New Orleans Is Coming Back And She’s Looking Good! The last two days have me nothing short of physically exhausted and emotionally asunder. Going back to New Orleans yesterday was one of the greatest endeavors I have undertaken yet. Even my camera is out of sorts and needs a full recharge. Before launching into anything else, let me tell you this: One month after the storm, the city of New Orleans is on its way back with a vengeance. The scale of the devastation and quick recovery is evident in the huge piles of debris neatly piled up on every block of the city. Here are a few useful highlights of the trip:
D and I drove back into NOLA yesterday from Houston – we left at 7:30 AM and got back at midnight. I-10 is open all the way through to the Westbank between the hours of 8AM and 6PM. Quite a few of my neighbors in the Garden District have already moved back into their homes and were seen outside cleaning up. Remarkably, our house got power exactly 4 hours and 20 minutes before we walked in. Apparently, our refrigerator is the source of the Toxic Gumbo in New Orleans. Seriously, D had a vat of shrimp, chicken and sausage gumbo in the freezer before we left which we believe is responsible for the current smell of death emanating from the kitchen. Damage to the house includes decay, smell and bugs related to the refrigerator, roof leak in master closet, water stains on master bath curtains, sappy tree that fell over and took out the wall separating our property from the B&B behind the house, grill and all back deck material knocked over and the trellis surrounding our deck down. Other than that, the whole house is fine! One end of the house smells like a carcass warmed over, noxious fumes and all, while the other smells just like home.
Power trucks and cleanup crews are everywhere between the French Quarter and our neighborhood. A lot of my LGD, Irish Channel, Gentilly and Metairie friends have returned to clean up and start rebuilding – everyone estimates to have their place finished by the end of the year. Not that I saw it, but I know from friends that the Ninth Ward, of course, is a different story – looks like a full loss for most of it.
What I did see: The CBD is so clean, you won’t believe it, as are the Warehouse District and the Lower Garden. In fact, the FQ is really coming back to life with music venues reopening and business owners back in there with a vengeance! With tears in my eyes and a smile in my heart, I want you to know that pride and joy are what I feel for this city and how it has bounced back in such short time!
While I expected Special Operations Combat Navy Seals to rappel down from our roof once we got to the house, not a one stopped us or visited to check our credentials. Cops are everywhere, though, driving past, waving and moving on. Even I felt safe driving around by myself in the Lower Garden District. New Orleans has a small, quarter-year journey to recovery and, at the rate it’s going now, this is a wholly achievable goal.
The emotions soared and plummeted, especially on seeing the inside of my home, but those are words for a post when I have a chance to sit down and write without laughing and crying at once.
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Be Positive And Report Positive! CNN and the major networks won’t publicize this now (the let’s-prey-on-disaster-alone shysters), but the floodwater is almost gone, except for really bad areas like St. Bernard Parish and small portions of New Orleans East. All naysayers and people who want to abandon New Orleans as a lost cause, when this city needs loving residents the most, are so wrong. If you don’t want to go back, you don’t deserve New Orleans. If you return a year from now, when the city is a shiny new morsel waiting to be consumed, we’ll have you anyway.
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New Re-Entry Schedule: As long as you adhere to curfew, all residents of the following zip codes are welcome back in New Orleans starting Friday, according to Mayor Ray Nagin.
More ZIP codes will be opened for re-entry for business owners on Thursday, and to residents on Friday … areas of 70112, 70113, 70114, 70115, 70116, 70118, 70130 and 70131. Those areas include Algiers, the Central Business District, the French Quarter and Uptown.
There is a curfew in place from 6PM to 8AM every night that will be strictly enforced until further notice. This means you may not be outside between 6 pm and 8 am, in a vehicle or on foot … Traffic lights are out throughout the City. All intersections are four-way stops and the speed limit is 30 mph, regardless of the posted speed limit.
YAY
The community’s experiences sound _very_ familiar, and rings a bit like a bad flashback with respect to Grand Forks–you just stay positive and keep talking to your neighbors to keep them positive. Smile and do the M-laugh a lot–it carries over three districts, I’ll bet…
“what was that? Did somebody bring a goddamned Kookaburra back into the city? No? Oh, must be that V-R down the way again.”
Keep your chin up and take care, my little voodoo pin cushion.
I am so thrilled for you, hon. What wonderful news! I can hear your laughter now–and it is such a welcome sound.
Take care of yourself now–the comeback will take a long time, and the immediate joy will wear off eventually. Drink a glass of wine, eat some chocolate, take a bubble bath when you don’t think you need one, because the coming days will be tough (I remember well from Blizzard Hannah and the GF Flood of ’97.)
Now, crank the AC/DC, get out the rubber gloves and boots, and HIT IT!!!
Love you!
Happy to hear that your return was a good one. Happy to hear that the Quarter is alive and kicking. And, happy that the city is on its way back.
SO nice to hear positive words about New Orleans!
Thanks for all the positive energy, guys! Jeffrey and Ronica, I’m back in Houston – in fact, we left at curfew time of 6PM and returned the very same evening. I am thinking of returning in the next couple of weeks, however, for a more thorough cleaning. The landlady and her fiance will be there, and I want to help them out however I can.
Yay!!!