Fire in the Marshes

For several days now, everyone in the greater New Orleans area has been dealing with the smoke from the marsh fire way out in New Orleans East. Several things are working against us here -- one, it has been a drier than normal August; it seems like it's hardly rained at all since July (when it rained nearly every day). Two, the wind, whether influenced by Hurricane Irene or not, has been out of the northeast or east. And three, there's been a so-called "cold front" (don't you believe it) that has been pressing down on the city.

Thus, even though the brush fires (sparked, it is said, by lightning deep in the marsh) are far into the undeveloped area of New Orleans East, the smoke is being pushed over the whole city. In fact, Big Man and I went shopping on Monday out near Elmwood, which you might call New Orleans West, and the smoke was as dense and thick as if there were fires in Metairie. A parishioner of mine who went out on Tuesday morning to get her newspaper in her Uptown neighborhood (far to the south and west of the fires), at first thought one of her neighbors on Magazine Street might be burning, til she realized what it was.

Yesterday, it was so pervasive that I got a headache from working inside the church building. Several of my parishioners are coping with aggravated allergies, coughing and hacking. The local news media are full of stories urging all those respiratory ailments, the elderly and the very young to stay indoors for the duration. And the mayor called out the Air National Guard to water-bomb the fires, since downtown New Orleans had the visibility of like a foot in front of your face.

It's a little better today. We're all hoping for a big rainstorm, which they're predicting for this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!