A Great Day for a March

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9 December: The temperature at midday was only in the high 80s, and the humidity and dewpoint were much lower than usual – although the sun was blazing hot – so with such a comparatively cool day I did a long march beyond my normal neighborhood walking circuits. I still returned home wringing wet with sweat. (The fact that Christmas is in two weeks is almost incomprehensible here.)
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I walked for the first time in recent months through the area further south of us that was completely flooded a month ago and impassible then to all but big military trucks. This area lies much lower than our neighborhood, so when the levees broke they got hit hard. The watermarks from the floods were sometimes chest-high at the sidewalk level, and what impressed me most today was how very low many storefronts and homes were. Many of them were flooded up to their ceilings. Complete devastation.
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In our near neighborhood, garbage piles are still appearing overnight after the cleanup from the day before. Massive amounts of furniture and belongings are ruined and thrown out. It is a rag-picker’s windfall.
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There has been a homeless family or two living on the sidewalk under the big bridge since the first flooding. Lots of little kids were running around until this week when school finally started up the new term. They have a tent for mosquito protection at night, as well as some chairs and couches. Notably, they hooked into a nearby outdoor electric outlet, and they have a huge TV set there in their little urban campsite. Life is simple in its basics, but there are priorities. (Yet I would have chosen differently: a radio and a big bag of books.)
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-Zenwind.
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