Make that left turn from Verona Road onto Allied Drive during the summer and a lazy, yellow haze settles in on everything and everyone. The branches from parched willow trees slip into the ground, unable to tolerate the burning sun. Despite the heat, Madison's most beleaguered neighborhood is much more appealing than Magazine Street right now.
Before a ruptured levee transformed New Orleans' boulevards into disease-ridden Venetian waterways, Bryon Burgess, born and raised on the bayou, inked patrons part-time as a tattoo artist. He was at a parlor on Magazine Street when Katrina came.
Trapped by waters rising several inches per minute, Burgess spent two days atop the roof of his three-story building, living off Doritos from a third-floor vending machine that couldn't have cared less. Dogs and cats caught in the flooding drifted past with their snouts in the current.
After hailing a boat, Burgess and a friend drove to Houston where, with the help of Allied Drive social worker Rita Adair, they decided to relocate to furnished apartments in Madison. Many were less fortunate.
\There are a lot of friends I lost,"" Burgess said. ""I ran into people [in Houston], and they told me, 'Tom's dead, Joe's Dead, Betty's dead...' friends that were life friends to me.""
In an example of cruel irony, the allure of ""good weather"" drew Carly Drake to study at Tulane University. The Whitefish Bay, Wis. native endured two hurricanes as a freshman, to her Katrina meant busted windows and some debris on the sidewalk.
""The whole mood was very chill,"" Drake said, after learning of the inclement weather at the gym. ""There were people working out who weren't watching the Weather Channel.""
Drake had one semester remaining at Tulane. Now, she's a guest student at UW-Madison and her honors thesis is on hold; her supervising professor's whereabouts are unknown.
In Madison, just as they were in New Orleans, Drake and Burgess are separated by more than a few miles of concrete: they reside in different socio-economic realities. Carly could afford to escape The Big Easy while Bryon was likely too stubborn or poor to leave. And though our nation has the obligation to investigate the government's hurricane response, my fear is that blind, partisan loyalty will leave our energies wasted.
It should be apparent that Birkenstock-wearing, self-righteous peace-niks in Library Mall would've called for Bush's resignation and aloof, collar-popping conservatives would've rushed to his defense regardless of the controversy. Both sides demonstrated they know as much about coordinating disaster relief as most trust-fund children riding 'blades up' know about endangered Northern Spotted Owls or composting.
Indeed, the many agendas shoved around have a way of obstructing the truth. But when you fight past subjectivity, numbers don't often lie: hurricane-related fatalities, though unlikely to reach previous estimates, stand at 707 and counting.
The economic cost, while secondary, is no less staggering. The damage inflicted by the storm will likely surpass $200 billion. In the coming weeks, we must focus on that which is quantifiable-turn off The O'Reilly Factor and tune out the sign-waving protestors-to determine if enough was done for the Gulf Coast.
Ms. Adair and other local volunteers responded to those in need withhaste not witnessed at the national level. They can't do it alone. Donate your time, money and spirit; we've got new neighbors who, especially on the south side, need our help.
If fact, maybe we should've paid more attention to Allied Drive a long time ago.
Dan can be reached at detierney@wisc.edu.
