October 20, 2005
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

When the levees broke, I did not assume that the water could be pumped out of the city of New Orleans.  I envisioned Lake Ponchartrain with new boundries, encompassing most of the city. I pictured enterprising looters scuba diving for treasures for years to come. 

When people evacuated from New Orleans, they left with two days worth of clothing.  Most did not take jewelery or valuables or momentos of any sort.  When the water receded, it left a thin gray coating of  dirt, sewage, toxic chemicals, and traces of lead and other heavy metals on every horizontal surface, both inside and outside of buildings.  After the water receded, even objects in drawers and in cabinets were coated with the sediment of the flood. 

Hurricane Katrina is still trying to wash us away.  The flood water and its sediment are being spread beyond New Orleans as people try to salvage things from homes which sat for weeks under water.  The flood waters are reconstituted as people hose down ceramic and glass momentos in the yards of friends and relatives hundreds of miles from New Orleans.

That’s why it’s important to use chlorine bleach.  When I’m washing the relics of the flood, I hose the stuff down in the yard near a drain.   Then I soak things, also out in the yard, in vat with a solution of clorine bleach -- about 1 cup to ten gallons of water.  I don’t really measure though, I just dump the bleach in generously.  I also add a little dish soap.  Then I use rubber gloves and a scrubber not intended for future kitchen use to get the dirt off.  The dirt does not want to come off easily.  Finally, when the things look clean, I rinse them with clean water.  I put them in my dishwasher if it looks like someone might ever plan to eat off of them.  I do not plan to eat off of the salvaged dishes in any event.