Want to help rebuild New Orleans, help the environment and make your skin beautifully clean? Then buy a bottle (or bottles) of Kiehl’s “Aloe Vera” Biodegradable Liquid Body Cleanser. 100% of the net profits from the sale of this product will support “Make It Right” which is an initiative co-created by Brad Pitt to help build environmentally sustainable, affordable housing for the displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina.
takepart and get your Kiehl’s Aloe Vera Biodegradable Body Liquid at http://www.kiehls.com Also learn more about “Make It Right” and get involved at http://www.makeitrightnola.org.

This hurricane season brought an above average number of storms, and Mexico, with storms on both coasts, can attest that it ain’t over yet.   Tropical Storm Marco, approaching hurricane strength, touched down in the east, forcing evacuations of schools and oil platforms near Veracruz.   Fortunately, no major damage has been reported yet.   And in the west, Hurricane Norbert moves northeast growing in strength, and is expected to touchdown around the Baja Peninsula around Saturday.

takepart with Wecansolveit.org and see what can be done about climate change.

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Inconvenient Truth of the Day

Photo: Washington Post

One of the perks of being an Emmy attendee is the fabulously over-the-top gift suites. This year, The Alive Expo suite included two rooms full of eco friendly freebies at The Sofitel Hotel in WEHO. One room was full of lifestyle and fashion including jewelry made from recycled bottles by Smart Glass. The other room offered a variety of body-friendly treats like Omega 3 vitamins, Oreganol, Cod Liver Oil and Honey infused wheat grass.

Across town, LA-publicist Melanie Segal rented an entire house in Beverly Hills. Celebs were invite to stop in get primped for the awards with manis, pedis and massages courtesy of Mobile Spa and hair touch-ups from T3 Micro. They could also snag Apple iPods and Plantronics Bluetooth headsets. Guests were asked to make donations to Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right NOLA” organization and to autograph the celebrity sign-in board, which will be auctioned off to benefit the charity.

“Make It Right NOLA” is all about building green affordable housing on a large scale to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. For more on “Make It Right NOLA” and to get involved takepart check out http://www.makeitrightnola.org

Hurricane Ike continues to be a nightmare for the people of Texas.

On Galveston island, there is still no water, no power, no working toilets, no food, no phones. The fetid air and the lack of running water is becoming an increasing health hazard. All evacuees have been ordered to stay away until further notice.

One of the largest recovery operations in Texas’ history is now underway but as of Monday afternoon roughly 1.65 million Texans had no electricity and more than 3 million homes and businesses in several states across the region were without power. Millions are still facing food, water and gas shortages and the devastating storm is responsible for at least 7 deaths in Texas and 30 deaths over all in eight states across the United States, including six in Louisiana and one in Arkansas.

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Hurricane Ike is headed straight for Galveston, TX and is expected to make dangerous landfall as a category 3 storm.

The National Weather Service issued this dire warning to residents of Galveston: “Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family, one- or two-story homes, will face certain death.” Forecasters said the mammoth storm could cause floods of 15 to 22 feet above sea level which is higher than many houses on the island. In 1900, a hurricane killed more than 8,000 people on Galveston Island.

Ike is heading towards Houston and authorities are urging people who do not live in coastal floodplains to remain home. We are still saying: Please shelter in place, or to use the Texas expression, hunker down, said Judge Ed Emmett, the chief administrator for Harris County, which includes Houston.

Twenty-two men aboard a 584-foot freighter that broke down in Ike’s path, about 90 southeast of Galveston  have to ride out Hurricane Ike because the situation remained too dangerous for a rescue attempt by the Coast Guard.

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Baton Rouge is slowing recovering from the paralysis caused by Hurricane Gustav damage. The photo above is of a dear friend’s house. He and his wife are back at work, his children are back at school, but they won’t be moving home for quite some time. The rental market in Baton Rouge (particularly for families) is incredibly tight right now, and the surrounding areas are further behind with recovery and have even fewer options.

