Another unexpected and short business trip this week - this time to New Orleans. My business was in Houma outside of New Orleans but I arrived early enough to take a quick drive into the city to see what the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina looked like.
The first thing you notice flying into New Orleans is the large number of blue roofed houses. FEMA have a blue roof program, which, as I understand it, provides a temporary blue plastic covering for damaged roofs on buildings that are going to be rehabilitated. There were a lot of blue roofs around the airport.
Driving into New Orleans, on the city streets rather than the freeway, there was dramatic evidence of what the storm and subsequent floods had done. Entire neighbourhoods devastated and for the most part deserted of people. Streets filled with all manner of debris – household, automobile and plant matter. Water and mud stained vehicles damaged beyond repair. Houses forsaken by their occupants each tagged with painted symbols denoting that they had been checked (presumably for human and animal contents). No businesses were open and no one was living there (as far as I could tell).
Moving out of the poorer neighbourhoods and into the downtown area there was more activity and signs of life but still nothing close to what you would call normal. In the French Quarter the damage didn’t look to be so bad, but there were very few people. I parked on Jackson Square with no difficulty (something you normally would never be able to do). I went to one of the few businesses open – the Café Du Monde for beignets and coffee. This is quite the tourist trap in normal times but that afternoon, the wait staff outnumbered the customers.
Traveling out the other side of the city to the east, the neighbourhoods became poorer again and the damage again became more significant. Block after block of debris strewn streets and deserted houses. Presumably these neighbourhoods will all be bulldozed – it just doesn’t look feasible to salvage any of them.
Strange, there was no smell. I expected to smell the rot and decay but that afternoon there was a strong breeze and the air smelled fresh.
I don’t know how you rebuild after something like that. There were many painted signs indicating that “the residents will be back and New Orleans will live on”. But whatever it becomes it won’t be the same. The French Quarter was already too much of a manufactured tourist experience for me. I can only imagine that it will get more so.
Here are some photos....
And of course, in the French Quarter, it doesn't look so bad.
1 comment:
Steve,
Your observations are different from mine, but I am a native New Orleanean and visited two weeks ago. At that time there was a definite "old garbage" smell. That was before the first rain and change of weather. Also I get tired of the "poor neighborhood devastation" mantra. All levels were affected. Lakeview (upper middle class) - devastated. Lower 9th ward (poor) - devastated. The flood did not discriminate. The difference is that those better off have options as to whether to return or not. The poor do not. What I do know is that most will want to return because where they are now is a foreign culture. The crux of the problem is whether they will be safe or not and that depends on the federal levees. The government is doing their best to neglect the city and let it die. (I say this as a registered Rebulican who voted for George Bush twice.) The survivors are doing their best to make the city live. New Orleans has always had an insular view of itself and the outside world. Now it has to depend on that strong sense of self to survive.
Post a Comment