we entered our home. After all, electricity and water do not mix.

While the cool air conditioning probably worsened conditions with the growing mold on the first floor of the house, it kept everything nice and cool and cozy for my records on the second floor. YES - THEY ARE OK - MY RECORDS (the ones I saved) ARE SAFE AND SOUND!!!!! (Everything on the second floor is OK.)

I don't care about the fact that I did lose my CD burner, 12" Yamaha Speakers, Squier PA Amp System, computer, tons of blaxploitation videos, one backup turntable and a few LPs (maybe all my CDS and 45s), and my car, I am just happy that I still have the majority of my LPs, plus my turntables, mixer, and other DJ gear.

Praise God - Hallelujah!

And, the more I think about it, I might want to return to New Orleans after all. As gross as it looks right now and as awful as the destruction to community and buildings is, and as sick as I feel when I think about what happened to the stranded evacuees, when I got in there and looked around my city, I missed it like hell.

But in the meantime, I've got other things to think about - like my escape to New York next week. Woohoo!