I have been here a week tonight, and can only say that the devastation here is overwhelming. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, Jason, Eddie and I worked at a home north of St. Charles Street and just west of Broadway across the river in New Orleans. St. Charles Street runs west and northwest from downtown. It is famous for the trolley line which tourists ride down its median past magnificent old homes, and it is a part of the Mardi Gras parade route. While the largest homes appear to have suffered little damage, the trolley power lines and track were badly damaged by falling limbs from the great oak trees which line the street.
The French Quarter and the St. Charles corridor are on higher ground than most of the rest of the city. Where we were working many of the houses have what they call a basement, but it is only one step down from grade. Nevertheless, the water came up to about 2 feet in the basement, and just a few blocks farther north cars parked along the streets and in medians had been completely submerged. There are 150,000 such autos in New Orleans which are being towed to compounds and logged into a register by the police to prevent them from being taken out of state and sold to unsuspecting buyers.
Sunday afternoon I went over into the French Quarter. I parked on St. Peters Street just a couple of blocks north of Preservation Hall and O'Brien's, both of which are closed. I walked down to Jackson Square and found the Cafe du Monde, famous for its beignets, also closed. Its roof had a tarp on it, but I was told later that they closed because they had planned to remodel the kitchen and decided this was a good time. The Cafe du Monde is expected to re-open this week. On the way back to the car I passed a house where a couple were sitting on their porch having cocktails. Their house, just a block north of Bourbon Street, had no damage, they said there was very little looting in their neighborhood and the water was only curb deep. Luckily, they had been on vacation when Katrina hit.
Leaving there I drove out east on Rampart Street into the 9th Ward. Like many of the main arteries in New Orleans it has a wide median, on which were parked more abandoned, formerly submerged cars, and I saw three abandoned city buses and even a motor boat. The area has a brownish, gray look; the streets, lawns and sides of the houses where they were so long under water. I haven't seen a count of the number of homes and businesses in such condition, but it must top 150,000 also because it just goes on for block after block. Ironically, the street we took to work in the house up near Lake Pontchartrain last Saturday was "Elysian Fields" Street.
With the exception of last Saturday, yesterday afternoon and this morning, I have worked on the West Bank where there was no flooding and water damage was limited to that resulting from leaking roofs, of which there are many. I would guess that 40% of the homes have blue tarps. Everyday, more stores are opening here on this side of the river. I was in Home Depot yesterday and it was a zoo. Everywhere you go you see relief crews at work, in the few open restaurants, even in the laundromat. But the task to clean up and re-build the 80% of New Orleans which was flooded across the river seems insurmountable. I have worked hard each day, but considering the totality of what must be done it seems insignificant. Besides myself, Jason and Eddie, there were about 12 people from Middle Tennessee College in Murphysboro, a similar size group from a church in Georgia, and another smaller church group here over the weekend. In the next day or so, one of the groups will be among the first to go into the 9th ward which will require protective suits.
It will take literally millions of people to rebuild this city. I suspect that news coverage is dwindling off in other parts of the country. I would suggest that you go to the "Times-Picayune" web site if you really want to find out what the situation is like here http://www.nola.com/t-p/. I think it is foolish of those who think New Orleans will not be rebuilt. Building in areas that must be protected by levees, below dams in flood plains, and concentrated in areas prone to earthquakes or other natural disasters has been going on for a long time, and is only likely to increase in the future. I hope to post some of my own photos from here in a day or two.
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