NOW! Frontline: The Old Man and the Storm.

[Subdivisions]

So far, a very good story about a man and his home in the 9th Ward in New Orleans.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/katrina/

http://blog.nola.com/davewalker/2009/01/pbs_shines_a_primetime_spotlig.html

PBS shines a prime-time spotlight on a Lower 9th Ward resident's long road home

Ninth Ward resident Herbert Gettridge is back in the spotlight again with a new PBS segment.
Herbert Gettridge was Hollywood waiting to happen.

Anderson Cooper saw it, felt it, knew it. Billy Crystal did, too.

How could they not? Octogenarian living alone in the Lower 9th Ward, rebuilding all by himself the house he built, the one that the feeble levees ruined.

No gas. No electricity. But still: Lights, camera, action.

Cooper came, and kept coming back, for CNN. Crystal found Gettridge for HBO's 2006 "Comic Relief" benefit broadcast.

Filmmaker June Cross found Gettridge during Carnival 2006.

"I'd been down there before, and there were always people sort of poking around," she said in a recent phone interview. "And I saw this guy with his wheelbarrow who looked like Sisyphus -- he was all by himself down there with a wheelbarrow.

"Initially, he didn't want to talk to me. I finally walked away. And he struck up a conversation with my cameraman, and I sort of came back later.

-snip-

[Suich]

1. My son (in NOLA) just sent me an e-mail about this!

I remember seeing Herbert a couple of times when Anderson Cooper interviewed him. So glad to hear his wife was finally able to rejoin him!

Thanks for posting this!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Subdivisions]

2. You're very welcome. Enjoy! n/t

[AllieB]

3. I'm watching-it's a very good episode tonight.

[Subdivisions]

4. While $4.2 Billion was pledged to help the people of New Orleans,

executives of the company that runs the Road Home Program gave themselves $2.5 Million in bonuses. Only 500 people have been granted funds from Road Home. The Road Home pays the difference between what applicants got from insurance and FEMA and $100,000.

Another failed program for the people, with the funds being used by ICF, the fund's manager, to reward their execs for a job well done.

Heckuva job, Brownie!

[malaise]

5. Watching - thanks n/t

[Subdivisions]

6. Big surprise! Road Home is missing $2.9 Billion dollars of

the original funds.

Color me surprised!

[Suich]

7. I'm so-o-o-o glad they cover Road Home!

It's been an abysmal failure since it started.

I hope it's not preempted here! If it is, I might have a few questions for you, ok?

:hi:

[Generic Other]

8. What an amazing story

Mr Gettridge has worked so hard to rebuild his family's life. Heartbreaking what he and so many others have gone through.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Relevant, brilliantly done - but essentially heart breaking, tragic and a pox on many,

from Bush on down - the insurance companies, Blanco, Nagin, FEMA, anyone from the Feds that stonewalled. Only the victims and the local paper can rise above the flood of incompetence.

Bush and so many others should suffer unbearable nightmares every night for the rest of their lives for how they (didn't) handle this.

[Subdivisions]

10. . n/t