arminnie
<font color=blue>Tossed the butter kept the gin<br
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2003
- Messages
- 9,064
I drove to New Orleans with my sister last Friday 11/4. About Jackson we started seeing trees that were uprooted.
The closer we got the more damage. In Tangipahoa Parrish (I55 after Hammond but before you hit I10) you could really see were the flood waters had been. I truly believe it was over the treetops in one place. It was very easy to tell from the brown dead plants where the water had been.
We came in on I10 from I55 (did not use the Causeway) - lots of blue tarps but you really can't tell how bad it is from the freeway. We drove into town past the Superdome and exited on St. Charles and went back uptown.
St. Charles has been cleaned up - almost all of the debris is gone. You rarely see a refrigerator out on the street. Many people came back 3 weeks ago so that's when so many were put out.
I am the luckiest person alive. I'd been told that 3 feet of my hardwoods had buckled where water had blown in from the sliding glass door. It is TWO BOARDS - that is all. The boards are not even really damaged they just popped up from expanding while wet.
I had a leak in the bathroom ceiling, but it is an area about 3 inches wide and can easily be repainted. No mold or mildew whatsoever. I found about 10-15 dead flies in my unit and maybe 2 live gnats.
I have also learned that butter does not rot. I had a pound of butter in my freezer. I had pictured that it would be melted and all over the place. I do not understand how it could have stayed in an open wrapper when totally melted but only about 2 T escaped and ran into a small ridge. It took about 2 minutes to clean it up.
Did you know that candy corn melts? I'd forgotten that I'd put a bag in the refrigerator before I left. It was one solid mass but was in a plastic bag so I just threw it away (as I did the butter!)
My a/c works, my refrigerator is fine, even the elevators and electric gates were working.
My church which is across the street from where I live has $3 million worth of damage. The Columns Hotel in the next block has major damage and won't open until 2006. My building is very ugly concrete and steel, but it is solid and sustained no damage.
Our personal evacuee (she stayed with my sister for 7 weeks) came over to help us unload the van. We went over to Magazine for dinner. Very self service - seat yourself, no menus just a buffet, and go up and pay when it is time to leave. It is normally a white tablecloth restaurant, but we were just happy to be there.
Quite a few people and cars were out and about. From St. Charles to the River (south) there is sporadic damage but virtually no flooding. In this area it was almost possible to believe that things were starting to get back to normal.
Our friend's roof was torn off as was her mother's next door on Prytania. They have lots of mildew, but not the furry mold. They have already had the roof replaced.
Saturday was a different story - we drove north on Napoleon and quickly saw the waterlines on the houses start to get higher and higher. More debris out by the street to be picked up as people tore out sheetrock, etc. We passed Memorial Hospital - the one that had several deaths. It's just a few blocks from me.
We drove up Carrolton to City Park so I could check on a friend's condo (she's almost 80 and is still in Dallas). The closer to the lake that we got the worse the damage. There's a public school across from her condo that looks awful, but unfortunately it looked almost that bad before the hurricane.
The St. Bernard projects are another block away - they are deserted and forlorn. Throughout the visit we went past two other projects. They are going to be torn down and replaced with multi-use housing. No one should have to live the way the project inhabitants did.
We made several trips to Home Depot, Wal*Mart and Sam's. They were all packed to the gills. It was interesting to see what what's up front in the stores - lots of bleach and cleaning supplies.
We bought beds at Sam's - very cheap and very firm (which I like). My sister decided that the airbed on the floor was more comfortable than the new bed. Did you know that you can get two twin mattresses and two box springs in the back of a '97 Honda Odyssey (much smaller than today's Ody)?
More than once we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies - especially with my Arkansas car tag.
We made a trip to Cafe Du Monde. The beignets and coffee were top notch. I often get beignets at one of the CDMs at the mall, but they are so much better in the Quarter.
Several places in the Quarter were open and many had signs saying they would be open in a few weeks.
There are help wanted signs everywhere. Minimum wage for all practical purposes is $10 an hour. Burger King is offering a $6000 bonus if you stay for a year.
