the sliver by the river

The expression “the sliver by the river” refers to a narrow dry area along New Orleans’s southwestern border that became a potential airboat drop site during the evacuation from Memorial Medical Center. Its importance lay in the possibility of reaching roads out of the flooded city; the actual transfer there, however, exposed the gap between finding a route and having a functioning evacuation chain.

Geographic Referent

Sandra LeBlanc scouted a closer dry landing site near a Rite Aid and a Copeland’s Restaurant, nine blocks south of Memorial Medical Center. The strip was dry and connected to roads leading out of town, making it a practical alternative to the more distant drop site. The name’s image of a narrow sliver captures the limited patch of passable ground amid the surrounding floodwater.

A Route Without a Complete Evacuation Link

Airboat pilots began ferrying people to the new site, but no ambulances were waiting there. The account leaves open whether anyone had failed to get through by phone to redirect them. Even after reaching the drop site, evacuees had to wade through dirty, shallow water to get to dry ground. The phrase therefore marks both a geographic opening and the limits of that opening: the strip connected to roads out of the city, but the missing ambulances and difficult landing made the connection incomplete.