The city is in the transition phase from the sprint to get life functioning again and the marathon to getting life back to normal. For instance, commute times are close to twice as long as normal becuase so many street lights remain either completely out or blinking. My family said that the feeling around town is very strange: you’re happy to have your electricity back, but you’re saddened to see the brush piles, destroyed homes, tarped roofs, and food lines. Updates below:

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Carl Pope, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, wrote an amazing piece on the Huffington Post about Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Gustav’s impact on policy, infrastructure and government responsibility.

Here is the beginning of the piece:

Three years ago Katrina devastated New Orleans and upended American politics. Gustav has proved to be kinder, at least so far, to the Crescent City and to the Gulf Coast in general, but it was still a sobering reminder of some basic truths. Its impact on politics remains to be seen.

Truth 1: Hurricanes are big; nature is bigger. Natural systems, not engineered ones, are the only defenses big enough to rely on in a big storm. Hurricanes get their energy from passing over heated water and lose it when they hit land. Storm surge builds in open water but dissipates rapidly in coastal wetlands or barrier islands. One acre of wetlands typically absorbs one million gallons of water.

South Louisiana is in such big trouble because we allowed its wetlands to be starved — courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers — of the natural silt and sand that fed them and because they were then opened up to storm surge and erosion — courtesy of oil and gas drilling. Our first priority on the Gulf Coast after immediate recovery needs to be wetlands restoration. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before the coastal regions become uninhabitable or vanish beneath the waves.

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Hurricane Ike pummeled Cuba today killing 4 people and causing millions to evacuate their homes. Ike is trailing the disastrous Gustav.

A few hours ago, Ike tore thought Havana, damaging historic buildings and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.

Ike is heading towards the Gulf of Mexico and it may reach Texas early Saturday.

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Hope is back to coming once a day

The Hurricane Gustav saga continues, but there are signs of hope around Baton Rouge. My brother sent me this photo and I thought it was pretty funny, so I called him. He was trying to make the point that life is slowly returning to Baton Rouge and the hope is contagious - even if it’s just the mail being delivered to houses without power. Hurricane Ike is moving into the Gulf right now; while no one would ever wish a disaster on someone else, the thought of another hurricane pounding the area is keeping things in Baton Rouge tense. In classic Louisiana fashion, locals are jokingly calling it “Hurricane Yikes” and hoping it fizzles out. The revised path has the storm barely missing Louisiana, but no one is taking any chances.

If you look closely in the photo you can see the now-ubiquitous brush piles lining the road and the iconic blue FEMA tarp on the roof in the upper right corner. Lines at FEMA sites are still long (photo below), but more and more people are returning to work or settling into temporary accomodations while their homes are repaired. Photos and updates about traffic, gas stations, schools, and more after the jump:

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Delivering meals to shelter evacuees in Plaquemines, LA

There are still thousands of Hurricane Gusav evacuees living in shelters in and around the Baton Rouge area. My brother Jordan (if you’ve been following our coverage, he’s becoming quite the online content creator) sent me these pictures from the front lines of the relief effort. Feeding evacuees, relief volunteers, and first responders in from other states to help is a huge part of the relief effort. Churches, companies, and NGOs work to keep everyone fed throughout the weeks and months they’ll be on the ground helping or in shelters waiting for electricity to be restored or homes to be rebuilt.

The pictures are from a feeding shelter in Plaquemines, LA across the river from Baton Rouge. Dow Chemical employees prepared 500 meals that were sent to evacuees in Point Coupee parish northwest fo the city. Even in dreary times like this, Louisiana’s spirit and culture shines through. The meals prepared today were jambalaya and red beans and rice, classic staples of Louisiana Cajun/Creole cuisine. Most Louisiana food has the advantage of being scalable to cook for large (or in this case, VERY large) groups of people very easily. Additionally, if you’re in a shelter with your family worried about rebuilding your home and Hurricane Ike in the Gulf, some Louisiana comfort food goes a long way.

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