I saw "apartment for rent" signs all over uptown - but I don't know if the landlords are raising the rents a lot or not.
I was pleasantly surprised after a few days to realize that there was no smell in the air. The streets in Uptown were very clean. I walked about a mile or so to a coffee shop one day and was amazed at the people who had re-landscaped already.
My sister has virtually no sense of smell after surgery a couple of years ago to correct a hole in her head where her spinal fluids were draining out her nose. She went with her friend to her small grocery store which had been flooded but not looted. She said that the smell was SO bad that it was all she could do not to gag and vomit - and as I said she can barely smell anything.
I did not go to the 9th Ward. You can only go there by bus. I felt that it would have been an intrusion on the suffering of the people who were going to look at their losses to ride on that bus as a lookyloo.
There is so much of the city and the surrounding areas that are in terrible shape. The French Quarter and Uptown are bruised, some of the other areas are badly broken, but the areas that we all saw on TV are just beyond comprehension.
Most of my friends are okay. One had just moved into their dream home 2 days before Katrina, and it was all ruined but they are financially able to handle it. It's the regular folks living from paycheck to paycheck like most of the population who are really hurting.
A man that worked at my condo for the past 7 years is still missing. We are all hoping that he got evacuated somewhere and is safe. Many people still do not know if loved ones and acquaintances are dead or alive.
I posted on another thread about a friend who was looted but actually had more stuff (electronics) left by the looters than they took. She didn't keep the stuff they left.
Violent crime is virtually non-existent in New Orleans right now. Still some random looting - particularly in areas where people can't move back yet.
I haven't been to Mardi Gras in years as I didn't like what it had become. I enjoyed Mardi Gras more when it was smaller. I am actually looking forward to being at Mardi Gras this year. It doesn't hurt that I live on a parade route and can watch from my balcony.
Please come back and visit New Orleans. People's lives will be in turmoil for sometime, but the tourist areas will be back to almost normal shortly. The city desperately needs the tourists to come back and spend money.
The closer we got the more damage. In Tangipahoa Parrish (I55 after Hammond but before you hit I10) you could really see were the flood waters had been. I truly believe it was over the treetops in one place. It was very easy to tell from the brown dead plants where the water had been.
We came in on I10 from I55 (did not use the Causeway) - lots of blue tarps but you really can't tell how bad it is from the freeway. We drove into town past the Superdome and exited on St. Charles and went back uptown.
St. Charles has been cleaned up - almost all of the debris is gone. You rarely see a refrigerator out on the street. Many people came back 3 weeks ago so that's when so many were put out.
I am the luckiest person alive. I'd been told that 3 feet of my hardwoods had buckled where water had blown in from the sliding glass door. It is TWO BOARDS - that is all. The boards are not even really damaged they just popped up from expanding while wet.
I had a leak in the bathroom ceiling, but it is an area about 3 inches wide and can easily be repainted. No mold or mildew whatsoever. I found about 10-15 dead flies in my unit and maybe 2 live gnats.
I have also learned that butter does not rot. I had a pound of butter in my freezer. I had pictured that it would be melted and all over the place. I do not understand how it could have stayed in an open wrapper when totally melted but only about 2 T escaped and ran into a small ridge. It took about 2 minutes to clean it up.
Did you know that candy corn melts? I'd forgotten that I'd put a bag in the refrigerator before I left. It was one solid mass but was in a plastic bag so I just threw it away (as I did the butter!)
My a/c works, my refrigerator is fine, even the elevators and electric gates were working.
My church which is across the street from where I live has $3 million worth of damage. The Columns Hotel in the next block has major damage and won't open until 2006. My building is very ugly concrete and steel, but it is solid and sustained no damage.
Our personal evacuee (she stayed with my sister for 7 weeks) came over to help us unload the van. We went over to Magazine for dinner. Very self service - seat yourself, no menus just a buffet, and go up and pay when it is time to leave. It is normally a white tablecloth restaurant, but we were just happy to be there.
