8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2005
Nomadic laborers clog Louisiana
Inner peace
BY TOM HAYS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert F. Bukat/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
George Greene of Tarpon Springs, Fla., left, and Jeff McIntosh of Greensburg, Ky. watch a fire in an encampment in the shadow of the Louis Armstrong International Airport, Sunday in Kenner, La.
KENNER, La. — Richard Tornow rolled into town a few weeks back in a battered pick-up truck, took a demolition job for $10 an hour and had "Katrina '05" tattooed on his right shoulder.
Tornow, 39, who hails from Embarrass, Minn. — where temperatures can dip to 50 below — has warmed to the task of cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina.
"I've got to make some money," he said last week. "As long as I'm making money, I'm staying."
But this suburb outside New Orleans wishes he wouldn't.
Officials here believe the influx of out-of-state contractors, handymen and laborers hoping to cash in on the disaster could become a public nuisance. They recently evicted scores of workers from a makeshift tent city erected in a playground
— only to see another one surface at a vacant lot near Louis Armstrong International Airport.
city with the slogan, "Everything's Right Here," is unapologetic about the "Not In Our Backyard" approach to the squatters.
The mayor for the Jefferson Parish
"We can't just have them dumping in our city," Philip Capitano said.
Residents have complained that their uninvited guests urinate in
public and run noisy generators all night, the mayor said. Now officials are exploring ways to move them to private campgrounds or other sites that offer water, electricity and sewage disposal.
age disposed. Kenner's experience. is hardly unique.
In the aftermath of hurricanes in Florida and elsewhere, authorities grappled to accommodate opportunistic workers who formed tent cities on any open land they found. Locals were left to watch the sites grow more unsanitary and disorderly as time went by.
Since Katrina hit, hundreds of workers have commandeered a large swath of the normally scenic City Park in New Orleans. Now, dome tents and RVs house the population there. Tractor-trailers waiting to haul debris from flood-ravaged neighborhoods idle at all hours.
"Wherever the disaster is, that's where we go," said Michael Caldwell, a contractor from West Palm Beach, Fla., who planted his RV in an area of the park littered with broken tree limbs and beer cans.
Lisa Lipovac/KANSAN
Tusta Krsnadas of Baldwin City performs the chant of Hare Krna mantra on Wescoe Beach. The chant is the names for God in Sanskrit.
ind downtown Lawrence
944 Massachusetts
832-8228
ROCKTOBER 2005
07 AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
WHITE WHALE
12 CONNER • THE FIREBIRD BAND
12 KIOKS BENEFIT /W/ THE BILLIONS
PERWINKIE & THE VIVID TANGERINE
14 OK JONES CD RELEASE PARTY!
14 MORNINGWOOD
16 MEM WOMEN & CHILDREN
18 BROKEN SPINDELB •ULTRAVOLET
18 KUF DELTA FORCE PARTY!
W/4TH OF JULY • TAMARIND FOLD
WHY? • AQUEDUCT
NOVEMBER 2005
02 OKERVILL RIVER • MINUS STORY
04 BULLETS & OCTANE
08 CHIN UP CHIN UP
09 DEERHOOF
10 THE STATISTICS • THE POMONAS
13 DJ SWAMP
16 THE THIEVES
18 MILE MARKER
1.50 PBR, BUD LIGHT, SHINER DRAWS
MONDAY THRU WEDNESDAY!
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- Spring Break - Rail Tickets - Air-Fare
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