March 02, 2006

Mardi Gras 2006

What follows is a note from one of my good friends - a friend who until now would never, ever miss a Mardi Gras for any reason, ever. Now she doesn't think she's ever going to go back to New Orleans again. Ever. I think it's an interesting personal response to the tragedy, and timely given today's reporting showing that President Bush got a very clear warning that a devastating threat was approaching, and that there were lots of problems with the existsing response plans.

We also took a Katrina tour, which was unbelievable and horrible. I'm glad I did it, but wow - you have no idea how much that city has changed now. It will never ever be the same again. The devastation stretches so much further than any photos from TV can seem to explain. There is no part of the city that is unaffected - even the french quarter. There are buildings everywhere that are still abandoned - it looks like mexico. Once you cross elysian fields and head into the marigny, you begin to see the # of rescued or found spray painted on every house. 1/2 way through the marigny the power gets sketchy, and by the time you get to the bywater, theres rubble and trash in the street, abandoned businesses and houses, etc. Of course once you cross over the levee it's total chaos - everything in the 9th ward is totally uninhabitable now, every house has been moved off of its foundation by the force of the water. Theres a barge sitting in the middle of the 9th ward. A FUCKING BARGE!!!!! It's like 30 feet tall and god knows how long, just sitting on about 6 lots that no longer have houses on them anyway because the water pushed the houses down the road about a 1/2 mile. But what really got me was how far out it all stretched - Its SOOOO much worse in person.

Like, all of Chalmette is gone. The entire fucking town. Actually, all of the St Bernard parish was completely destroyed - theres nothing working, theres no power, theres not one house that is inhabitable. Even huge places like Wal Mart are abandoned. I don't know how far east and south the desctruction goes because I began feeling sick and asked if we could turn around, but I can tell you that there is pretty much no New Orleans at all after the east side of the quarter. Also, anything higher than Rampart (once again, right out of the quarter) was flooded enough that the houses all got pretty damaged, and about 90% of them are still empty. Theres a tent city in City Park where people are living. No houses are yet inhabitable and none of the street lights are working anywhere in the area between the highway all the way to the lake (so like uptown, midtown, lakefront, UNO), where the houses were totally washed away just like the 9th ward. Theres pretty much no one living all the way to Metairie, on the other side of that levee. The people in Chalmette and Uptown who have actually been able to clear some trash away are living in FEMA trailers on their lawns - and they have been for 6 months. The ONLY part of the city that didn't get destroyed is the French Quarter. Everything else is a fucking mess. Even if the levee didn't break near it, like over on magazine, there was still such strong wind and intense flooding (just from all the water) that it's completely destroyed. No electricity over there as well - garden district, you name it. The whole city looks like a war happened. And even though the Quarter didn't get flooded, the lack of business for 4 months took its toll on many places, and the lack of city services has as well. There's all sorts of places that are closed down and boarded up, the mall is still closed, Virgin Records, BIG places that you would think could recover from such a thing. Especially in time for Mardi Gras, which is their big chance to make enough money again.

And I didn't even mention the mountains of garbage. These are about 15 feet high, and they are all over the city. Garbage is being collected in the quarter, but not that often, so theres less there, but in the rest of the city it's amazing and it smells horrible.

I have to go to work now, but I will tell you this - I don't think I'm ever going back there.

Posted by armand at March 2, 2006 01:39 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Natural Disasters


Comments

That's very distressing. On the other hand, they rebuilt Atlanta after Sherman came through.

Posted by: binky at March 2, 2006 02:43 PM | PERMALINK

I doubt it was the same Atlanta though.

Posted by: Armand at March 2, 2006 03:55 PM | PERMALINK

True. But people had the hope to rebuild.

Posted by: binky at March 2, 2006 05:22 PM | PERMALINK

Careful there - you're going to start sounding like Morris. :)

I want to go back for a look at some point, but is building an ersatz New Orleans what we want? Something all clean and shiny centered around its very own Tysons Corner and 3 Robert Trent Jones-like golf courses. And do we really ever want to put people back in the lower 9th Ward? I don't have the answers to all or really any of that. But notes like this make me wonder if a lot of the charm of the place wasn't washed away for good.

Posted by: Armand at March 2, 2006 09:22 PM | PERMALINK

Well, you know what I mean. Someone is going to rebuild. And no, it will never be the same. And honestly, I hope it doesn't turn into another Atlanta, because Atlanta is awful in many ways (the sprawl, sweet heavens of mercy the sprawl). Just saying that in the grand scheme, people rebuild after all kinds of horrible things. There's always a will, and a way. Not necessarily one that will reconstitute the city you loved, but a city nonetheless.

Posted by: binky at March 3, 2006 11:16 AM | PERMALINK
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