Took me 2-3 months to scan these.  The Lake Charles photos were taken, by me, in October; while the New Orleans photos were taken the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

They ain't much (I never got the desire to go chasing post storm damage...then again, maybe the $2.50 per gallon gas was telling me to spend my money on dinners and local rock shows)

 

Lake Charles (post Rita)

Billboards got the worst of hurricane season down here (There's still several damaged billboard along I-10 EB towards New Orleans this week)

Trees and a communication tower that were cut down in eastern Lake Charles

Those are NOT toy boats along the levee (for the north shore of Lake Charles [there is an actual Lake Charles there])

That building was west of Lake Charles

Watch where you drive! (between Lake Charles and the Texas line)

Litter caught by a wire fence (looks like Louisiana)

 

[glow=red,2,300]New Orleans[/glow] (End of November)

 

This is Tulane Ave (US 61) looking N(W), about 3 blocks north of I-10 (10 blocks north of the CBD)

Notice how empty the street is. Before Katrina, I would of never been able to reach the median to take this photo (without losing a limb or my hearing from honking cars). As it was, my car was parked to the right and I left it unlocked (something I would of never thought of doing in NOLA prior to Katrina)

For whatever reason, I decided I was going to venture from New Orleans to St. Bernard Parish that day. That idea was washed out when I came to the Industrial Canal and found the crossings to the Lower 9th Ward blocked off.  You can see some of the scrap metal/trash piled up along the flood wall.

What isn't shown (because I didn't photograph it) was how dirty everything looked, east of DT NOLA.  It looked like an urban Morrow County. Messy, unkempt, disheartening.

Hey everyone, Coyote Ugly is open!

I'm not sure which hotel this is (other than it's near the Aquarium) but if you look closely, you can still see the plywood in the windows at the very top.

That highway marker is facing opposite the traffic along a one way street. (BTW, this is the Clairborne Ave which had all it's oak trees cut down for the freeway you see.  New Orleans politicians had been planning to do that as early as 1948. :-()

Back along Canal St, at the edge of the Vieux Carre.  What got my attention when I took this photo (as the sunlight was fading away) was the neon sign.  But when I got to "fixing" it on photoshop I noticed the entrance to the store was white= empty of goods (most likely from looting)

Tipiatinas was no worse for wear, as far as the exterier goes.

I'm not sure if the scafling is due to Katrina or from a project prior.

 

Since these photos were taken, people have been allowed back to the "Lower 9th Ward" to survey damage (I believe they still have a curfew).  Parking around the French Quarter is a bear (I was in New Orleans back on Tuesday to see the presentation of the final report concerning "Culture" for the Bring New Orleans Back Commission [As expected, the "Chocolate City" remark was getting a mixed reaction from the crowd there] and it took me 20 mins before I gave up and took a spot at an overpriced lot). 

It's not all rosy, nor is it all doom & gloom concerning New Orleans right now.  I saw countless "we're hiring" signs in windows in the French Quarter.  But housing will be a median term issue (next several years).  What really worries me is all the fighting (figuratively, not literal...yet) amongst the polticians, and between the citizens and the politicians.  There is no plan for Post-Katrina New Orleans that will satisfy everyone.  Someone will get left out and will try to stop all work till they are happy (and someone else will be leftout and we start again).  The distrust that much of the local populace has will be needed to be overcome for New Orleans to move forward.  :cry:

I know (in my mind) that New Orleans won't be the same as before (my heart is still being nieave and says it will), but I do become distraught when I hear and read that people won't go back, to be part of the solution, because it's not their "New Orleans" anymore. :shoot:

 

Sorry I fell into rant mode there.  :oops:

Sorry I fell into rant mode there.

 

Not at all...myself, I can't imagine moving back to New Orleans after going through that - why on earth would anyone want to be back there?  But then I realize that I can't imagine not moving back to Cincinnati if something similar happened here - why on earth would someone not want to stay?  All the best to New Orleans...and thank you for the tour!

Excellent post.  Looks like there is some progress, at least.  It may take a long time, but hopefully New Orleans will one day regain (or exceed would be nice) its pre-hurricane glory.

Wow.

wow that is eye-opening. thx. all i can add is i had no intention of ever taking any shots of the wtc site until i finally did it for a thread here. gotta move on i guess. i hope you can get back to new orleans periodically and keep us up to date.

Magyar, were you in Baton Rouge when it happened? You are currently at LSU right? I bet you've seen some enormous changes to the country living in Baton Rouge with double the population and traffic headaches there.

 

Oh, I can tell you some stories about the whole experience..... not being able to talk to family members for five days, not knowing if certain family members were alive or dead, being stuck at a military facility where my husband worked with rescue teams and families who lost everything, washing policemen's uniforms because it was all I could do to pass time, sleeping on a hammock in someone's office I didn't know, meeting a brave mother who had a one-week old baby, talking to a man who was trapped on his roof for hours, etc. etc.  I thought about writing an article on it, but there are just too many stories to tell and mine is weak in suffering by comparison to so many others.

