Thanks to an invitation to speak at the 2008 Louisiana/Mississippi Bed and Breakfast Annual Conference last week in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to take a bus tour of some of that city’s B&Bs, as well as the areas of the city that were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. One of the B&Bs I visited, the Ashtons Bed & Breakfast, experienced a lot of damage during the storm. (Picture a side of a home getting hit by a cannonball.) Many other hotels and inns in Louisiana and Mississippi were also hit hard. Their owners all deserve a lot of credit for working hard to rebuild their properties, for having the patience to slog through periods of slow business, and for dealing with tight-fisted insurance companies. (Wind insurance rates in the area have increased by up to 500 percent since Katrina.)
Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans is bouncing back in a big way but the poorest areas hardest hit are still struggling. One can still see the “X’s” on the doors of homes, indicating that they had been checked for bodies. There are still holes in the roofs of some homes where individuals bashed their way through to try to save their lives. Many did not make it. Almost 1,600 died as a result of Katrina. It was very easy to get choked up while trying to take it all in. It was overwhelming to see areas such as the Lower Ninth Ward, once buried by up to 15 feet of water. A memorial there says: “I am coming home. I will rebuild. I am New Orleans.”
Many people are coming back to New Orleans, even after the population dropped from 450,000 to 320,000 after the storm. About 61 percent in the devastated areas are back in their homes or working on their homes. Celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. have contributed funds and launched efforts to help build homes in worst-hit areas. That is exciting to see. Daily, volunteers descend on the area to help rebuild.
More Thoughts on Katrina
Here are some additional thoughts and facts from my whirlwind bus tour last week.*
• Whereas the problem spots in the levees have been addressed, the majority of the levees are still in the same condition they were in prior to Katrina. One New Orleans area TV station reported that at least one east New Orleans floodwall, built immediately after the storm, had been temporarily stuffed with newspaper to create a seal. The floodwall has since been repaired properly and pumping stations have been built to further protect New Orleans from another flood.
• The flood during the storm covered 640 square miles. More than 200,000 homes and 350,000 automobiles were flooded.
• New Orleans remains extremely vulnerable to flooding because half of the city sits five feet below sea level.
• There were 120 public schools in New Orleans before the storm; there are now 70.
• During the storm, 28,000 people stayed in the Louisiana Superdome. For six days there were no functional toilets.
• New Orleans is extra vulnerable because of the coastal wetlands that have been lost to development. It is estimated that $1.1 billion in damage was due to the loss of the wetlands.
• As with any natural disaster, there were those who took advantage of the victims. Millions of dollars has been wasted on subcontracting. Tarps for homes at one time were selling for up to $3,000.
• New Orleans lost 32 percent of its grocery stores and 30,000 street signs.
• The Federal Emergency Management Association paid up to $100,000 a piece for formaldehyde-filled trailers. At one time, there were as many as 78,000 such trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi.
• For information on Brad Pitt’s Make it Right New Orleans home-building project, click here. For details on Habitat for Humanity’s Musicians’ Village project, click here.
Let’s hope we never see another Hurricane Katrina again.
*Some of the above information is from the bus tour presentation given by Tours by Isabelle.
Wind Power—Part Two
In last week’s column I listed a number of properties that have installed wind turbines. I asked my readers if they were aware of any other properties that are using them. Carol Tumber wrote to me from the Balamku Inn on the Beach to let me know that the inn has a one-kilowatt wind turbine. It is located in Costa Maya, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.
James Post, owner of the Paradise Bay Resort & Spa in Grenada, Eastern Caribbean, wrote to add the following:
“Generally hotels do not need the current megawatt category of windmills. Five hundred kilowatts or less is good in most cases. The disadvantage of this category is that they cost significantly more per kilowatt-hour (kWh) than their larger brothers. There is, however, one solution that is very suitable for hotels: windmills from wind parks that are taken down before their time because of the need of capacity increase. These windmills are typically at half of their lifetime and after full revision they can go another 15 years. The payback time for hoteliers can be very short as the cost per kWh can be as low as $0.07, depending on financing costs and wind. I had one case where the payback time was less than three years!”
GLN Adds Roebic Laboratories Case Study to Website
Green Lodging News has added its ninth case study to its Vendor Case Studies section. The case study focuses on a large seafood restaurant, the plumbing-related backups and odor problems it faced, and how Roebic Laboratories products were used to treat the problems. Go to the Roebic Laboratories case study.
Golden Arrow Resort’s Green Roof in Full Bloom
As always, I can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