Quite a few people and cars were out and about. From St. Charles to the River (south) there is sporadic damage but virtually no flooding. In this area it was almost possible to believe that things were starting to get back to normal.
Our friend's roof was torn off as was her mother's next door on Prytania. They have lots of mildew, but not the furry mold. They have already had the roof replaced.
Saturday was a different story - we drove north on Napoleon and quickly saw the waterlines on the houses start to get higher and higher. More debris out by the street to be picked up as people tore out sheetrock, etc. We passed Memorial Hospital - the one that had several deaths. It's just a few blocks from me.
We drove up Carrolton to City Park so I could check on a friend's condo (she's almost 80 and is still in Dallas). The closer to the lake that we got the worse the damage. There's a public school across from her condo that looks awful, but unfortunately it looked almost that bad before the hurricane.
The St. Bernard projects are another block away - they are deserted and forlorn. Throughout the visit we went past two other projects. They are going to be torn down and replaced with multi-use housing. No one should have to live the way the project inhabitants did.
We made several trips to Home Depot, Wal*Mart and Sam's. They were all packed to the gills. It was interesting to see what what's up front in the stores - lots of bleach and cleaning supplies.
We bought beds at Sam's - very cheap and very firm (which I like). My sister decided that the airbed on the floor was more comfortable than the new bed. Did you know that you can get two twin mattresses and two box springs in the back of a '97 Honda Odyssey (much smaller than today's Ody)?
More than once we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies - especially with my Arkansas car tag.
We made a trip to Cafe Du Monde. The beignets and coffee were top notch. I often get beignets at one of the CDMs at the mall, but they are so much better in the Quarter.
Several places in the Quarter were open and many had signs saying they would be open in a few weeks.
There are help wanted signs everywhere. Minimum wage for all practical purposes is $10 an hour. Burger King is offering a $6000 bonus if you stay for a year.
I saw "apartment for rent" signs all over uptown - but I don't know if the landlords are raising the rents a lot or not.
I was pleasantly surprised after a few days to realize that there was no smell in the air. The streets in Uptown were very clean. I walked about a mile or so to a coffee shop one day and was amazed at the people who had re-landscaped already.
My sister has virtually no sense of smell after surgery a couple of years ago to correct a hole in her head where her spinal fluids were draining out her nose. She went with her friend to her small grocery store which had been flooded but not looted. She said that the smell was SO bad that it was all she could do not to gag and vomit - and as I said she can barely smell anything.
I did not go to the 9th Ward. You can only go there by bus. I felt that it would have been an intrusion on the suffering of the people who were going to look at their losses to ride on that bus as a lookyloo.
There is so much of the city and the surrounding areas that are in terrible shape. The French Quarter and Uptown are bruised, some of the other areas are badly broken, but the areas that we all saw on TV are just beyond comprehension.
Most of my friends are okay. One had just moved into their dream home 2 days before Katrina, and it was all ruined but they are financially able to handle it. It's the regular folks living from paycheck to paycheck like most of the population who are really hurting.
A man that worked at my condo for the past 7 years is still missing. We are all hoping that he got evacuated somewhere and is safe. Many people still do not know if loved ones and acquaintances are dead or alive.
I posted on another thread about a friend who was looted but actually had more stuff (electronics) left by the looters than they took. She didn't keep the stuff they left.
Violent crime is virtually non-existent in New Orleans right now. Still some random looting - particularly in areas where people can't move back yet.
I haven't been to Mardi Gras in years as I didn't like what it had become. I enjoyed Mardi Gras more when it was smaller. I am actually looking forward to being at Mardi Gras this year. It doesn't hurt that I live on a parade route and can watch from my balcony.
Please come back and visit New Orleans. People's lives will be in turmoil for sometime, but the tourist areas will be back to almost normal shortly. The city desperately needs the tourists to come back and spend money.
But I've already warned him that this year no matter what, we will be there! We will be a part of bringing New Orleans back!
. (Ben Franklin).
.
