Lauren McCroskey is a recent member of 4Culture's Preservation Advisory Committee. She serves as a Cultural Resources expert with the Army Corps of Engineers, specializing in preservation of the built environment. In November, Ms McCroskey's unit was assigned to assist FEMA in assessing the impact of Hurricane Katrina on historic sites and structures in and around New Orleans. While on assignment in New Orleans she sent the following stories to friends and colleagues around the country. It is a rare inside look at the realities of conditions in the region.
The following are e-mail journals sent to family and friends between October and December 2005 while I was deployed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to assist with historic preservation concerns following hurricane Katrina. I would like to thank FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, for providing this amazing opportunity. Please note that my views are personal observances no doubt colored by my own life story, and do not reflect official views of these federal agencies. Finally, to the many wonderful people I worked with, and to the courageous people of the Gulf region, thanks for your humor, intelligence, and generous spirit.
--Lauren McCroskey
1. Greetings from Baton Rouge
Hi -
Finally a moment to write - this is our "day off" which means a half day (6 hours) instead of the usual 12. So much to report. This may come out as random babbling as things come to mind. And, sorry I don't have time to write individually.
We were spared the tent - lodging at Holiday Inn Express (nice, clean, with refrig and microwave), and a beautiful Whole Foods to alternate with restaurant food. Have heard colorful tales about the barge "housing" with mini bunks and tiny showers, but they apparently had "good grub."
Weather very pleasant, sunny, 70-80, and not humid. Baton Rouge is a traffic nightmare - with the population doubled from the storm exodus.
Our offices are in an abandoned department store - huge building with makeshift layout of endless cubicles, wires strung precariously everywhere - occasional shrieking intercom system that formerly announced "clearance" sales. Overall looks like a massive war room. Funny and bizarre stuff tacked up everywhere, and every kind of map imaginable with daily updates and tabulations on progress - from the blue roof project to levee data, and endangered species recovery. This temp operation has offices for many fed agencies, including state and local.
I sit among Corps team members, all of whom do fascinating things. The guy behind me is the mortuary coordinator, building a mortuary and forensic facility for the 1,100 and counting dead. His program also recovers floating caskets and vaults - mostly from the Rita devastated Lake Charles area. Could say a lot more on the subject of bodies, but probably better not. Our building here is next to the old Magnolia Cemetery, with amazing headstones, vaults, and ancient trees. Should be fitting for Halloween.
 We work closely with debris coordinators, and every day there's something new - yesterday a report of contractors cutting down historic trees for firewood - in a landmark battlefield! The links between what everyone else is doing and historic preservation are amazing. Everyone is very nice, helpful, and willing to expand their thinking beyond their area of expertise.
Overall, I'm very impressed with the people who are here - as someone said, everyone's a volunteer and wants to be here to help.
Have gone partly in to New Orleans, but not to the worse devastation. Everyone says things are so much improved, though that's not much consolation. Lake Ponchartrain has a sickly unnatural color with a brown haze . . . scary. Will go deeper into some parishes next week with FEMA historic preservation ground teams.
What we're doing: The scope and tasks are a little different than expected, but will be very challenging and exciting. We are working directly with FEMA's Historic Preservation officer, and will, among other things, be developing demolition guidelines for historic properties (have also done some commentary on demo related to potential archeological concerns), contributing to the historic preservation component for the New Orleans Environmental Impact Statement, and other tasks yet to come, maybe some programmatic agreement. A big focus of our job is to be a liaison between the Corps and FEMA, an educational and PR challenge.
Many meetings, interviews, all fascinating. The pending demolition issues are enormous and hugely volatile, politically, socially, and culturally. As one person said, "this is a bottle of nitro and we're in a bumpy truck."
What others are doing: Surprisingly - or not - the level of participation implied by some historic preservation orgs is not as expected on the ground. FEMA runs this show, and has hired its HP firms and contractors to do the baseline assessments of properties, and augment some surveys. Meeting next week to talk about an expanded historic district and some new eligibility issues.
The biggest challenge in all of this is the environmental justice issues, and how to meld with HP issues, and economic pressures. No precedents here, everyone's learning as we go along. Lots of misinformation, and myths on what FEMA and the Corps will/can do - we'll all have to work with public affairs to tackle this problem. Also, the local politics are exactly as stereotyped. Lots of Juniors and Jimbos wanting contracts for relatives, etc.
Overall, the situation here is so much more complex than imagined, and news reports from afar only skim the realities of what's going on locally. About 90% of this is politics. We learn much just from the local newspapers and newscasts that never gets out on a national level.
Finally, I now grasp that we are in the emergency response phase, which is FEMA's mandate. And since we are tasked directly to FEMA that too is our role. For the most part, FEMA has no role in the rebuilding/redevelopment of the region. As a result, hate to say, we're really not in any position to ask for additional employees or volunteers. They have paid for us to be here, but we don't call the shots on the staffing. FEMA, as I said, has already contracted out a lot of what's happening on the ground through its standing contracts and are pretty well staffed. We're expecting about 60-90 day gig here. I'm coming home for Thanksgiving, and Xmas. This is something I wouldn't have missed, though grueling with the 12 hour days and 6 hours on Sunday. Really no time for anything but work, eating, and sleeping.
Signing off. More to come later . . . Love to hear from you all, though I may not always be able to respond - not ignoring you, just swamped or exhausted!
Love, Me
--Lauren McCroskey
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