Contrary to circulating rumors, VatulBlog did not perish over the weekend due to a heart attack of tragic proportions. In fact, the blog was so alive that it went on a fact-gathering mission in New Orleans at the end of Week 6. Yes, ladies and gents, this was my first weekend in 1.5 months spent wholly in New Orleans. There is something to be said about the power of home, friends and a place that needs help and hope like never before.
Quite a bit of time was spent riding around the city breathing in the real live air and snapping pictures of various neighborhoods including Uptown, Garden District, Lakeview, MidCity, CBD, French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny, and Gentilly. The Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish are still off-limits to plebes.
Along the riverside portion of the Eastbank crescent (airport to Marigny), the damage is completely random, wind-related and very much in the process of being salvaged and recuperated. It is only when one travels through the lakeside portion of New Orleans that the ruin caused by the flooding is pervasive and recovery will take a while. However, homeowners, insurance assessors, building contractors and debris removal machines and trucks are almost everywhere in the dewatered areas. The sounds of hammers, drills, saws and instructions permeate the air of all of New Orleans.
While these pictures do no justice to the scope of the damage and subsequent recovery efforts, be warned that some of them will rip your heart out. For instance, there is nothing my camera could do to capture the ubiquitous sheet of powdery light brown that blankets Lakeview and the homes of close friends, save the treetops that remain green while their lower counterparts in foliage are dead and trunks are covered in mud from weeks spent in stagnant water. No amount of point-and-shoot may portray the amount of activity in the Quarter and businesses back in action along the streets of Metairie, Uptown and the Garden District.
My neighbors are back, most of their homes are cleaned up, and many are back to work or preparing for the beginning of the new year, when residents and city officials alike hope that New Orleanians are able to come back home for the long haul. Uncertainty grows and is scraped off like the mold in New Orleans – while some businesses, including law firms in the CBD’s PanAm and Bank One buildings, spring back to life, other companies still debate their “ifs and whens.”
Speaking of cleaning, the William Maples in me attacked the Refrigerator Of Doom with no more protection than clothes, shoes and rubber gloves. No masks or Vicks Vaporub for this girl (ok, maybe some Pier 1 Asian Spice room spray). While the Toxic Gumbo was the source of some dribble down the sides of the refrigerator, the real carcass was a bag of lettuce that had not only decomposed but liquified into a slimy puddle of stench. That green, leafy vegetables can smell like the products of animal putrefaction is amazing. I should have become a forensic pathologist, but that’s hindsight for another day.
From cleaning my refrigerator and organizing my home to being in Fahy’s and spending just an hour clearing plaster and fiberglass from a home, I felt more alive than I have in weeks. I was home! There are a lot more things I did and saw, quite a bit more that I observed and wished to share. However, one message stands out: The desire to go back, to help the city, itches more than the fiberglass still embedded in my arms.
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Thank you so much for the entry of 10/10. Please keep the pictures coming.