coming back from the strike zone
thank god we're back. i honestly can hardly form words in my head for what it was like going back to new orleans... such a surreal experience. the best word i can come up with that can best describe that unfortunate city is thrashed. everywhere you look is damage, the streets are cleared but there's mountains of trash and debris piled high all along them.... abandoned cars rusting and filthy sit immovable..... water and electricity in some places, but definitely not most places... most places just totally abandoned or looted or too damaged to enter. all the houses marked with spray-painted X's when the military had come in to rescue people or force them out. markings of how many rescued and how many bodies found.
the city has a surreal aura to it... at least to my eyes.... lots of people have moved back to certain parts of the city, mostly the suburbs surrounding metro new orleans and the french quarter. there are some stores and restaurants open in the suburbs... very very limited though so incredibly packed with people all the time. other areas of the city look like a ghost town... and at night the military comes out of the ghost town to patrol in huge hummers and guys with guns. there were times where i definitely had to remind myself that i was still in the U.S.
our apartment... considerable damage to the top floor... our floor. i walked into what used to be my apt. and all i could think of was that it looked like someone had come in and tossed the whole place upside down. apparently workers had come and gone... half the walls and carpet are missing in there... just bare concrete and steel frame showing, and along with repairs they scattered our stuff every which way... we had to toss a bunch of stuff because it had gotten wet and was moldy. packing was a HUGE chore.... complicated by the fact that there was only 1 elevator working in the building (thank goodness at least for that) but it was across the building and considerable miles of lugging boxes and furniture was required.
the rest of the trip encountered a variety of obstacles, setbacks, and road blocks which considerably tried our patience, strength and strategy skills, including the fact that i was frighteningly ill part of the time from a fierce bout of flu, but i shall spare you all of those gory details. suffice it to say i am very happy to be back in the civilized world.
after all the shlepping of stuff and loading and unloading, my whole body hurts... but it was worth it... i now have the peace of mind that all of my important stuff has been packed up and i was able to bring back to CA things that i should have brought with me when we evacuated (but obviously hadn't been thinking clearly), such as my dissertation research and my teaching materials. and it did bring some sense of closure... or at least a sense of reality to all that happened by seeing firsthand all the damage.
in the end, we are very fortunate people... that's all i can say.