New Orleans Update

Note: Harry has a home in New Orleans and has covered this story since shortly after the disaster. It's been 20 months and no one seems to care anymore. Harry does. Read the whole piece by clicking on the link below.

From Harry Shearer via HuffPo:

There were also news stories of a less celebratory nature: the Road Home program, Louisiana's attempt to funnel Federal money to NO homeowners for repair/rebuilding/resettlement, announced, through the private company that administers the program (ICF of Virginia) that it was at least $2 billion short of what would be needed to pay the claims of all the homeowners who had applied (estimates of the claimants and their damage from the federal floods had apparently been seriously short of the mark); the same program was reported to have imposed an impossibly short deadline on homeowners who opted to sell out and buy a new home in-state, a deadline that was repealed almost as soon as the story hit the Times-Picayune; and of course there was that Biblical rainstorm, sheets and sheets of water coming down on May 4, proving that the famous pumps, long able to clear the city of the most abundant rain, had been compromised by the flooding and its aftermath -- television news that day was full of video of flooded neighborhoods and, most memorably, a car at a Canal Blvd. underpass that was up to its mid-windshield in water, its wipers still running.

Read the beginning and end here.

Because some of you didn't know who he is...Harry’s Bio:

Harry Shearer is the co-creator and co-star of "This Is Spinal Tap", and has appeared in movies ranging from "The Robe" to "A Mighty Wind" to, most recently, "For Your Consideration". His weekly radio broadcast, Le Show, is heard on dozens of public radio stations nationwide, and around the world via harryshearer.com and kcrw.com.

He has been caught practicing journalism in venues ranging from Newsweek to slate.com. And he's the voice of a dozen characters on "The Simpsons". His first novel, "Not Enough Indians", is in stores now, as is his DVD, "Now You See It", featuring some classic Saturday Night Live sketches he co-created and co-starred in.

Now you know. More later.

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