RRC Archives

So I finally made it down to visit my old home. The destruction is incomprehensible. Even after driving and walking around the city for three days I still only saw a tiny fraction of the damage. The levees are still broken, 8 months later. I stood at the big break along Lake Pontchatrain by the upscale Lakeview neighborhood and watched as one crane and one dumptruck worked. It's fucking pathetic.

It's still a city where people smile at strangers and ask you how you are as you pass. Most of the Garden District is unscathed as well as the Carrollton neighborhood and the French Quarter. Most of the rest of the city is an abandoned wasteland.

Here are some pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35339500@N00

dude, thanks for those pictures, and the reminders. it is a disgrace that local, state and federal have not solved this mess yet.

thanks for sharing. your comment is the common refrain I have heard from everyone who has been down to see the sight. basically, "indescribable... unimaginable destruction..."
A whole city laid to waste. What will become of New Orleans? Are all of those areas just going to be abandoned?

We're headed to Jazzfest down there in May. Anyone into good music should support the city and go!

Thanks for the wake up there, Alan! Glad you made it back okay! Hope you had a semi-nice time anyway.

I didn't climb three times while you were gone. If anyone tells you I did, they are just big old liars!

pigsteak wrote:it is a disgrace that local, state and federal have not solved this mess yet.

What, that they haven't raised the city 12 feet yet? Not to be snarky, but as the next hurricane season rolls in, what do you expect them to do that's not going to get washed away the next time around?

i expect them to move the city, to say, minnesota...

to rebuild right there is suicide.

its great that people can behave like decent people do but the answer for New Orleans isn't very simple, who do you listen to? the scientific community which is harping about global warming is saying the sea levels will rise, the glaciers are melting and we should rebuild New Orleans? the lose of the cultural treasure of N.O. will suck but we're getting by without Atlantis, does anyone remember laughter?

I honestly think that the local leaders, the state leaders, and the federal leaders all read the writing on the wall... that N.O. can't be rebuilt. That position is political suicide for anyone to embrace. My guess is that all of these leaders are counting on another hurricane season or two to help clarify the situation and sway unhappy residents/ country who aren't ready to face the reality that N.O. was built in the wrong place. It really is a tragedy that the racist zoning policies placed the AA communities where they were placed- in the flood plains.

damn hurricanes..I knew they had it out for recovering alcoholics...