What a difference a day makes

I flew down to New Orleans Sat. morning, shopped on Magazine St. near the Garden District, splashed around at the hotel pool, and enjoyed a fab dinner with Eric and Brenda followed drinks on a veranda. All seemed relatively right with the world, and I think "Things are really getting back to normal here. All NO needs is more conventions and tourists to help bolster the economy."

The next day, Eric and Brenda took me to see the areas hardest hit by the flooding that followed Katrina. We went to Lakeview, an upper-middle income section of the city. The homes closest to the 17th St. Canal have 6+ foot-high water marks on the outside and the obligatory spray paint markings to indicate when the house was checked for occupants. The foundations of the houses are still standing, but the vast majority have been gutted. There are mounds of trash (probably stuff from the insides of the gutted houses) on the street waiting to be picked up. After months of sitting neglected, these once-nice homes are starting to look like crack dens.

Then we went to the Lower 9th Ward. Complete and utter destruction. The water from the canals hit with such force that houses were pushed off their foundations and carried away, or they just crumbled. Even now, there are houses on top of cars and couches in trees. Sadly, here, you can see holes in roofs where folks chopped through the attic to (hopefully) escape the water.

As we drove through the city, it immediately became apparent that all is not normal in NO. The situation there is appalling and disgraceful for a couple of reasons:
1) It was preventable. The majority of the damage was from the flooding, not from Hurricane Katrina. Had the levees been properly designed and constructed in the first place, then the flooding in the city would not have been so severe.
2) The lack of governmental response. Why is no one cleaning up the 9th ward? Why isn't there a definite recovery plan 10 months after the hurricane? What is FEMA doing? 9/11 was upsetting and awful on so many levels. However, I never felt the government was dragging their feet and not helping NYC rebuild.

What can you do? You should visit NO. The traditional tourist areas - the French Quarter and the Garden District - are totally intact, and these parts of the city have lost none of their beauty and charm. The people of NO are as interesting and gracious as ever. And the retailers, restauranteurs and hoteliers definitely need your $.
Though you're doing yourself a disservice if you only stay in these areas... Seeing the flooded neighborhoods with your own eyes is way more affecting than watching an Anderson Cooper soundbite.

I also challenge you to learn more about the situation in NO so you can be informed and take action. Whether it be praying, emailing your senators and congresspeople to ask for help for NO, voting (what kind of president appoints someone like Michael Brown to head up FEMA?), or donating your time/money to the city's recovery efforts.