Visit to New Orleans
Over the New Year's Holiday I went to New Orleans. I drove around the areas of Slidell, St Benard, The 9th Ward, Gentilly, MidTown, The CBD, Lakeview, Metairie, and Kenner. What I saw is undescribable.
Slidell: There is a lot of damage all over Slidell. Plenty of businesses closed or damaged. Schools damaged, many homes destroyed. The Slidel police department is currently being run out of what can only be described as a wooden shack. The lakefront in Slidel is decimated. Where there were once rows of houses now sit slabs and empty support beams.
St Benard: Some of the worst destruction I have ever imagined... no... beyond that. The place is totaled. We drove from one end of Jedge Perez all the way to New Orleans and the only things we saw open were a soup kitchen, a relief shelter, and some guy trying to sell some seafood. No building was left untouched. I doubt anything in the entire parish is salvagable. It is horrible. Words and pictures are incapable of describing it. Sheer utter devistation.
The 9th Ward: Much the same as St Benard though there may have been a few structures that could be saved... maybe... if someone REALLY wanted to. I'd say 99% of everything there needs to just be torn down and hauled away. That is the parts that have not falled down already.
Gentilly: Not as bad as the 9th ward but still empty. No power, virtually a ghost town. Only a few FEMA trailors. Most homes destroyed/gutted. There are a few pockets of homes that looked restorable.
Lakeview: Spotty... Some areas utterly devistated, others relatively untouched. Now, when I say relitavely untouched I mean lots of roof damage, fallen trees, and the occasional demolisable house. After seeing the really bad stuff this seemed pretty nice. Some spots even had power.
The CBD: The CBD looked fairly lively though one could see a good bit of damage and surprisingly I noticed a number of generator trucks around the place. Traffic down there was bad and lots of traffic lights were out. If this were the only area I saw I'd think that it must have been a bad storm.. one for the record books.
Midtown: Varied from okay/minor damage to trashed. It just really depended on where you were. Close to City Park looked okay but driving down Carrolton the devistation was apparent.
Metairie and Kenner: Odd. It seemed spotty. Some places were up and running fairly normally, others were trashed. Traffic was terrible. It looked like there was a lot of first floor flooding and roof damage. They do have power and seem to be the most lively of the areas around New Orleans. Very much not business as usual though. Things close early, are open on strange schedules, everything is understaffed, and everything is just not right.
Realize that all of this is 4 months after the storm. The media has all but stopped covering the devistation and there seems to be little interest in this around the rest of the country. Until I saw the devistation first hand I did not fully realize just how inadequate the reporting on the storm is/was. It makes me realize that those people in the media who supposed go to get the story do not do a good job at all. The devistation is not hard to find at all. They don't even bother. I suppose it is true that nobody cares about the situation down there. I hear people say how the refugees should go back and work at Burger King if they have too.. heck they are all paying big bonuses to go work there... They fail to realize that the poeple canot just go back. There would be nowhere for them to live. It is near impossible to find an apartment to rent and there is a huge waiting list for FEMA trailors.
The situation down there is bad. Please let people around the country know that the disaster is far from over. The pictures the media might show of open bars on Burbon Street are very misleading. I am disgusted with the whole thing.
Slidell: There is a lot of damage all over Slidell. Plenty of businesses closed or damaged. Schools damaged, many homes destroyed. The Slidel police department is currently being run out of what can only be described as a wooden shack. The lakefront in Slidel is decimated. Where there were once rows of houses now sit slabs and empty support beams.
St Benard: Some of the worst destruction I have ever imagined... no... beyond that. The place is totaled. We drove from one end of Jedge Perez all the way to New Orleans and the only things we saw open were a soup kitchen, a relief shelter, and some guy trying to sell some seafood. No building was left untouched. I doubt anything in the entire parish is salvagable. It is horrible. Words and pictures are incapable of describing it. Sheer utter devistation.
The 9th Ward: Much the same as St Benard though there may have been a few structures that could be saved... maybe... if someone REALLY wanted to. I'd say 99% of everything there needs to just be torn down and hauled away. That is the parts that have not falled down already.
Gentilly: Not as bad as the 9th ward but still empty. No power, virtually a ghost town. Only a few FEMA trailors. Most homes destroyed/gutted. There are a few pockets of homes that looked restorable.
Lakeview: Spotty... Some areas utterly devistated, others relatively untouched. Now, when I say relitavely untouched I mean lots of roof damage, fallen trees, and the occasional demolisable house. After seeing the really bad stuff this seemed pretty nice. Some spots even had power.
The CBD: The CBD looked fairly lively though one could see a good bit of damage and surprisingly I noticed a number of generator trucks around the place. Traffic down there was bad and lots of traffic lights were out. If this were the only area I saw I'd think that it must have been a bad storm.. one for the record books.
Midtown: Varied from okay/minor damage to trashed. It just really depended on where you were. Close to City Park looked okay but driving down Carrolton the devistation was apparent.
Metairie and Kenner: Odd. It seemed spotty. Some places were up and running fairly normally, others were trashed. Traffic was terrible. It looked like there was a lot of first floor flooding and roof damage. They do have power and seem to be the most lively of the areas around New Orleans. Very much not business as usual though. Things close early, are open on strange schedules, everything is understaffed, and everything is just not right.
Realize that all of this is 4 months after the storm. The media has all but stopped covering the devistation and there seems to be little interest in this around the rest of the country. Until I saw the devistation first hand I did not fully realize just how inadequate the reporting on the storm is/was. It makes me realize that those people in the media who supposed go to get the story do not do a good job at all. The devistation is not hard to find at all. They don't even bother. I suppose it is true that nobody cares about the situation down there. I hear people say how the refugees should go back and work at Burger King if they have too.. heck they are all paying big bonuses to go work there... They fail to realize that the poeple canot just go back. There would be nowhere for them to live. It is near impossible to find an apartment to rent and there is a huge waiting list for FEMA trailors.
The situation down there is bad. Please let people around the country know that the disaster is far from over. The pictures the media might show of open bars on Burbon Street are very misleading. I am disgusted with the whole thing.