So I was wondering if anyone could tell me how New Orleans and others who were hit by Katrina are fairing? I’ve not seen anything in the news lately but was wondering if power was restored and it was back to livable or what?
Funny that you brought it up now, as I just received my copy of this week’s Time, which deals with how New Orleans is doing.
I can’t link to it (it’s only for subscribers), but, in paraphrase: only around 15% of New Orleans’ pre-Katrina residents have returned, they’re still clearing rubble and finding bodies, and they’ve been wiped out as far as revenue is concerned.
Well, my sister is back in her house, power is restored, though it’s unreliable. They cut it off pretty frequently to work on other areas. Her house only suffered minor damage which was a miracle since she’s in the bywater, just across the industrial canal from the lower ninth ward that was so devastated. We have friends with two kids who just went down about a week ago. Several of the private schools uptown joined together to open at Trinity, the kids’ school. Their house was also undamaged. I can only tell you things second-hand though because I haven’t had a chance to go down yet. If there’s something else you want to know, I’ll try to answer.
-Lil
Check out the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper’s web site. Dunno if they’re still putting their reporting on line, but they were doing a stupendous job just after the hurricane.
From what I hear from my mother, the majority of people have returned to Metairie and other parts of Jefferson Parish, and all utilities have been back online for some time. Services are still spotty, particularly garbage collection. My mom says the traffic is ungodly, what with all the contractors in town. Stores are still open very limited hours. She and my sister both have “Katrina cough”, lingering respiratory irritation from the unprecendented amount of mold in the air. And remember, that’s in the western suburbs of the city. I imagine it’s much worse in the city proper.
Lakeview, Gentilly, and New Orleans East are ghost towns. My mom hasn’t ventured into the Ninth Ward or other hard-hit areas. My old high school in the Uptown area has a target reopen date for the spring semester, but given the damage reports, I think that’s very optimistic.
The Time magazine article mentioned above:
Thanks for the feedback!
This is a really good photo dated 11/18 illustrating the ghost town feeling of New Orleans. This appears to be oriented north, looking toward Lake Ponchartrain. To the left of the photo is Metairie, the 17th Street Canal is right in the center, and Lakeview to the right.
Bourbon Street is still hoppin’! I went last weekend and it was packed as if nothing had ever happened. There are still plenty of troops and police officers down there - I noticed a lot from NY state too. The 2am curfew is still in effect. Right at 2:00 they start running people out of the Quarter, a cop car comes down Bourbon with his lights and sirens on, followed by a pair of police on horses, and people start flooding out. One thing that was very noticeable: the crowd. Much less of the middle-class vacationing white folks hobbling down the street in a drunken stupor. It seems to be mostly relief workers, and quite a few scary looking people. And I’d never seen hookers on Bourbon Street until that night, & there were plenty. Canal Street businesses are still mostly closed (many of them looted), there are still cars parked under the freeways that had been flooded/looted/flat tires and haven’t been towed yet. Some of the stoplights still don’t work, so it’s very scary driving down there. Each time I’ve been (3 times total since Katrina), I’ve run at least one stop sign by accident.
About a month ago, I went to the City Park area, Lakeview, and near the Yacht club (the one that was on fire the day or two after the hurricane). WOW!! I’ve never seen anything like it. The water lines were clearly visible, sometimes it was just shocking how high they got. The area with the marina still didnt have power, which was not surprising at all considering the state it was in. There wasn’t much to get power to. I have pictures on Snapfish. Here is a link , but I don’t know if you folks will be able to view the pics or if I have to invite you personally (if you want to see them, send me a message and I will email you the link).
My roommates’ parents are in River Ridge (Jefferson Parish, I think, west of the city). They went back about a week and a half after the hurricane and I haven’t heard of any real problems they’ve had. The mail service is really backed up because they’ve just recently started delivering again. I’ve heard that some people have even had cell phones turned off because they haven’t recieved their bills, or haven’t been able to get payment out.
As far as people returning, I know quite a few people that have gone back. One of my friends was enrolled at UNO (which is planning to resume classes in January), and she is returning soon to an apartment near the city. She is from St Bernard Parish, which is practically unsalvageable. I’ve heard nothing but bad news from there. Another friend lived in the CBD (Central Business District), and his apartment wasn’t even flooded. He just has to wait for a couple of things to be repaired (including a refrigerator replacement!) and he can go back. He even had a flat-screen 42 inch tv which he put upstairs when he evacuated, and it was fine!
Still plenty of debris around… I don’t know how they’re going to clean all of it up or what they’re going to do with it. But hey, it’s nowhere near the devastation I’ve heard about from Mississippi.
Oh yeah, the traffic in Baton Rouge has improved dramatically! But our electric bill has doubled. 
One of the strangest stories I read recently was that there are still over 300 unidentified bodies from the storm.
Did the courthouse records survive? The records of marriages, property titles, etc?
Here’s a link to an NPR story(where my sister gets to quote from the army survival guide!).
-Lil
The Louisiana Vital Records Registry (birth/death/marriage records) was impacted, but they don’t seem to have lost anything. The problem is that they’re running a skeleton staff, since the office staff are all residents of the city, and were evacuated with everyone else.
The Louisiana State Archives is in Baton Rouge and wasn’t affected by the storm.
Thanks lisacurl, I’ll definitely be checking out the NOVA one.