NEW ORLEANS NINTH WARD UNDERGROUND
KATRINA ORAL HISTORY - COMPLETE TEXTS

E.P. (Eric William Pierson)

The fallout has been almost as devastating as the event itself. First off, I will say now, that New Orleans will never be what it was - the whites have gotten what they want and the bourgeois blacks have gotten what they want. Unfortunately, what they wanted to banish from the New Orleans is the very thing that gave the city it's songs and it's soul. Everything left will just be a small fragment left behind, or a recreation from someone who may or may not have experienced it. New Orleans will be staler now, it will be a living memory, an antique piece of furniture. When the hurricane hit my then wife (more on that later) and I left for Alabama until I found some work in LA and went out west. I returned to Alabama to retrieve my wife and view the damage of our home. It was devastating - the city was horrible, and I only saw a third of it. My house was salvageable, but my hope and will to live there was gone. The political catastrophe, for me, brought to a head all the things that I hated about the GNO. The lackadaisical attitude (the curse of the south) that does nothing for governing, burst like a bottom boil on a lower demon's ass and landed right on the unfortunates face, as it always has here; poor schools, shitty roads, corrupt utility services. I said, "Fuck it, I'm movin’. I knew I'd never raise kids there, so it was time to move on. So the wife, dog, cat, and lizard loaded up the truck and headed west. We made it to LA and our dog died on my birthday, my wife became pen pals with a friend in prison and stayed pretty much drunk (just after getting out of rehab) and became pretty miserable. Well she went to visit family and found her prison pal out of jail. So when she came back to LA she & I called it quits and she took 800 dollars, the truck, and left me with the animals After 7 years of being together, that was that. The prison guy is facing ten to twenty years. I'm now in the Film Production Union, have contacts to get an agent for acting and have a smart little trailer in the heart of Hollywood in my friend’s back yard. I'll be going to New Orleans to work on a film that is working the whole Katrina angle, get my things, finalize the divorce, do something with the house and see my family for last time for a while. The irony is I'll miss Mardi Gras (which is OK since last years was really perfect) and I'll have to be staying in the same town where the prison guy was in imprisoned!!!? That shit is too funny. The worst part of all this? There's too much bad for Katrina victims to think and talk about, but it's best to just keep going forward, however each individual see's fit. There, here, where ever. Good Luck Lady New Orleans, you've learned me well. a la ba, Se la vie, laizze le bon temp roule. - EP

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