New Orleans
I've been in New Orleans the last 4 days and will follow with pictures and maybe stories when I get back. But I had to write and relate some observations of a tour I took today. Grey Lines offers a 3 hour tour of New Orleans related to Hurricane Katrina. Do you ever wonder what happens after the media moves on to the next disaster? Four plus years after the events of the disaster that overtook the city and surrounding areas, New Orleans is open for business. The ports are open and busy, conventions fill the hotels, the tourists line Bourbon street and the French Quarter. The scars are, however, still evident and deep. Four years later houses are still boarded up and awaiting repair -- in rich, middle class, blue collar and poor neighborhoods alike. The markings of search parties listing the date searched, who searched, and how many people found alive and dead (i.e. "Katrina Tattoos") are still visible on many houses. I saw holes in roofs where people were airlifted. I saw what South Miami looked like 2 weeks after Hurricane Andrew -- but I can't imagine 80% of New Orleans under 1 foot of water.
New Orleans will come all the way back because it has to. We will be poorer economically and culturally if it doesn't. But damn -- we make it harder on ourselves, don't we?
New Orleans will come all the way back because it has to. We will be poorer economically and culturally if it doesn't. But damn -- we make it harder on ourselves, don't we?