 

I'm waiting for "Katrina - the movie" to come out and Meryl Streep play Govenor Blanco or something and proceeds go to the rebuilding of New Orleans....(or will they go to new casinos?)  :whip:

 

I have always hated movies and things that made fun of Louisiana....i can't bring myself to watch all of The Water Boy even though I love all other Adam Sandler movies....but when you hear the "chocolate city" comments and you see the kind of people that are making decisions in the city there, you can't help but understand why they can't move forward and why there are so many problems.  But anyway, I don't wish to talk too much about politics.

 

I do feel for those people who are without everything and so desperately want to move back because for so many people - their community, their tight-knit neighbors was all they had!  It's hard for outsiders to understand why they want to go back, but in many ways I can.

 

However for me and my family, I have moved on......I guess for my own well-being, happiness, and sanity, I've just totally immersed myself in Buckeye culture here.  I really do believe that I will have opportunities here that I won't have there.  And I believe that i am here for a reason.  Call me an Ohioan, call me a yankee.  I'll never forget where I came from and I will always have family and roots there.  But for me, my life is here now.  I only hope that in time, those wonderful people will find peace and a community even if it's only within themselves (like I have)

 

p.s. - ranting is good.  we all need to do it sometime.  :)

 

p.p.s. - some personal good news - the roof on my home finally got repaired.  After five months and two bad contractors who stopped returning phone calls, we got it done.  Now on to the interior.... maybe by summer we can be done and sell it and stop paying a mortgage on it there and an apartment fee here.  Yippee!  Baby steps!

I've been waiting for you to reply to one of my posts (be it about Louisiana or Ohio), since you showed up. :-)

 

Magyar, were you in Baton Rouge when it happened? You are currently at LSU right? I bet you've seen some enormous changes to the country living in Baton Rouge with double the population and traffic headaches there.

 

I've been in Baton Rouge since August '04 and enrolled at LSU since that time as well. 

I was an (unofficial) LSU function Saturday night and was reliving my experiences about Katrina with several students and teachers. (I had started the Friday before Katrina on a LSU field trip  Come Saturday morning, the nightmare scenario, for Louisiana, was starting to come true. Our group had to make plans to evacuate the coast for Baton Rouge (which we did).

 

Oh, I can tell you some stories about the whole experience..... not being able to talk to family members for five days, not knowing if certain family members were alive or dead, being stuck at a military facility where my husband worked with rescue teams and families who lost everything, washing policemen's uniforms because it was all I could do to pass time, sleeping on a hammock in someone's office I didn't know, meeting a brave mother who had a one-week old baby, talking to a man who was trapped on his roof for hours, etc. etc.   I thought about writing an article on it, but there are just too many stories to tell and mine is weak in suffering by comparison to so many others.

 

Saying I was in Louisiana when Katriana/Rita hit is a great ice breaker for conversing with strangers (outside of Louisiana).  As soon as the other person(s) take pity on me, I ask them to save it for someone more deserving for me, because I was in Baton Rouge.  I lost nothing but sleep and 4 days of vay-cay from LSU.  Those in St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, Orleans, (and lest we forget...) Cameron, and Calcasieu (STILL!) need pity/help, and some good leaders.

 

I'm waiting for "Katrina - the movie" to come out and Meryl Streep play Govenor Blanco or something and proceeds go to the rebuilding of New Orleans....(or will they go to new casinos?)  :whip:

I think casinos are in Mississippi's plans.  I haven't heard anything about casinos in New Orleans (Naggin's idea, right?) since November at the latest.

 

I have always hated movies and things that made fun of Louisiana....i can't bring myself to watch all of The Water Boy even though I love all other Adam Sandler movies....but when you hear the "chocolate city" comments and you see the kind of people that are making decisions in the city there, you can't help but understand why they can't move forward and why there are so many problems.  But anyway, I don't wish to talk too much about politics.

 

So I got to see live and in person when I attended one of the "Bring Back New Orleans Commission" final report readings.  Poor New Orleans, it's like a grandmother being pulled in 20 different directions by kids who won't share with one another.

 

I do feel for those people who are without everything and so desperately want to move back because for so many people - their community, their tight-knit neighbors was all they had!  It's hard for outsiders to understand why they want to go back, but in many ways I can.

It is something that these urban planners/experts (who have never spent any time in New Orleans) have missed.  I am truly torn between the logic of a "smaller footprint" of New Orleans vs the "populist ideal" of everyone coming back to New Orleans. And the politicians have ruined those two positions as well. :-(

 

However for me and my family, I have moved on......I guess for my own well-being, happiness, and sanity, I've just totally immersed myself in Buckeye culture here.  I really do believe that I will have opportunities here that I won't have there.  And I believe that i am here for a reason.  Call me an Ohioan, call me a yankee.  I'll never forget where I came from and I will always have family and roots there.  But for me, my life is here now.  I only hope that in time, those wonderful people will find peace and a community even if it's only within themselves (like I have)

 

p.s. - ranting is good.  we all need to do it sometime.  :)

 

p.p.s. - some personal good news - the roof on my home finally got repaired.  After five months and two bad contractors who stopped returning phone calls, we got it done.  Now on to the interior.... maybe by summer we can be done and sell it and stop paying a mortgage on it there and an apartment fee here.  Yippee!  Baby steps!

 

To quote Tom Petty, "The Waa...aaating is the hardest part."  (and except for those doing historical research, everything else feels like it's in a holding pattern.  And it's driving us (still in Louisiana) crazy)