I am returning to New Orleans for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. My trip last year was very last minute (I literally decided to go the day before) and hopefully the extra planning time will pay some dividends. My set from the Ninth Ward really opened a lot of doors for me and was featured in countless media outlets both online and in print. But more importantly, the photos, along with the piece I wrote here (A Victory Lap for Broken Promises) went a long way toward getting the word out that in many ways, New Orleans, despite all the promises, was still more or less at square one or worse. It’s been a busy year, and I haven’t been able to follow all the news out of the Gulf Coast, but I know that many of the same problems that plagued the recovery effort in the first year stuck around for the second year. So I’m going back to check it out, shoot some photos, and hopefully do some audio interviews as well.

If you are in New Orleans or know people there, please email me [mc at 1115 dot org]. I’m trying to do as much prep work as I can so that my week down there will be as productive as possible.

In other site-related news, Sarabeth is going on vacation for the back half of August, so you people are stuck with my semi-atrophied blogging abilities just in time for the coming economic and market meltdown. I can promise there will be some talented guest bloggers, and at least one major post that has been in the works for so long that it is reaching Chinese Democracy status, except that I haven’t spent $32 million on it. Yet.

I’m off to Oregon for some white-water rafting, but I’ll be back next week to chain myself to the computer. In the mean time, as if choreographed by Wade Robson himself, several 1115.org alums have started their own blogs. It’s like 2003 all over again.

Jamie (who has apparently already banned me from commenting), Sam, and Tom are all newly solo bloggers. Check them out, you might find something that you like.